Back to Business

With Labor Day behind us and cooler weather before us, thus starts the unofficial end of Summer. Time to re-focus our minds on the business at hand. Not that the last few months have not had their fill of work and accomplishments, but vacations do make it difficult to get everyone together or to initiate team-driven projects.

The next few months will include the following major corporate initiatives:

• Engineering & other inspections, zoning investigation and approvals associated with the proposed new site for Kirkhaven.


• Final design strategies, cost estimates & financial analysis associated with the Kirkhaven Replacement Project.


• Action plans & financial analysis for the Valley Manor Repositioning Project associated with the Greystone recommendations.


• Governance Committee board member recruitment & board structure evaluation.


• Annual Lobster Bisque fund-raiser (September 19).


• Annual Seniorsfirst Gala fund-raiser (October 25).


• Development of marketing, sales and fund-raiser video productions.


• Upgrade & modifications to websites.


• Employee Opinion (satisfaction) survey.


• Physician group/Medical Director recruitment for Kirkhaven.


• 2009 operating budget preparation.


• Medicaid rate audit settlement.


• Major Capital Campaign strategy & planning to support Kirkhaven Replacement Project.


• Peer Review (dispute resolution) program development.


• Compensation system review.


• Pathways (culture change) soil warming at Kirkhaven.


• Leadership & conversity training.

This is an impressive "to-do list" and will certainly keep us all active and focused on our organizational goals and objectives.

In other news................we did reach a final agreement on the purchase and sale agreement for the land on South Clinton Avenue targeted for the Kirkhaven Replacement Project. We have nearly two years built into the purchase offer contingencies to accomplish the many inspections, details, approvals and financing requirements necessary for this project.

...........we still await specifics on the newly adopted State Budget revisions. As usual, we were spared many of the devastating proposed cuts but did take a "hit" with other cuts that were passed. Ironically, the State is currently finalizing Medicaid rate add-ons that represent the initial phase-in of the promised new nursing home reimbursement (re-basing) methodology which will release over 300 million in long-awaited funds for 2007 and 2008 reimbursement. It will be interesting to see the net result when the cuts and add-ons are both factored into the new rates. I'm guessing that in the final analysis it will be a case of "a promise made is a promise not kept".

So hold on tight as we enter into this hectic, yet exciting, phase of 2008. Our goals are lofty and the challenges are stiff, but the rewards are priceless from the perspective of the mission we serve.

Be sure to visit my Blog each week for updates on the progress of these initiatives and anything new that comes along. Thanks for visiting!

(picture 1- ripening grapes on our arbor as Fall approaches)

(picture 2- Fall flowers blooming in our gardens)

Return from Vacation

I'm back from my week at camp up in the Adirondacks. I had a great time and the weather was superb (which is a rarity late in August). The days were sunny and hot and we only had one evening of rain. The nights were cool and a few days started out in the 40's, but went up into the 70's and even 80's by mid-day.

My primary goal was to stain the camp which I started on Sunday and finished by Wednesday. 3o hours of painting, but I actually enjoyed it. It was just me and my dog Jessi hanging out together. She would just sit for hours and wait patiently while I worked until I stopped to take a break. Then we would take a hike, go for a swim or her favorite- take the boat out for a spin.

Here are a couple of pictures of my finished work. It turned out great and I even had time to take another day to prune out the trees and branches to let the sun shine in and keep our waterfront view nice and clear.

On Wednesday evening, Jennifer came up to camp and we went out to dinner at our favorite little spot in Mountain View only a mile away. Thursday was our wedding anniversary so we drove to Lake Placid for a round of golf, shopping and a nice dinner. The rest of the week and weekend was for playing and relaxing which I was very good at.

A well deserved afternoon nap

Not sure why, but one morning I got the urge to swim across the Lake, which is something I have wanted to try since I was a kid. With my niece in the kayak by my side, I set out on my journey. 40 minutes later I reached the other side and accomplished my goal. Must have been all the Olympic competition I had been watching that inspired me to "go for the gold"!
Hanging out on the front deck of Jennifer's camp next door.

While I was away, our State legislature passed a mid-year State budget reduction plan that will have a negative impact on our Kirkhaven revenue. It will be a few days before we know the details of the budget cuts and what, if any, action we may have to take in response. What a nice welcome back and way to get back into the swing of work. Should be an interesting next couple of weeks, so check back with my Blog for updates and follow-up.

Busy but Interesting Week

Busy week but full of many unique projects that kept me hopping but never bored. That's actually a nice thing about my job, everyday is very different and I get involved with a variety of initiatives that represent the many varied aspects of an organization.

