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Signature HealthCARE Quarterly Journal ~ March 2012

Signature Execs Become Certified

Nurse Aides

Diving IntoSegmentation

Residents TravelTo Disney World

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Page 3 Page 16

JOURNAL

Senior Olympics

President and CEO Joe Steiercongratulates a champion

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MARCH 2012Vol. I ~ Issue 1


Mission and vision always matter, but times like these only magnify our

purpose and remind us why we do what we do. When the world contracts,

we cling to that purpose even more than we would during a frothy period.

There are fewer distractions and our focus shifts back to “the important

stuff.” Our passions are reignited, and we are reminded why our vocation is

more than simply a job – why our actions truly matter.

We are here to meet the needs of some of our nation’s most vulner-

able. And we’re here to do it in a way that has never been done – to stage

a Revolution in thought and deed, and create a new model of care that

serves as a lasting example for others to follow. This isn’t easy; it requires

unrivaled passion and boldness, commitment and patience. But to create

lasting change for the better is the mustard seed on which we can hang our faith, our commitment, and our hopes and dreams.

It’s no secret that these continue to be challenging times, and Signature is not immune. These obstacles demand that we

respond with a deliberate and strategic approach to carrying out our mission and vision. The challenges we face validate our

move to Louisville now more than ever, and I think we’re finally getting the perspective to lay out an operational plan that will

truly revolutionize long-term care. We know the Revolution must have something for everybody, and segmentation does that.

And, with the final launch of HCBS, we will take our care model beyond the walls of our buildings and into the homes of many

more who need our brand of compassion and care.

The past year has been a period of adjustment for all of us. For some, it has meant the upheaval of our lives and families.

For our valued newcomers to the Revolution, it has meant adapting to a culture that does not embrace conformity so much

as it does freedom and expression. I know that can be difficult to grasp. It leads to unknowns, which can be unsettling. But

because you want to be here and because we share similar ideologies around a common cause, I urge you to be okay with that

uncertainty and constant change. I am confident that we now have the team in place to carry out our objectives, and our new

Signature family members, after a year of immersion, have been properly inducted into a new way of thinking about purpose

and meaning as it relates to their careers.

We have laid a lot of groundwork but still really haven’t even scratched the surface of possibility for the Revolution. Maybe

it’s the ‘Ultimate Customer Experience,’ or maybe it’s the company that helps fulfill dreams by taking a CNA from earning a

GED to a Ph. D. Or, maybe it’s a Senior Olympics event that brings all major senior care and aging care players to our new

hometown. Maybe it’s the company that makes ‘God in the Workplace’ the ‘new normal’ for corporate America, or maybe it’s

the company that stops the suffering of the aged and alone.

All of these things are not only possible but well within our grasp. In 2012, I’m excited to work with all of you on bringing

them closer to reality. Let us trust the course where our steps are still unknown. Let us stretch out our arms of human possibil-

ity, and let God help us do the rest.

God bless,

Joe Steier

“To radically change the landscape of long term care forever…”

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The past year was a year of upheaval for Signature Health-CARE. Signature hurtled into 2011 with considerable momentum even as it continued adjusting to last year’s headquarters relocation from Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. to Louisville. Later in the year, Signature and other LTC operators were hit with an 11% cut in Medicare pay-ments, prompting SHC leaders to respond swiftly and nimbly by making changes that helped compensate for tens of millions of dollars in lost reimbursements. And in the midst of all this, Signature still managed to implement an audacious and, yes, innovative plan to re-organize operations of SHC homes. Previously managed geographically, the homes have now been grouped into four segments – Rural, Urban, Post-Acute and Serenity (Alzheimer’s/dementia) – based on shared attributes and challenges. A fifth segment, Rehab, takes a new ap-proach to the oversight and delivery of rehabilitation therapy programming in Signature homes. The move is expected to help Signature grow more quickly. “I think our decision-making speed, our ability to ac-celerate risk-taking, is all built out of segmentation,” said Signature President and CEO Joe Steier. “This is a new way to serve the customer at the bedside.” Steier said different results demanded a different management structure, and he called segmentation “the ultimate change-management project.” Change management is defined as “a structured approach to shifting/transitioning individuals, teams and organiza-tions from a current state to a desired future state,” ac-cording to Jeff Hiatt, author of the Employee’s Survival Guide to Change. Signature’s chief executive acknowledged that seg-mentation is one of the most complex steps the com-

Segmentation promotesspecialization, growth

pany has taken and that it would be, at times, “painful.” But segmentation has already begun to bear fruit, par-ticularly in the ways SHC leaders interact. Autonomous leadership teams are forming, and seg-ments are developing their own sets of initiatives to make them leaders in their respective areas of special-ization. Segmentation is expected help Signature gain market share within each segment and accelerate the company’s growth as a whole. As a result, Steier said, there will be greater need for SHC leaders to take on bigger roles, meaning expedited career paths for them. More specialized education, ad-vanced technology and improved service will pave the way to better outcomes, creating more rewarding expe-riences for stakeholders. “I think there’s way more career development,” Steier said. “There are more ways to play your career.”Segment leaders also see the value in this new approach. “I think this model is exceptional because it lets each team take a deeper dive into its niche,” said Kelly Atkins, a 25-year LTC industry veteran who relocated from Los Angeles to Louisville earlier this year to become Chief Operating Officer of Signature’s Post-Acute Segment. Meanwhile, Andy Shane, COO of the Urban Segment, said the same collaborative spirit seen at the corporate level is already trickling down to leaders at the facility level. “The collaboration between leaders has been really good,” he said. “We found from our kickoff meeting that DONs, Admins and Rehab Managers had great conver-sation with their peers that are in similar markets and have similar issues, and that’s really what segmentation is all about.”


Twenty Signature leaders have nearly completed the Long-Term Care Nursing Assistant certification program through Spalding University’s School of Nursing. The roster for the first Signature CNA class includes President & CEO Joe Steier, CFO John Harrison and 18 other leaders from various other departments and segments. Employees at Signature’s home office in Louisville are un-dergoing the training to promote understanding and empa-thy for the challenges faced by front-line workers in the com-pany’s homes, while strengthening the connection between the home office and staff members in the field. “CNAs have absolutely the toughest job in the company, bar-none,” said Joe Barimo, Vice President of Corporate Learn-ing. “They really are the eyes and ears in our facilities.” The push to have corporate employees become CNAs also embodies Signature’s philosophy on learning – that it occurs

Signatureleaders

becoming CNAs

A group of senior team leaders recently completed the CNA training program at Spalding University.

at all levels of an organization, and that employees, or stake-holders, can learn from each other regardless of their posi-tions. “We love our stakeholders, who are great teachers,” Steier said. “Everyone at Signature becoming a CNA is a great social movement to change minds and hearts for long-term care.” The role of the CNA will only continue to grow in need and importance as demand for senior care services also ex-pands. According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment for nursing aides, orderlies and attendants will grow by 19 percent through 2018, to more than 1.7 million nationwide. That growth will be driven in part by financial pressure on hospitals to discharge patients quickly, combined with mod-ern medical technologies that allow people to live longer with chronic diseases, increasing the need for LTC services. “The nursing assistant is at the point of care in LTC for the resident and becomes more and more an integral compo-nent of the health care team,” said Carolyn K. Lewis, former professor and nursing chair at Spalding who recently re-signed to start a nursing program at Bluefield College in her native Tazewell, Va.

