{ Best of the Best 2012 }
of nursing, and direct caregivers. The
purchasing department serves as project
leader and does the work of negotiating prices and contracts. If an employee
comes across a product that he or she
believes would better meet customers’
needs than the approved options, the
team will review the recommendation.
“We consider formularies to be living
documents,” says Taylor.
Early collaboration across departments has been critical for ensuring buy-in. “We are passionate about partnering
with the operations team to bring into
our communities the highest quality, best
priced products to serve our residents,”
says Dawn Usher, SVP, chief administrative officer.
Program To Spotlight:
Sonata Senior Living
Orlando, fL
Serenades Purpose-Built Memory
Care Design
Sonata Senior Living’s prototypical
Serenades community has the sort of
fresh, upscale curb appeal that one might
expect from a new provider. But step
past the curb, and it is clear Serenades is
no mere real estate play. From the fully
integrated, state-of-the-art life safety
systems, to thoughtful details such as
custom vertical amber LED nightlights
around bathroom doors, the community
clearly was designed with the complex
needs of seniors with dementia in mind.
Long before the first architectural rendering, the management team honed its
philosophy of person-directed care. “You
have to have the operations team involved while the paper’s blank,” explains
President/CEO Stuart Beebe. So far,
so good; the community was 90 percent
leased with positive EBITDA within 120
days after opening, despite an advertising
budget of $0.
RISK MANAGEMENT
Winner: Emeritus Senior Living
Seattle, wA
Designing Safety Education Pro-
grams for Today’s Workforce—But
Wait, There’s More!
Which would the average associate prefer
to sit through time and time again: the
standard, dry classroom lecture on safe
ergonomic practices in managing resident
transfers, or a fun infomercial on same?
22 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE | MAY/JUNE 2012 | WWW.ALFA.ORG
Sonata Senior Living’s Serenades
Purpose-Built Memory Care Design
was created with the complex needs of
seniors with dementia in mind.
has been comprehended,” says Majors.
Feedback on the infomercial has been
very positive—helping, for instance,
to ease the transition of 170 acquired
communities into Emeritus’ culture and
practices in 2010. The percentage of
employee injuries caused by the assistance
and transfer of residents decreased from
41 percent in 2010 to 32 percent last year.
Emeritus has since released a “
Transfer Belt” infomercial, and is expected
to release another DVD that addresses
“Slip/Trip/Fall” education this year.
Program To Spotlight: willis Group—
Senior Living Practice Group
Chicago, IL
Workers Compensation Injury
Management Program
Workers compensation claims are on the
rise, thanks in part to a growing trend.
“We have an aging workforce and we
have an aging-in-place clientele,” explains Mary Lynn Curran, VP of clinical
risk consulting at Willis Group.
Building on its 2008 award-winning
diagnostic tool for assessing risk at
senior care companies, Willis Group has
created a handbook and webinar training
to guide senior living field staff in how
to prevent injuries as well as manage
cases that do occur. The program seeks
to give structure and answers in an area
that can be confusing for non-experts.
“One of the needs is putting together
and delivering high-quality training for
our teams,” says Norm Nevins, director
of human resources at Legend Senior
Living, a Willis client. “To really have