On Monday, Jean Boyle (Director of Development) and I participated in a conference call with a firm in Dallas, Texas (RSI) that specializes in assisting not-for-profit organizations with major capital fund-raising campaigns. It was a very productive dialog which resulted in our requesting them to submit a formal proposal for our further consideration. We will pursue similar proposals from other firms as we begin to plan for a future campaign to raise some serious funds (3-4 million) to help support our Kirkhaven Replacement project.

Tuesday was suppose to be an "office day" to enable me to get some project and desk work done. At noon I received a call from Channel 13 News and was asked if I would do an interview to talk about the recent State budget cuts being proposed by the Governor and its impact on nursing homes. I like Seniorsfirst to be seen as an industry leader and advocate for good public policy, so I often say yes. It's always a risk because you can't control what they will report or what pieces of the interview they will air. You also need to be careful with what you say because your audience will be policy makers, consumers and staff and each will listen and interpret your remarks differently. Looks like this budget issue will become a real dog fight with significant dollars at risk. Just one more thing to add to our "to-do list", like we need this to worry about!

On Wednesday, Scott Maar (CFO) and I were joined by legal and reimbursement counsel to meet with the Office of Inspector General for a 2 hour Exit Conference related to our 2003-2006 Medicaid rate audit. We were really organized and prepared with our arguments & documentation and believe we made considerable inroads in fending off several unwarranted audit adjustments. We won't know for sure until at least another month, but the final outcome should be significantly less than what the initial draft audit report attempts to recover from us.

Our Marketing team spent 3 days this week working with an outside firm shooting video for use in sales, marketing and fund-raising videos that are being produced for our future use. Several staff, residents and others participated and took their turn under the lights and in front of the camera to offer testimony and conversation about various elements of our communities and services. The coordination and process was very professional and well organized, not to mention intimidating. But everyone got through it (including me) and we can't wait to see the final products by mid October (premier showing at the Gala on October 25).

On Thursday, a team of 10 of us from Kirkhaven drove to Buffalo to tour the Beechwood facilities. Beechwood is another pioneer organization that has embarked on a culture change project similar to Kirkhaven. They are a few years ahead of us in many aspects and have completed some household units with others in progress. We met with our counterparts, toured the facility and engaged in group dialog for the entire morning. As part of their mission, their Board has directed them to openly share and help spread the culture change movement to others. We learned a lot and their contagious passion mirrors our own.

Can't explain it, but sometimes a CEO just gets too much going on inside and it begins to consume you. I haven't been sleeping well this week and have been waking up at 4 a.m. trying to think it all out until the alarm goes off at 6:30. Friday, I gave in and got up and went to work instead. I needed the office time to play catch up, meet with my staff and get organized before I leave for a week vacation up at the cottage in the Adirondacks. Summer is fading fast and it fades even faster up North. I plan to paint the camp (which I actually enjoy) in addition to my usual boating, swimming, hiking and other more leisurely activities.

Have a great week and thanks for visiting my Blog. I'll be back in another week with vacation pictures and an update on what's new at Seniorsfirst!

Welcome New Blog Readers

I have officially invited all leadership staff at both Kirkhaven and Valley Manor to become regular viewers of my CEO blog. What started out as a simple communication tool between me and my senior leadership team, has now become an innovative medium for me to share a unique insight into our organization from the perspective of the CEO.


In addition to senior leadership, leadership and board members, I will soon open my blog up to all Seniorsfirst staff. My objective is to create a heightened level of transparency and understanding of the corporate and executive workings within Seniorsfirst in both an informative and enjoyable manner. Readers will get an "inside" look at our organization from a vantage point and perspective different from their own. My blog will include business news, event happenings, CEO work life and occasional glimpses into my life outside of work.


So welcome to my CEO blog! Go ahead and check out the earlier posts and get caught up with what you may have missed. Browse the blog features and be sure to "bookmark" this page so you can easily come back again to read my future blog postings. I generally update my blog weekly (over the weekend), so plan to visit me accordingly. If you care to leave a comment on my blog you can do so by clicking on "comments" at the end of each posting and simply following the prompts.

On the Kirkhaven replacement project we received approval from the seller and their attorney with respect to our purchase offer of the property we are interested in buying. This week we will share the document with the Executive Committee of the Board and then proceed to have it signed by both buyer and seller.