Signature HealthCARE is turning the tra-ditional organizational chart upside down with one of its latest endeavors – compa-ny executives becoming CNAs.

What Hierarchy?


Lewis worked closely with the Signature team as they pur-sued their CNA certifications. By partnering with Signature, the Spalding University School of Nursing became the first in the nation to offer the long-term care nursing assistant pro-gram to a group of health care executives, Lewis said. “The School felt compassionately that if executives better understood the scope of practice of the long-term care nurs-ing assistant and their responsibilities for the care at the bed-side, this would ultimately impact total quality of care,” she said. “We felt that outcomes would exceptionally improve – not only outcomes related to care but also retention and self-satisfaction for the LTC nursing assistant. We commend the Signature executives for their visionary thinking.” But Signature leaders – even those with advanced college degrees – were also quick to acknowledge the rigors of the process as they learned that a CNA license is not easily ob-tained. Students must complete 3,060 minutes of online course-work, in addition to eight hours of lab work and 16 hours of on-the-job clinical training. Clinical training was completed at Signature HealthCARE

of South Louisville, where the staff spent considerable time preparing and working with the group of company leaders. “My biggest takeaway from this experience is just how im-portant and difficult their work is,” said Andrew Smith, Vice President of Customer Experience and Strategy. “I don’t think I could do it, and I think a lot of corporate executives, if they’re being honest with themselves, would say the same. It takes a special heart, and it takes a level of patience and compassion that’s pretty remarkable.” As challenging and humbling as the process was, the group emerged with a newfound appreciation for their CNA co-workers. Dianne Timmering, Vice President of Spirituality for Signa-ture, called the experience “lifechanging.” “You interact with the residents at a whole new level of love because they are so fragile and vulnerable, full of wis-dom, love and need – and they’re grateful,” she said. “And with the stakeholders, you just see in so many ways their commitment. We connected with them as much as we did the residents. We had a ball.”

Signature grows number of four- and five-star buildingsNursing home quality on the rise

Signature continues working to improve the quality of care provided in its buildings, which is evidenced partly by improved ratings under the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ star rating system. The company more than doubled its number of four- and five-star buildings, from 15 in January 2009, which is roughly when CMS launched the Nursing Home Compare ratings system, to 31 as of January 2012. Meanwhile, the number of one- and two-star buildings dropped from 40 to 24. Signature now has 12 five-star buildings, up from eight in July 2011. The latest SHC buildings to achieve five-star status are Trim-ble County, Erin and Washington Rehab & Nursing Center.

Under the five-star rating system, nursing homes are assessed in three main categories: health inspections, quality measures and staffing. The overall rating combines scores received in each of the three categories. The system is intended to help consumers, families and caregivers compare nursing homes more easily and identify areas about which they would like to learn more. As a whole, nursing home quality is improving, according to the 2011 Annual Quality Report issued by the American Health Care Association and the Alliance for Quality Nursing Home Care. The report found that skilled nursing and post-acute care facilities have improved in nine out of 10 quality measures since 2009. The report relied on CMS data to gener-ate its findings. However, there is concern that cuts to Medicare and Med-icaid reimbursements could erode some of the progress. “This report is one way we demonstrate our commitment to quality improvement and increased transparency in the facility assessment process,” said Mark Parkinson, AHCA Presi-dent and CEO, and former Kansas governor. “This report also calls attention to key issues that our provider community sees as priorities in ensuring we can continue to build upon the im-provements we have made.”

To view the report, visit www.ahcancal.org


‘Pay It Forward’ program to fill need forshort-termmicro-loans With more than 300 grants totaling more than $384,000 awarded through the Compas-sion Fund, the Spirituality Department is now launching a micro-lending program for stake-holders in need of smaller, stop-gap loans to cover immediate expenses. Under the program, stakeholders can bor-row up to $50 for daily living needs such as food, gas or diapers. Stakeholders then pay back the loan with their next paycheck and are given the option to contribute extra money to the fund for fellow stakeholders. “The Spirituality Department is looking to roll out the ‘Pay It Forward’ program in all facili-ties,” said Sam Clemmens, Director of Spiritual Initiatives, who has a background in finance. “The program fits perfectly in a space of need that we have been wrestling with for a while.” ‘Pay It Forward‘ grew out of a partnership between the Chaplain and HR Director at Pi-nellas Park Care & Rehab. The program has al-ready sparked other ideas for similar programs – SHC of Fentress County, for instance, now has a gift card program for gas and food that does not require the money to be paid back. “We are also looking at a money manage-ment program for stakeholders—on-fire prac-tical spirituality involved in everyday life. What I love about Signature is that programs start and evolve to meet the needs of the people,” said Dianne Timmering, Vice President of Spiri-tuality.

Balanced scorecardto further validatechaplain efforts The Spirituality Department is going a step further to document the value of the chaplain intervention with the rollout of its first bal-anced scorecard. The Department has transitioned to an electronic reporting system that tracks such data as hospital and resident visits, which tally in the thousands each month. In September alone, chaplains logged more than 10,000 vis-its with residents, families and stakeholders, and at hospitals and funerals. The scorecard will include that sort of data, along with clinical and operations informa-tion, such as census, quality mix and anxiety/depression percentages. “Our Department is going to be integrated into the operations side, and also the clinical and therapy side, of the business,” said Lashell Spears, Director of Education and Research for the department. It also will track the relationship between stakeholder purpose and retention. Chaplains each week document the reasons stakehold-ers come to them without revealing the iden-tities of the stakeholders. Those reasons are then entered electronically beside stability, re-tention and engagement to show if a positive correlation exists. Spears said department leaders hope to launch the scorecard by January at the latest. From there, chaplain data points will be de-veloped and benchmarks can be established based on segments. Chaplain Program Director Carol Harrison said the scorecard will be a valuable tool for operators and should help validate chaplain efforts in terms of reimbursement. “We’re not directly part of the reimburse-ment system,” she said. “But indirectly, in many ways, we are.”

A few words from

Dianne Timmering,VP of Spirituality…

What is Spirituality’s role in LTC?Spirituality is a sprouting field of innovation, the element of divine hope which unleash-es boldness and the passion of purpose, creative acceleration and the desire to learn and pursue human possibility. It is what glues the colorful palette of the business into the fabric and greatness of its people and whereas in natural concordance, the culture thrives.What is a 2012 focus or goal?In 2012 we are really focused on clinical-spir-itual-SSD interventions for the anxious and depressed and hope to prove the power of individualized care planned interventions based on socio-cultural and religions per-spectives and preferences targeting data points 9 or more meds (for example) to not only showcase reduced depression but the need for psycho-tropics as an unnecessary intervention. Our hypothesis maintains this will also directly reduce pharmacy costs. We believe that depression is a red hot center of causation toward the hindrance of heal-ing either emotionally or physically. If a resi-dent has hope, they want to complete their therapy, simply said.

