Rethink - Skilled Nursing News

In this episode, Skilled Nursing News speaks with Nicole Pretre, president and CEO of Cedar Community, a 5-campus community with skilled nursing. Nicole says that while often overlooked, employee surveys have turned out to be turnover busters. While time intensive, they have been effective tools, alongside other workforce initiatives, in allowing clear communication and addressing employee needs t...

In this episode, Skilled Nursing News speaks with Jerald Cosey, senior health care expert and owner of J. Cosey Speaks, who served as operational leadership development director for American Senior Communities until September 2023. Jerald, a senior care veteran, says nursing home operators must "rehydrate and motivate" their staff through leadership development, reigniting purpose while investing...

In this episode, Skilled Nursing News speaks with Kent Rodgers, president and CEO of CarDon & Associates. Kent discusses CarDon’s 90% occupancy on average across its 19 buildings, all while acquiring a pharmacy and diving into the I-SNP world with Optum, and reaching an “equilibrium” between its labor retention and agency use.

Lynn M. Hood, CEO, Principle LTC by Skilled Nursing News

Leslie Campbell, COO of Touchstone Communities by Skilled Nursing News

Tom Coble, President & CEO, Elmbrook Management Company by Skilled Nursing News

Stuart Lindeman, President and CEO, Mission Health Communities by Skilled Nursing News

Joel VanEaton, EVP, Compliance and Regulatory Affairs, Broad River Rehab by Skilled Nursing News

The 52nd episode of our podcast, Rethink, is now available. Operating 152 facilities across seven states, the Providence Group strongly believes the best decisions are made at the local level. Each of Providence Group’s facilities have their own unique needs, along with the other health care providers across the care continuum in each respective market. That means being deeply integrated into each...

The 51st episode of our podcast, Rethink, is now available. The skilled nursing industry won’t likely see material, system-wide change until the sector’s stakeholders including CMS, operators, payors, as well as residents and their respective advocacy groups, can get on the same page. That’s according to Focused Post Acute Care Partners CEO Mark McKenzie. The industry is ever evolving, he said, an...

The 50th episode of our podcast, Rethink, is now available. In an industry fraught with headline risk – and still in the national spotlight – the future of skilled nursing will be wrapped up in words. Namely, the term “nursing home.” Deke Cateau, CEO of Georgia nonprofit operator A.G. Rhodes, says the term will become obsolete, but populations will still need to have communities where individuals...

The 49th episode of our podcast, Rethink, is now available. Providing a family oriented company culture where the benefits of a corporate system and organization still exist has been a differentiator for Pearl Healthcare, as the nursing home operator continues to grow throughout its regional footprint. Starting in 2018, Pearl Healthcare acquired a majority of its six facilities in the last year. P...

The 48th episode of our podcast, Rethink, is now available. When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) eased Covid-19 guidelines earlier in August, many let out a sigh of relief. But as the nursing home industry toils its way through operational recovery amidst a staffing shortage, leaders in the space can’t help but wonder when their turn will come to lessen some of the restriction...

The 47th episode of our podcast, Rethink, is now available. With an eye to the future, SanStone Health & Rehabilitation is embarking down two different but parallel paths toward bolstering its workforce. The first is a focus on internal growth and the creation of succession plans for SanStone employees. That planning led Jennifer Robinson to the role she is in today as company president. The s...

The 46th episode of our podcast, Rethink, is now available. There are a lot of things that keep Michelle Delker up at night. Ongoing workforce challenges are the obvious one, but the CFO of Mission Health Communities also thinks about state-level reimbursement and the ever changing regulatory requirement landscape. Despite the host of challenges facing skilled nursing providers, Mission Health is...

The 45th episode of our podcast, Rethink, is now available. With the Biden administration looking to possibly clamp down on the role private equity and real estate investment trusts play in the nursing home industry, CareTrust REIT CEO David Sedgwick says the company is poised for continued growth in the sector. “We never took our foot off the pedal of acquisitions since Covid started,” he said of...

The 44th episode of our podcast, Rethink, is now available. The Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society is approaching its 100th birthday, and while the organization's leaders would like to see the not-for-profit skilled nursing operator provide care for another 100 years – that doesn’t come without enormous challenges. Good Samaritan has had to close or sell nine facilities in just the last e...

The 43rd episode of our podcast, Rethink, is now available. Since Ignite Medical Resorts came on to the post-acute care scene in 2017, the central focus has been to do one thing really well. CEO Tim Fields’ goal is to be the best short-term rehab provider in the market. But that doesn’t mean Ignite has rested on its laurels. Park Ridge, Illinois-based Ignite has experienced notable growth — most r...

The 42nd episode of our podcast, Rethink, is now available. This episode of Rethink is sponsored by TeamHealth. Nursing homes with the right training and educational processes may be uniquely positioned to facilitate behavioral health services at a time when the patient population has become increasingly complex. Dr. Wayne Tasker and Dr. Richard Thompson Jr. joined Rethink to share the evolving de...

The 41st episode of our podcast, Rethink, is now available. At a time when the industry is facing staffing shortages coupled with looming federal regulations and possible Medicare cuts — all the while recovering from Covid — it can be a scary time to be running a skilled nursing operator. That's according to Bernie McGuinness, CEO of Indiana-based Majestic Care. McGuinness joined Rethink to talk a...

The 40th episode of our podcast, Rethink, is now available. This episode of Rethink is sponsored by Reliant Rehabilitation. Shelley Horst has always been passionate about helping skilled nursing facilities better collaborate with their post-acute partners, and her role as director of strategic partnerships at Reliant Rehabilitation allows her to do just that. With an abundance of experience in ski...

Dr. Buffy Lloyd-Krejci made it her life's work to improve infection control practices, founding the consulting firm IPCWell to further that mission in long-term care facilities. As a result, she sees nursing home practices first-hand, and she wasn't surprised by how hard COVID-19 hit these facilities when it started spreading last year. Dr. Lloyd-Krejci worked with Doctors Without Borders in their...

In the skilled nursing world, it was a truth universally acknowledged that the Patient-Driven Payment Model was a lifeline for operators trying to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting “business nightmare.” But the federal government has proposed a recalibration of the new system, and it’s not clear yet what that could mean for providers. Mark Parkinson, the president and CEO of the Ame...

The federal government in March ended a year-long nightmare for families across the country when it announced the relaxation of visitation bans at nursing homes in all but a few limited cases. But for the family members who spent 2020 working to reunite with their loved ones, the work won’t end along with the expiration of strict lockdowns. SNN sat down with a pair of those leaders — Mikko Cook an...

When the first vaccines against COVID-19 received emergency use authorization, long-term care residents and workers at those facilities were at the front of the line to receive them. And as the shots have rolled out, residents have participated at high rates, and new COVID-19 cases among residents have plummeted. Frontline workers have been more hesitant – but with time, that could change. Angela...