Amanda and I had good planning meetings last week, first with a group of renown culture change pioneers and then with our architect team to discuss further design ideas. This week a group of us are traveling to Buffalo to tour the Beechwood campus which has implemented the Household model and several culture change initiatives. We had planned to visit last month, but had to reschedule due to a conflict with the Department of Health annual survey.

The Seniorsfirst board meeting held last week was a very dynamic presentation by and dialogue with Greystone Communities who led us in good discussion concerning repositioning strategies to improve occupancy. We are left with a lot of information to consider and build upon as management will now have the challenge of creating specific action plans related to the Greystone findings and recommendations.

Nadine (Director of Nursing) and I met with Dr. Rich of the Viahealth Physician's Group to explore the potential of them providing our physician services at Kirkhaven upon Dr. Jurik's retirement later this year. We were very impressed with what we heard and plan to pursue further. We will also be speaking with the Strong Physician's Group in the near future.

Also this week will include a "not so much fun" conference with Medicaid auditors concerning their findings and adjustments pertaining to Kirkhaven's routine audit of our 2003-2006 Medicaid rates. This is a very political, frustrating and exhausting process that I really don't enjoy. Several hundred thousand dollars are on the line and these auditors are notorious for "inventing" innovative ways to create Medicaid dollar repayments. Scott and I worked over the weekend to review work papers, compile documentation and plan strategies to support our arguments. We will be joined by our attorney as we "go into the ring" for round one of this process. I'd much rather spend our valuable time on other more interesting projects, but the dollar impact of this demands our highest attention and priority.

I'll keep you posted on these items and anything new that comes along, but that's all for this week. Thanks for visiting. I hope you enjoy my blog and will become a regular visitor. See you next time.....................Jim.

Seniorsfirst Musicfest

A very busy week with our 3-day annual Seniorsfirst Musicfest on the grounds of Valley Manor. Attendance was great as we estimate we had over 300 attendees on day one for the Mercury Opera performance, and 500+ attendees each for day two and day three for the RPO and Johnny Matt Big Band performances.

Everything went marvelously and we even managed to withstand a brief rain storm at the start of the RPO performance on Wednesday. Our staff really did an amazing job organizing and pulling off this elaborate event. I am no longer amazed,but continually in awe of their talents and dedication. They always step up to the task!

RPO video at the Seniorsfirst Musicfest (click on the arrow to play).

We were somewhat disappointed with the Greystone final report and recommendations presented July 22nd to an ad-hoc committee comprised of both key leadership and board. It was weak in substance and recommendations, but I have spent significant time with them since and hope that our constructive feedback will result in some enhanced revisions. Despite our disappointment, they did provide us with some extensive data that we can build upon in developing our own strategic objectives and action plans.

Great news we think with respect to our purchase offer on the land we are interested in for the Kirkhaven replacement project. Our draft purchase offer was reviewed by the seller and their attorney and they have only made a hand full of suggested revisions that we don't believe are unreasonable. Once our attorney reviews and signs off on them, we should have a purchase offer document signed and agreed to within the week.

Our new pharmacy vendor (Kinney Drugs) started June 1 at Kirkhaven. We experienced a few glitches and are still ironing out a few others, but the transition is a good one for us and our first month's pharmacy bill was back under our monthly budget.

Speaking of expenses and budgets, I have been working with our facility directors at both Kirkhaven and Valley Manor (Jim Dietz and Eric O'Connell) in reviewing and locking in our utility gas prices for 2009. This is worse than trying to figure out the stock market. We are working with our gas broker and finally decided to lock in 25% of our estimated future therm needs. We will continue to monitor and lock down the remaining 65-75% in the near future as pricing dictates. We were told by our broker that our previous years decisions resulted in some of the lowest fixed gas rates of any of his customers. Not sure if that was a result of plain dumb luck or skill, but I hope our streak continues.

I thought the staff picnics at Kirkhaven and Valley Manor last week were great. Staff seemed to enjoy the games, food and fellowship. We also had a resident picnic at Valley Manor last week which was well attended and enjoyed by all, and at Kirkhaven we have had resident picnics by floor out on the patio (weather permitting) for the past several weeks. I just love summer and picnics. Anyone notice I haven't worn a suit in the month of July?

Amanda and I toured the household model at Fairport Baptist Home this week and were quite surprised by how nice they were. We were able to learn and see a lot that we will incorporate into our own facility design for Kirkhaven.