To contact Dianne, call (502) 568-7800or e-mail [email protected]


What are some of your proudest accom-plishments from the past year? The prayer chain has over 500 stakeholders, which is phenomenal. Also, I’m amazed at how spirituality is starting to cross all interdisciplinary sectors. (Timmering cites situation at Kenilworth in which member of environmental services team prayed with family members of a resident.) Spirituality is invading the heart and mind and soul of all stakeholders with the freedom of empa-thy and worship, and to act on behalf of another. Also, Joe and I spoke to 200 Human Resource ex-ecutives about bringing God into their workplaces.What’s something you’re excited aboutfor next year? I’m excited about a larger volunteer program in partnership with the Quality of Life team. We’re go-ing deeper and deeper as an intervention of heal-ing the brokenhearted with visits of the heart. We need the volunteers to promote the sense of com-munity, hope and love, and truly meet all our resi-dents at the point of their need and rich desires. Excited about Sessions with God at home office as well as the recent partnership between intra-preneurship and Spirituality pillars. Alicia Heazlitt is heading up this invaluable program which hosts young ladies (aged 6-13) of stakeholders teaching them the confluence of empowerment, spirituality, and the beauty of being unique. If you would like your daughter to participate, please contact Dianne or Alicia.Interesting fact: One of the most unique evolutions of the programs takes into account the fact that by not “watering down” spirituality in one homogenous approach but allowing the uniqueness of one’s faith, beliefs and diversity to flourish has created a bridge of loving respect, one for the other. Spir-ituality at Signature is the right to worship or not to worship but the freedom to choose, and love your neighbor.

Emotional/Spiritual intelligence course enhances personal,professional relationships A new course tested this year at Signature HealthCARE of Trimble County validated the no-tion that increased self-awareness of one’s emo-tional and spiritual being can improve relations with those around us. The Emotional Intelligence/Spiritual Intelli-

gence (EISI) course is designed to help individuals recognize the impact of their emotions – and help them adjust accordingly. The goal is to achieve a deeper level of self-awareness, discernment and wisdom while recognizing the role of God or spiri-tuality in that process. Ultimately, the course is expected to aid with conflict resolution, decision-making and relation-ship-building. It was created by Dianne Timmer-ing and Wes Kawata, Signature’s Director of Edu-cational Design & Development. “Now the whisper of God’s air can reach the inner ear as the noise subsides and discernment turns into everyday dialogue with God,” Timmer-ing said. “And wisdom in all decisions, which often can prevent bad things from happening, leads to pursuits of passion and unquestionable calls of purpose.” A key component of the eight-week course, Kawata said, is that facilitators must share their own personal life stories. The purpose is to break down any barriers of mistrust and rebuild trust between the facilitators and participants based on the prem-ise that, as humans, we are all prone to err. Rev. David Eisenmenger, former chaplain at SHC of Trimble County and now chaplain at SHC of East Louisville, said the course was effective for stakeholders at all different levels of their careers. As an example, he pointed to one early-career nursing staff member who transformed from be-ing disengaged and somewhat confrontational to

A graduate ceremony was held last summer for stakeholders at SHC of Trimble County who completed the Emotional and Spiritual Intelligence (EISI) course. From left, Chaplain David Eisenmenger, VP of Spirituality Dianne Timmering, Program Graduate Asilene Boram and VP of Corporate Learning Joe Barimo.

engaged and even “leadership material.”“She went from being kind of a pariah to promot-able,” he joked. “And, in part, it was the EISI course that enabled that change.”Since completing the EISI course earlier this year, SHC of Trimble County went on to achieve a defi-ciency-free, five-star rating on its most recent state survey. “I believe the EISI program helped the staff at SHC of Trimble County have a better understand-ing of who they are, how they are perceived and how their emotions play into every decision they make,” said Fran Stahl, former administrator of the building who recently transitioned to an adminis-trator role at SHC of East Louisville. “Completing the program directly led to an improved facility culture, which resulted in improved outcomes and better survey results.” Kawata said the curriculum for the EISI course is now undergoing some changes based on the outcomes of the pilot program. The program is expected to be rolled out more broadly in the first quarter of 2012 – and at least one Signature seg-ment leader is already on the bandwagon. “I’m excited about EISI!” said an enthusiastic Kelly Atkins, Chief Operating Officer of the Post-Acute Segment. “We deliver care in an intimate setting, and I believe this program enhances the path to healing for both our stakeholders and the patient. We’re eager to partner with our Spirituality and Learning teams on this.”

Spirituality, blogs.ltcrevolution.com/spiritualityChaplain’s Corner, blogs.ltcrevolution.com/chaplains-cornerThe Daily Devotional, blogs.ltcrevolution.com/the-daily-dDianne Timmering, blogs.ltcrevolution.com/dianne-timmering

Keep up to date with the Spirituality Pillar

by visiting these blogs

Wes Kawata


In October, Signature HealthCARE’s Learning Pillar took its mission outside the company to educate a group of busi-ness and government leaders about Sig-nature, and some of its programs. A dozen members from the Leader-ship Louisville Class of 2012 visited Sig-nature’s home office last Tuesday to take a tour and spend some time with Dr. Joe Barimo and the Learning Pillar staff. Leadership Louisville is a nine-month program that helps community leaders forge new connections and learn about different aspects of their own industry and others. The group that visited Signa-ture included attorneys, a surgeon, a TV news reporter and the district director for a U.S. Congressman, along with hos-pital, nonprofit, insurance and energy executives. Participants choose where they want

Signature learning pillarstreamlines edu-cation with new website Signature HealthCARE’s Learning Pillar this year took ease of access for its educational offerings to another level – a ‘one-stop shop’ website that serves as a portal to all of the pillar’s learning programs. The site, Shclearn.com, includes tools that are offered as part of Signa-ture’s partnership with Kentucky Edu-cational Television (KET) to help stake-holders obtain a GED and other more generalized 21st century job skills. The site provides resources targeting essen-tial leadership and management skills, continuing education units for clinical and administrative staff and informa-tion on the pillar’s various ‘schools‘ that are taught in person. The site is also host to videos, webi-nars, a ‘competency library‘ and other valuable resources. In addition, the site features a compelling short film that chronicles the journeys of two young SHC stakeholders as they ascend the Signature HealthCARE Pyramid of Knowledge on a quest to achieve their full potential. “SHC Learn.com is more than just a URL,” said Dr. Joe Barimo, Vice President of Corporate Learning for Signature. “It’s the fulfillment of a promise from the Learning Pillar and from SHC to get ev-erybody involved in what’s happening in learning with us.”

Leadership Louisvillegroup intrigued byLearning Pillar

to visit. Group members shared several reasons for choosing to visit Signature, including the three-pillar philosophy, the health care pyramid of knowledge and how Signature delivers information to the field. Barimo also introduced the group to the Learning Pillar’s website, Shclearn.com, a ‘one-stop shop’ for the educational programs Signature offers to stakeholders. The group asked questions related to Signature’s relocation, outside educa-tional partners and communication pro-cesses. Equally important, Barimo said, they offered ideas.“We were honored that they saw such value in us,” he said.Leadership Louisville is one of several programs offered by the Leadership Louisville Center.


SHC Construction performing $30 million in facility upgrades; building nursing home of the future More than $30 million is expected to be spent on construction and renovations at Sig-nature buildings over a three-year span from 2011-2013. Some of those projects are sched-uled while others are under way or have already been completed. Among them was Signature HealthCARE of Georgetown, where existing space was converted into 15 new transitional rehabilitation suites. Each suite offers up to 1,000 square feet of living space, including in-room dining, showers and ample space for family members to visit. Meanwhile, work is under way to create Signa-ture’s first newly-constructed home, in Nashville, Tenn. The building will have nearly 70,000 square feet of space, including a 28,000-square-foot reno-vation of an existing home and more than 40,000 square feet of new construction. The center will offer both long-term nursing and rehab care. The site where the home is being built, at 832 Wedgewood Ave., is in close proximity to universi-ties in Nashville. This puts the facility near a large

pool of physicians and will allow nursing students to be involved in clinical rotations at the home. The site was previously home to a different se-nior care facility that closed its doors in early 2010. The new Signature building is licensed for 119 beds and is expected to open by the end of 2013. “We’ve always been the turnaround guys, reno-vate the property and improve survey scores,” Sig-nature President and CEO Joe Steier told The Ten-nessean, the Nashville daily paper, in a November 2011 article. “This was too good to pass up. It’s a chance for us to do a canvas without limitations to physical space.”

Integritas LTC Integritas was formed in 2003, in response to the need for skilled nursing facilities to have more frequent, on-site medical practitioner services. Among other services, the company staffs nursing homes with Nurse Practitioners (NPs) and Physician Assistants (PAs). Here are a few recent updates from Integritas.

• Integritas CEO Chris Johnson addressed the Louisiana Geriatrics Society at their annual conference held in New Orleans, La. on Nov. 4. The topic was ‘The Utilization of NPs and PAs in Skilled Nursing Facilities.’

• Integritas held a Regional NP/PA meeting in Louisville on Saturday, Nov 18. Agenda topics included reducing returns to hospitals and formulary management.

“Integritas Speaks”, our monthly e-newslet-ter now has over 200 monthly subscribers. To receive for free, visit www.integritasltc.com

The Intrapreneurship pillar fields ideas from Signature stakeholders, or employees, that can be implemented in the company’s buildings. In some cases, these ideas are expanded to become their own individual companies.This portion of the newsletter will feature news from dif-ferent SHC spinoff companies on a rotating basis.

Intrapreneurship

Illustration by Tony Waldron


Unique partnership to accelerateinnovation in aging,help commercialize research The International Center for Long Term Care Innovation, or InnovateLTC, has contracted with the University of Lou-isville’s Research Foundation, Inc. (ULRF) to expedite commercialization and vali-dation activities in the emerging space of innovation in aging. “Our partnership compliments the university’s current commercialization strategy for the life-sciences sector, while expanding services for products, service models and technology that benefit both the quality of care and the quality of life as we age” said John Reinhart, President and CEO of InnovateLTC. “We hope to not only encourage additional research, but also collaboration and alignment of efforts to meet the ever changing consumer de-mands.” In addition to potentially commercial-izing aging-related research and discov-eries, Dr. William Pierce, the university’s Executive Vice President of Research, said the relationship with InnovateLTC also could help in sharing best practices to im-prove the lives of nursing home residents. “It gives our faculty the opportunity to work with people out in the real world and helps make that connection, because that’s not always easy to do,” he said. Pierce added that aging-related re-search is being conducted in a variety of disciplines at U of L, including engineer-ing, social work, law and business. “Our partnership (with InnovateLTC) is not limited to just geriatric medicine,” he said.

The International Center for Long Term Care Innovation, or InnovateLTC, this year signed a contract with its first distribution client, Fort Wayne, Ind.-based SorbaShock LLC. The company offers a foam sub-flooring product – the trademarked Sor-baSHOCK – that is placed beneath surface flooring with the purpose of reducing the force of impact when someone falls.The deal made InnovateLTC the master distributor for the product in the U.S. and Canada, with the option to do the same in other global markets. InnovateLTC President and CEO John Reinhart said injury prevention is integral to the mission of lifelong wellness and ag-ing care, a mantra that the city of Louis-ville has adopted in recent months with the support of Mayor Greg Fischer.In the United States, about 12 million people over the age of 65 will fall each year. Of those, more than 1.6 million will be treated in an emergency room for a fracture, and more than 13,500 likely will die because of the fall.“Patient safety continues to be a primary concern in long term care,” Reinhart said.

“For that reason, any investment in pre-vention of injuries from falls is a real posi-tive for the patient, the caregiver and the industry as a whole.”The intellectual property for impact ab-sorbing flooring was designed by Dr. Timothy Ovaert, a Faculty Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. SorbaShock, formed in 2007, has the exclusive license from the University of Notre Dame for the tech-nology, along with derivative intellectual property.Sam Simonson,SorbaShock President and CEO, was impressed with the team at InnovateLTC and its “unique” business model.“We chose to align with InnovateLTC be-cause of their vision to become the pre-mier global company to distribute inno-vative technologies to the long term care industry,” he said.

For more about InnovateLTC,visit www.innovateltc.com

International Center forLong Term Care Innovation

InnovateLTClands first

distribution deal


Name: Michael Rivera, NHA Facility: Kenilworth Care & Rehabilitation Center

Michael Rivera, a Bronx, N.Y. native, began his career in long-term care more than five years ago as a Social Services Director. He has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and a master’s degree in Health Care Adminis-tration. Michael is a Coast Guard Reservist, is married with two children and resides in Winter Haven, Fla.

Name: Mark Witt, LNHA, MM-MT, SRNA Facility: Signature HealthCARE of Trimble County

Mark Witt previously was Activities Di-rector at Signature HealthCARE of South Louisville before being promoted to an ad-ministrator position. He has 16 years of ex-perience in long-term care in the Louisville area, including four years with Signature. Mark has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Music Therapy with an emphasis in Geri-atrics. He is married with two children, Ella and Thomas.

Name: M. Lee Elliott, LNHA Facility: Signature HealthCARE of Greeneville

Lee Elliott has 18 years of experience in long-term care, including 11 years in Miam-isburg, Ohio with his previous employer. He has bachelor’s degrees in Long-Term Care Administration and Business Admin-istration from Southern Adventist Univer-sity. Lee, who grew up in Asheville, N.C., has been married for 17 years and has two daughters.

An estimated 1,000 people showed up for an open house in August at Sunrise Manor in Hodgenville, Ky. – a huge turn-out, considering that’s about a third of the town’s entire population. One visitor said attendance at the open house was nearly on par with an annual even celebrating the town’s heritage as the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln.“I’ve seen more people here than at Lincoln Days,” she said.

Rural Signature HealthSystems welcomesnew administrators

Sunrise Manor becomes latest building to join Signature family

Signature Health Systems is working to create the rural home of the future at Pickett Care & Rehabilitation Center by basing our culture change model on the philosophies of the Eden Alternative. Among the 10 principles of the Eden Al-ternative is something referred to as a Hu-man Habitat. We are currently working to create a Human Habitat at Pickett in which everyone there can be nurtured and grow. This includes our precious Elders, Stake-holders, and the community in general. We have been doing Eden Alternative training at Pickett and preparing them to get ac-

Sunrise Manor became the latest Signa-ture community on June 1, when Signature officially assumed operations of the home. The open house celebrated the completed construction of a new 100,000-square-foot building to replace the former Sunrise Man-or, which is located just next door. For more about Sunrise Manor, visit the SHC Daily News blog at blogs.ltcrevolution.com/shc-daily-news and enter the search terms “Sunrise Manor.”

Pickett Care & Rehab embracing Eden Alternative philosophies to promote culture change

cepted on the Eden Alternative Registry, which is the honor roll for nursing homes across the world. A Learning Congress geared completely around these concepts will soon be held to educate the entire home on the direction we are going. The early innovators team at Pickett also visited a Greenhouse home on October 24 to gain additional insight on that care model.

For more on the Eden Alternative,visit www.edenalt.org

– Angie McAllister, Certified Eden Educatorand Quality of Life Director for Signature Health Systems

Photograph by Yohan Park

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Staff and residents at Signature HealthCARE of Brookwood Gardens, one of the homes in the Urban segment, participated in a prayer walk to kick off the new Breathe Life therapy program. The goal of the program is to increase lung ca-pacity for residents.

Urban segmentsolidifying plans to create urbanprototype for LTC The leadership team for Signature’s Urban segment is working to create the blueprint for the future of long-term care delivered in an ur-ban setting, from programming to the physi-cal environment. Like some other divisions, the Urban seg-ment is rolling out such programs as Transi-tionalCARE, which originated in Post-Acute and aims to drive down hospital readmissions, and Breathe Life, an interdisciplinary program for enhanced lung performance for residents. The segment also is pursuing diabetes certifi-cation for licensed staff and several other ini-tiatives. “2012 will be a busy but exciting year as our calendar is packed with training and roll-out of many new programs,” said Bev Lowery, Clinical Nurse Executive for the Urban segment. “Our primary goals are clinical excellence, educa-tion and survey readiness. Our efforts are to ensure quality resident care and outcomes through resident and staff education, training and care delivery.”Programming will also reflect the rich diversity in SHC’s Urban buildings. “We have multiple cultures and multiple religions, and we need to embrace them for our stakeholders and for our families, to really engrain ourselves in the communities,” said Andy Shane, Chief Operating Officer for the segment.

The leadership team for the urban segment is also working with leaders at SHC of East Lou-isville to create a physical prototype for the urban nursing home of the future. Shane said upcoming changes to the building could in-clude updated decor, a rehab gym, dedicated space to conduct spiritual activities and coffee areas with art from the Reflect N Us program, which showcases artwork created by Signa-ture residents. “It will be the model for what we think an ur-ban facility should look like and how it should operate,” he said. “how do we brand the Urban segment?’”

Winter Park Care& Rehab ups medical presence to enhance care, stay competitive Winter Park Care and Rehab in recent years has implemented a new medical model in an effort to enhance resident care and stave off competitive pressures within the area. Winter Park Care and Rehab, or WPCR, is lo-cated in a suburb of Orlando, Fla., in an area that is saturated with skilled-nursing facili-ties. There are a total of six in a four-mile ra-dius surrounding the hospital nearest WPCR and 8 others within less than 10 miles, some of which resemble the “Taj Mahal,” said WPCR Administrator Eric Mock. To remain competitive, WPCR leaders are working toward improved clinical outcomes by increasing the medical presence in the home. Instead of having a continuous stream of physicians entering the building to see only one or two patients, Mock and WPCR Medical Director Dr. Adrian Burrowes saw the need for physicians to dedicate more time to the build-ing and to the individual residents. “We believe education is the foundation of restoring the wellness of our patients,” Bur-rowes said. “By taking an active role in the education of our health care team, we believe that it empowers them to act when potential warnings signs occur, before the patient expe-riences a negative outcome. Likewise, I believe that all caregivers – physicians, ARNPs and PAs, rehab staff, CNAs and others – are equal when it comes to determining the outcome of a pa-tient.” Dr. Dennis Stone, Signature’s Chief Medical Officer, said this approach is necessary in order to prevent hospital readmissions, reduce poly-pharmacy (the prescribing or overprescribing of many medications) and simply practice sound geriatric medicine.

“It’s part of where we’re trying to go throughout the company is to have medical panels of specialists” to supplement primary care physicians focused on geriatric medicine, Stone said, “and to move away from the old concept of ‘any willling provider.’ ” A total of four primary care physicians now practice at the facility, in addition to two spe-cialists, a cardiologist and a nephrologist. Mock and Burrowes also are working to recruit a pulmonologist and eventually would like to add an infectious disease specialist. Having the residents treated by these spe-cialists in the building can prevent hospital re-admissions and cut costs associated with tran-sitioning the residents between care settings.“The ultimate goal is that our clients would never have to go out to a physician office,” Mock said. Mock and Burrowes convinced the doctors to dedicate more time to WPCR by building re-lationships and simply asking. “I just sat down and said, ‘here’s my vision, here’s where I think health care is going to be, here’s what you can do to help me – are you interested?” Now, two of the four primary care physicians practicing at Winter Park are teachers in the facility’s growing educational program. Those physicians, along with Burrowes, a nurse prac-titioner and a third physician – a local hospi-talist – teach classes on a host of topics, from disease processes to reading lab reports. The educational sessions are largely aimed at WPCR’s nursing staff, and Mock believes the classes have improved relations between fa-cility nursing staff and the physicians. He said nurses now will approach the physicians to ask questions, and the physicians welcome those interactions. “With the increased education and interac-tion, we’ve been able to elevate our knowl-edge base, which has greatly enhanced our ability to interact with our physicians. This is improving our outcomes and will continue as we move forward.” WPCR educational programming has been in place for about a year. With some form of ACOs on the horizon and hospitals facing pen-alties for readmissions beginning in October 2012, Mock believes the educational program-ming at Winter Park should make the facility more attractive to area hospitals, physicians and case managers. “I’m really happy with the progress we’ve made so far,” he said. “You can always wish you were farther along, but we’re not in the start gate, that’s for sure.”

Urban


Post-Acute segment aims to ease transitions between care settings Signature HealthCARE’s Post-Acute seg-ment is taking a proactive approach to reduc-ing hospital readmissions with a pilot program called TransitionalCARE. The program closely monitors patients at risk for readmissions and eases patient tran-sitions between care settings. It focuses on transitions between the hospital and nursing facilities, as well as transitions from nursing fa-cilities to home. TransitionalCARE was launched to improve the customer experience but added benefits of reduced hospital readmissions include low-er risk of infection and fewer complications, along with improved census at Signature homes. “This program has allowed us to partner with hospitals for a shared commitment to improve the continuum of care, which has shown to reduce hospital readmissions,” Kara Plaks, Business Development Leader for the Post-Acute division said in an article about the program published by McKnight’s Long Term Care News.

More information on TransitionalCARE will beforthcoming as the project evolves.

Employees chatted at Four Courts at Cherokee Park in Louisville, one of Signature’s Post-Acute buildings.

Being a Post-Acute facility combined with a really tough survey team, our team thought a gold survey was unattainable and, at best, we would receive a silver survey. Through the implementation of Abaqis as our facility “PI” program, we were able to exceed our goal. We began embracing Abaqis about six months ago by educating our staff about the program. We started, as most do, by utilizing the interview portion of the program to get feedback from our residents, families and staff. This is great, but it was only after we decided to take it a step further that we could see the effectiveness of the program. The ‘step further’ was simply this: coordination of care. When you take the time to get familiar with Abaqis, you will see that the program enhances coor-dination of care between departments. We started digging deeper into our sum-mary by care areas and risk analysis. Our staff could practically quote the staff interview questions asked through the QIS survey pro-cess. Any concern raised during resident or family interviews we addressed through edu-

Abaqis proves to be a ‘game changer’ at Port CharlotteSignature Healthcare of Port Charlotte recently obtained a gold survey.

A new concierge program being tested at a handful of Signature HealthCARE’s post-acute buildings is helping to improve the customer experience and retain residents. Purveyors of the program are now combining efforts to for-malize processes related to the initiative and lay the groundwork for future expansion. Each of the five buildings participating in the pilot program employs a full-time concierge to

cation, coaching, investigation and follow up. Another component of Abaqis that was a ‘game changer’ for us was simply the prepara-tion of the survey book. We all know that hav-ing surveyors wait for information can set the tone of your survey. The surveyors were im-pressed by all of the information provided in our survey book. Abaqis provides us with the information needed in the survey book. We also keep a separate book for the ‘ad-mission sample record review form’ that we complete daily in our clinical meeting for dis-charged patients. We provided the surveyors with this information during phase one, when they review their discharge sample charts. One of the surveyors complimented our team for this process. The fact that our facility did not trigger anything during phase one of our QIS survey is attributed to the fact that we took the time to embrace Abaqis. It seems time-consuming initially, but our gold survey validates the fact that utilizing Abaqis is not time wasted – it will save time if used consistently.

– Niki Hood, Director of Nursing, SHC of Port Charlotte

Concierge pilot enhancing customer experience at SHC buildings

Post-Acute

Kelly Atkins joined Signature earlier this year as COO of the Post-Acute divi-sion with considerable LTC experience. She previously was Area President and Senior Vice President of Operations at Skilled Healthcare, in Foothill Ranch, Ca-lif. She also has served in leadership roles with Mariner Post-Acute Services, Coun-try Villa Health Services, Beverly Health Services and others.

meet patient needs and desires. These might involve providing simple information about the type of care and treatment a new resident can expect at the facility or fulfilling any number of patient requests, such as watching a specific TV show or enjoying a favorite hobby. For more about the program, visit the SHC Daily News blog at blogs.ltcrevolution.com/shc-daily-news and enter the search term “concierge.”

Outside of work, Kelly enjoys gardening, yoga, golf and hanging out with her dog, Ziggy Marley. She’s also excited to now be closer to her daughter in Manhattan. “I never thought I was going to leave the West Coast,” she said. “The only reason I came here is because of how unique we are. I love Joe Steier’s vision and his heart.”

Meet Kelly Atkins (if you haven’t already…)


Multi-SensoryEnvironment A leading innovation in Serenity buildings is the multi-sensory room. When resident Joyce was admitted to The Bridge at South Pittsburg, her advanced Parkinson’s was a constant burden. Despite her medication regime, she could not experience much relief from the constant tremors that made basic ADLs (activities of daily living) difficult and caused much embarrassment. After establishing Joyce’s sensory diet, therapists were able to bring the relief to Joyce that she desired. Requiring no addi-tional medications, Joyce would experience complete freedom from her tremors. Ad-ditionally, for nearly 30 minutes following her time in the MSE, Joyce would not have tremors. This allows her more independence in ADLs and a greater quality of life.

– Toby Wilson, Marketing Director

Rx Tracking Each prescription medication has an as-sociated “drug burden” which has a nega-tive effect on cognitive function. Polyphar-macy, or the use of multiple medications, often creates such a high drug burden that many individuals appear to be in late-stage dementia. Resident Linda’s experience was exactly this prior to admission at The Bridge at Monteagle.

As part of Serenity’s Rx Tracking inno-vation, every psychotropic medication is monitored along with the resident’s cogni-tive status and overall condition. Through the Rx Tracking innovation, the interdisci-plinary team identified the polypharmacy associated with Linda’s pre-admission plan of care. The team quickly moved to track each of Linda’s medications and work with the IDT to reduce her medications.As a result of this innovation and the team’s focus on non-pharmacological behavior management, Linda was free of all psycho-tropic medications 60 days after admis-sion. Linda benefited directly from the Rx Tracking innovation by becoming free from chemical restraints and experiencing im-proved cognitive function. She now actively participates in making her own decisions and enjoys Quality of Life events and activities.

– Tammy Byers, LPN, Dementia Care Manager

Staff and residents at The Bridge at Monteagle enjoyed a ‘Mad Hatter’s Day’ crazy hat contest.

Staged Activities Bessie, a resident at The Bridge at Bay St. Joe, would sleep in her wheelchair for most of the day, slumped over. Her eyes stayed closed and she had little response to verbal stimuli. Then she started the “Through My Eyes” Program, which is designed to match residents with activities appropriate for their level of cognitive function. The program involves continuous mu-sic and interaction between staff and resi-dents. Bessie began to sit up straight in her chair and verbalize words to staff. She then began to fold napkins and clothes, with cueing from staff. Later, she began to fold with no cueing and used our iron to iron the clothes, also with no cueing. She then be-gan to sing pieces of songs she would hear. Bessie was very alert, smiling, reaching out to staff and residents nearby to touch. Because of this innovation, there has been a marked difference in her Quality of Life.

– Terri Nelson, Quality of Life Director

The Serenity segment provides specialized care to individuals with

Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Led by Chief Operating Offi-

cer Doug Cox and Chief Financial Officer Kyle Browning, the segment has devel-

oped 12 “innovations,” or ideologies that are manifested in the programming of

the Serenity facilities. Each SHC Quar-terly Journal will feature short vignettes that illustrate the “innovations” at work

in different Serenity buildings.

Serenity


How does the new Rehabinfrastructure work? Through the creation of Signature Rehab, we’ve dramatically increased the clinical sup-port for the therapists. We have a team of 10 field-based clinical experts called Directors of Clinical Services, or DOCs. These folks are identi-fying specific programs that can benefit a facil-ity, and they’re also present to help with the im-plementation and success of those programs. The DOCs work with a Rehab Operations Of-ficer, or ROO, that has the same block of build-ings. They work together with recruiting to identify and hire new therapists, and ensure that appropriate goals were set and achieved. The new infrastructure through Signature Re-hab gives us the ability to more effectively man-age our therapy operations.

How will life change for rehab and therapy staff in Signature buildings? I think the main thing is they’re going to get more support. We’re here to help the facility be successful – they are our customer. Customer service will be a priority, and customer satis-faction will be one of our guiding principles. We still all work for Signature, we still all share the same values and culture.

Why are the changes to rehab important? How we provide rehab at Signature needed to be reworked to help segmentation be the game-changer we all expect it to be. We will be working with the therapists to minimize their extraneous activities, maintaining the teamwork and partnership with the facility yet using their skill set primarily to improve the residents’ function.

Mark Wortley, President and CEO, Signature Rehab

Signature Rehab formed July 1 as part of the overall segmentation plan, to

provide support for therapists and rehab stakeholders in Signature buildings. Mark

Wortley, who has 30 years of experience in long-term care rehabilitation, was hired as

President and CEO of the Rehab division. Wortley founded what is now Aegis Thera-pies, a division of Golden Living, and most recently was President of California-based

Hallmark Rehabilitation, which worked with more than 150 long-term care facili-ties. During a September interview, Wort-

ley discussed how the new Rehab unit would interact with Signature buildings.

Signature Rehabenlists services ofonline CEU provider With the help of Signature’s Learning Pillar, Signature Rehab now offers its stakeholders the opportunity to expand their knowledge base through Care2Learn, a provider of interac-tive, online continuing education units. This gives Signature Rehab stakeholders ac-cess to thousands of learning modules that will keep them current with changes and new inno-vations related to rehabilitation services. These educational services are free to employees.

Signature Rehab Senior Leadership Team

Mark WortleyPresident and CEO

Paul SumrowVice President of Operations

Marcie BeatyVice President of Clinical Services

Mark BushVice President of Finance

Kelly HelgesonVice President of Human Resources

Signature createsRehab division as

part of segmentation initiative

Rehab


A stakeholder at Signature HealthCARE of George-town helped a resident with therapy activities.


Signature residents, staff ride emotional high from Disney trip Twenty-two nursing home residents, 30 caregivers and 13 hours by bus. It was the mother – no, the grandmother of all road trips. On Sept. 27, at about 7 a.m., the bunch of residents and staff boarded a charter bus bound for Walt Disney World, U.S.A. in sunny Orlando, Florida. For some, it was their first trip to “the most magical place on earth.” For a few, it was their first vacation ever. “It was like a once-in-a-lifetime experience for many of them,” said Casey Caulk, Quality of Life Director at Donelson Place Care & Re-habilitation Center in Nashville. “Many of them worked all their lives and never would have taken the time to do anything for themselves.” The residents came from 11 nursing homes across Kentucky and Tennessee, all operated by Louisville, Ky.-based Signature HealthCARE. Most of the caregivers also came from those homes, although a few hold administrative positions with Signature. Among them was Angie McAllister, Quality of Life Director for the company’s rural seg-ment. Her job is, basically, to make sure Sig-nature homes are providing the most fun, dy-

“That was the most

fun I have ever had in

my life.”

namic, unconventional experiences possible – to bring to fruition the dreams of the nursing home residents, in other words. “It was beautiful to see how our elders’ faces were glowing from the pure joy they experi-enced,” she said. “They enjoyed every minute of it.” The idea for the Disney trip began with Veronica Scheurer, Quality of Life Director at Westmoreland Care & Rehab, one of the homes McAllister oversees. And for Schuerer, it was the experience of a lifetime. “My favorite part was standing back and watching the elders interact with the elders interact with the characters in the Epcot Char-acter Spot,” she said. “For a moment, there was no sadness, no loneliness, no sickness, no pain. Everyone was laughing, smiling and giddy. It was one of the most amazing moments of my life, and to know that I had a part in creating this dream come true makes my career so re-warding.” The trip was part of Scheurer’s 2011 goals for activity programming at her home, but when the regional team caught wind of it, they decided to expand the trip to include other Signature facilities. It was a worthwhile undertaking – that was never a question – but they knew it wouldn’t be easy, or cheap.

In all, the four-day trip cost about $30,000, money it took the better part of the year to raise. Each nursing home did its part, coordi-nating a poker run, hosting bake sales or any number of fundraising events. The staff said it was well worth the effort. And to hear the residents tell it, they are eter-nally grateful. “I’ll never forget it – never,” said Lonnie Star-ley, a resident at SHC of Clarksville, in Colum-bia, Tenn. “That was the most fun I have ever had in my life.”

Visit Angie McAllister’s Quality of Life blog athttp://blogs.ltcrevolution.com/quality-of-life/



On any given day, the residents at Signature’s Cen-tral Kentucky homes probably look and behave like the residents at most any nursing home. But for a day in late September, many of those residents were Olympians. Some 40 residents, accompanied by an equal num-ber of facility caregivers, descended upon the grounds of Signature’s home office for heated competition in several events. A total of eight buildings from Louisville, Lexington and other nearby counties participated in the games, which included a wheelchair race, corn hole and a basketball toss, among others. “We’ve just had a lot of people excited about it,” Sig-nature President and CEO Joe Steier during an inter-view with local NBC affiliate WAVE 3 TV. “So it’s been a joyful day – some tears, tears of celebration, tears of joy, but this has been a great day.” The event originated a few years ago at Signature HealthCARE of Port Charlotte (Florida). CFO John Har-

Mary Chesser, a resident at SHC of Spencer County, tried to bowl a strike during Signature’s

first home office Senior Olympics in Louisville.

The stands were packed at the first Signature Florida Panhandle Senior Olympics in Chipley, Fla.

Hearts of Champions Signature hosts Senior Olympics games in Louisville and North Florida

rison proposed the idea to duplicate the games in Lou-isville. It was the first Senior Olympics to be held at Signa-ture’s new home office since the company moved its headquarters to Louisville from Florida just over a year ago, but it might not be the last according to Byron Joyner, former Benefits Project Manager at Signature’s home office. “It has not been confirmed, but I think there will be a lot of pressure to do this next year,” he said. “Good pres-sure.” Joyner, a certified Project Management Professional, led the planning of the Senior Olympics games, a four-month process involving a team of 50 home office em-ployees. “The entire Senior Olympics team was awesome to work with, and everyone pitched in and stepped up to make it a huge success,” he said. Meanwhile, Signature’s first Florida Panhandle Se-nior Olympics games were also a resounding success. Five facilities participated: SHC at The Courtyard, SHC of North Florida, Chautauqua Rehab and Nursing Center, Surrey Place Care Center and Washington Rehab and Nursing Center, which hosted the games.Such events are important in order to provide a high quality of life for residents, Regional QOL Director Ellie Curry told the Jackson County Floridan. Curry said she was happy that, even with recent Medicare reimburse-ment cuts and other threats to nursing home funding, Signature was still able to host the Olympics games for the residents.“If you put the residents first, everything will take care of itself,” she said.

Static? Boring?Complacent?That’s hardlythe Signature way. So in 2011, SHC decided to upend the historic approach of having only a single corporate site with more general company information and limited content on each facility. Now, each of SHC’s 73 buildings has its own website that stakeholders at the homes can load with content unique to their community and facility. “There used to be nothing wrong with (the former approach) – in fact, that’s just about all anyone could have done,” said

Signature radically expands grassroots digital presence for homes

Communications Director Todd Smith, who spearheaded the project. “But as the social web has evolved, and technology along with it, so must our web strategy.” By having a standalone site for each building, family members, prospective resi-dents and others have access to photos and information (clinical programming, calen-dars, events, etc.) concerning that building specifically. The content needs to be locally generat-ed by people who work in the buildings on a day-to-day basis because they have the most intimate knowledge of their building’s programs and activities. And by putting the onus on facility staff to post the content, Smith said, those stakeholders are learning new skills.

He added that the project has been made possible with the assistance of Interactive Content Coordinator Yohan Park. “Yohan provides a level of technical over-sight, and a branding and content filter,” Smith said. “We can provide oversight and filtering, but we can‘t generate the content – they’re the appropriate authors of their own content. So it’s really a great partner-ship between corporate and the field.” And in many ways, Smith added, the website launch functions as a microcosm of some of Signature’s core philosophies. “I view the facility website project as a good Signature/Joe Steier case study of say-ing, ‘look what can be done if you just do it and don’t listen to the idea killers.’ ”


InnovateLTC named ‘hot’ Louisville company InnovateLTC was named one of Greater Louisville Inc. (GLI) EnterpriseCorp’s ‘Hot Dozen’ companies for 2011. Each year, the program honors the Louisville area’s 12 “hottest” emerging and fast-growing busi-nesses. “We are honored to be named in the ‘Hot Dozen,’ ” said John Reinhart, President and CEO of InnovateLTC. “We’re happy to be a catalyst and an accelerator for innovation in aging, and we’re thankful for the recogni-tion.”

Signaturecelebratesholidays with days of service More than 150 employees from Signature HealthCARE’s Louisville headquarters cel-ebrated the holiday season by dedicating some time to serve others in the commu-nity. Signature employees were given the op-tion to spend a ‘Personal Day of Service’ volunteering at one of the company’s four Louisville-area homes, or at one of three local charities: the Americana Community Center, Wayside Christian Mission or Saint Vincent DePaul Soup Kitchen. Employees helped with any number of tasks, from as-sisting with activities, maintenance and food service for the local nonprofits, to cleaning, holiday decorating and visiting with nursing home residents. For some, including President and CEO Joe Steier, it was an opportunity to put their newly-acquired CNA skills to the test. Steier was one of several SHC leaders to complete CNA training through Spalding University.

SIGNATURE NEWS BRIEFS

Signature hosts first movie premier Signature brought a dash of Hollywood to its local communities this year when it hosted a premier for a film about the Senior Olympics event held last summer at SHC of Port Charlotte. To immerse residents in the film premier experience, each building put up movie posters and gave residents movie tickets and popcorn. One ‘Golden Ticket Winner’ from each facility received a special goodie bag.

Signature recognizes Na-tional Day of Prayer with synchronized event In 2011, SHC celebrated the National Day of Prayer, on May 5, with a coordinat-ed prayer event across its centers. On that day, the buildings held prayers and some released balloons or carried out other sym-bolic acts. The National Day of Prayer tradition pre-dates the founding of the United States, as the Continental Congress issued a procla-mation in 1775 setting aside a day of prayer.

Spirituality center of keynote discussion at statewide HR conference Signature President and CEO Joe Steier and Vice President of Spirituality Dianne Timmering were keynote speakers during this year’s annual conference for the Ken-tucky chapter of the Society for Human Re-source Management. The speaking engagement stemmed from a series of luncheons Signature has hosted at its home office to demonstrate to leaders of other area businesses and com-panies how SHC implemented spirituality into its operations. “We presented spirituality as a core com-petency, the power of spiritual discernment as a new ingredient to help them reach their people,” Joe and Dianne wrote follow-ing the speaking engagement.

Signature remains a hot topic in media circles throughout 2011 This year, Signature HealthCARE was on the radar of media outlets in cities and towns throughout the areas it serves, and well beyond. Numerous stories about the clinical, spiritual and quality-of-life ef-forts taking place at Signature appeared in newspapers, on TV, on the Web and in magazines throughout 2011. Some notable articles include profile article on Joe Steier featured in McKnight’s Long Term Care News and a feature article spanning several pages in Provider Magazine about the pho-tography program at SHC’s Donelson Place Care & Rehab, in Nashville.

Signature named to Inc. listing for third year Signature HealthCARE has been named to the Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 5000 list, which recognizes the fastest-growing private companies in Amer-ica, for the third consecutive year. Signature ranked #3614 on the list, down only slightly from last year’s ranking of #3562 but still higher than its first-year ranking of #3912.

For more about the listing, visit www.inc.com.


Signature ramps upefforts to

connect with lawmakers

As economic and regulatory pressures heighten for health care providers of every stripe, Signature HealthCARE is being proactive in its pursuit of closer relationships with local legislators. Historically, it has sometimes been challeng-ing to get legislators into the buildings, said Kathy Gallin, Director of Legislative Affairs. But that has changed in recent months as inroads have been made with legislators in several states. Maryland state delegate John L. Bohanan, Jr. visited Chesapeake Shores, and Sen. Steve Oel-rich attended a June Hall of Fame event at SHC of Gainesville. Kentucky Sen. Julie Denton at-tended SHC of South Louisville’s Hall of Fame in September, and two state legislators attended the Hall of Fame ceremony held in October at Westmoreland Care & Rehab. Jim Gotto, a member of the Tennessee House of Representatives, actually contacted Gallin to arrange a visit to Donelson Place, in Nashville, after a group of stakeholders and residents from three Signature facilities traveled to the state capitol to visit with Gotto and other elect-ed officials. And those visits weren’t even all of them. “These legislative visits help us to connect with our elected officials and drive home the message that despite the recent cuts to skilled nursing facilities, the tumultuous economic cli-mate, and the threat of additional cuts to Medi-care and Medicaid, Signature HealthCARE will persevere on our mission and vision to revolu-tionize and radically change the landscape of long term care in America,” Gallin said. And there are a number of other benefits to the visits. For starters, elected officials often attract media – both Oelrich’s visit to SHC of Gainesville and the resident trip to Nashville garnered TV and newspaper coverage. But more important, the visits afford an op-portunity for facilities to educate lawmakers and speak with them about the complex set of issues that impact residents, families and staff in long-term care facilities on a daily basis. And if they’re aware of the positive work taking

Tennessee Sen. Kerry Roberts spoke during an October Hall of Fame event

at Westmoreland Care & Rehab.

place in long-term care facilities, they’ll likely be more inclined to support those facilities and the industry as a whole. “They might say, ‘you know, these folks need these dollars to care for the frail and elderly population they serve,’ ” Gallin pointed out. “We can’t guarantee that, but it sure can’t hurt to have them witness what we do on a daily basis.”Gallin encourages facility administrators to try and forge relationships with officials from their areas, but she understands the overload of de-mands on their time. That’s why she and Jennie

Hornsby have taken up the mantle of making sure lawmakers know the Signature name and what it represents. Eventually, she said, she hopes to create vid-eos of legislative visits at every Signature build-ing, “so people can see that we are out in our community, that we are involved, that we work to educate our legislators on a come-and-see basis.” “We are our best advocates,” Gallin said. “If we don’t get our message out there, who’s going to do it for us?”

Kathy Gallin, Signature’s Director of Legislative Affairs, interviewed Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer during a Kentucky Chamber of Commerce

kickoff event for the current state legislative session.


Signature HealthCARE (SHC) is one of the nation’s largest nursing home operators with 73 facilities in seven states (Kentucky, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Maryland and Penn-sylvania.) Signature’s vision is to “radically change the landscape of long-term care forever,” through innovative thinking, programming and action. Signature’s culture is built on three pillars: Spirituality, Learning and Intra-preneurship.

The SHC Quarterly Journal is a collection of articles about programs, activities, and other news throughout Signature HealthCARE. The Journal is published four times yearly.

Produced by the SHC Department of CommunicationsAll articles written by Media Relations Manager Ben Adkins (unless otherwise noted)

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