Next week is our Seniorsfirst Board meeting and our primary agenda is to hear and discuss the Greystone strategic plan analysis. On Monday, I will participate in a conference call with Jean Boyle, Jim Genthner and a fund-raising firm (Benevon) to discuss a potential engagement to assist us in training and procedures for a future major capital campaign to support our Kirkhaven Replacement project. We also have a high-powered focus group on Wednesday, that includes some of the wisest and renown "culture change" pioneers in the area, meeting with Amanda and I to discuss our Kirkhaven project vision. Should be an awesome session! Additionally, I have a meeting of the board of our Workers Compensation self-funding group and an exploratory meeting with a potential physician group interested in serving Kirkhaven's needs upon the retirement of our current medical director (John Jurik and his group).

Lastly, we have yet one more picnic on Friday- our joint leadership team at Valley Manor and Kirkhaven (did I mention I love summer and picnics) and a Kirkhaven project design meeting with our architects. I also plan to golf in the GHFA (Rochester for-profit nursing home group) golf tournament on Monday out at Midvale C.C. I haven't been golfing much this year, but I like this opportunity to network with some of my for-profit peers.

In closing here are few more still shots taken at the Musicfest. Enjoy....

Survival of the Fittest

It is starting to be a rough summer for my support staff. First Jean Boyle goes out on leave for surgery, followed by Cheryl Smith for some surgery of her own. This weekend, Scott Maar slips and falls while exploring a creek bed on his camping outing and breaks his left arm.

Cheryl's surgery went very well and she expects to return to work this week. Jean is doing well also on her new hip and is planning to return part-time on August 4th. Scott is having his arm/shoulder evaluate by an orthopod this week and expects to be back in the office this week but with limitations (does a one-armed accountant only make one-sided entries?). Of course Rebecca will be out later in the year with a more enjoyable leave when she gives birth to her baby.

I have been bothered by a nagging groin pull and leg soreness. My jogging and water skiing is slowly "killing" my aging body but I'm too vain and stubborn to slow down. I was already sore before I went out on Irondequoit Bay this Saturday with my son and son-in-law and had to show them that I could keep up with them on skis. I paid for it dearly on Sunday!

So Amanda, Cass and Jim III, please be careful and stay healthy.

Kirkhaven received its results from the annual Health Department Survey of a few weeks ago. With so many codes, regulations and procedures to adhere to in every resident interaction, it is a daunting challenge to have surveyors peering over your shoulder watching and reviewing your every actions-past and current. After 4 days of intense scrutiny, they issued 4 very minor resident care deficiencies of minimal scope and severity that do not constitute sub-standard care by their definition. While no deficiency is welcomed, we are elated with the survey results. Congratulations to Amanda and her entire support staff team!

On Tuesday, this week, a group of staff and board will be meeting with the Greystone Team to hear their findings and recommendations from the Valley Manor repositioning project. I am so anxious to learn what they have to say and only hope that it includes comprehensive and specific recommendations that are reasonable and attainable. We are all prepared to do whatever it takes and are looking for some professional expertise to simply guide us so we can use our own talents to turn Valley Manor around for the long-term.

This week is "Picnic Week" for our staff as we celebrate summer and our staff with our "We are Family" staff picnics at Valley Manor on Wednesday and Kirkhaven on Thursday. Human Resources always does a great job coordinating these events but I appreciate the support you all provide to assist Cass and her staff.

Jim III and Cilla have been very busy as they finished up our 2007 Annual Report which was mailed out recently. It looks great! They have also begun work on an engagement with an outside firm to produce a series of short CD videos for use with marketing, sales and development. One objective is to create a video to show at our October annual Gala. Lastly, they have been working feverishly to coordinate and prepare for the upcoming Musicfest and they are beginning to gear up for a Seniorsfirst website upgrade. Welcome to the team Jim!

FYI, our legal counsel and broker have been working on developing a purchase offer for the property discussed at the last board meeting. This is a complicated document and needs to be done carefully and professionally. We expect to have something to offer the seller this week and I will keep you posted.

Additionally, we have our Senior Leadership Team meeting this week and I will be meeting with Scott and Department of Health Medicaid auditors to review their Medicaid rate audit findings. Scott and I also have a board Investment Committee meeting and Amanda and I have a Pharmacy Committee and Infection Control meeting. On Thursday, Cheryl and Jim III have a Valley Manor resident/management meeting. Should be a busy but productive week.

If you see Cheryl Smith this week, be sure to wish her a Happy Birthday on Friday. In leaving here is a nice picture taken this past weekend when my son and his family were visiting us from Raleigh, North Carolina.

Here are my 2 "kids" with their spouses and my grandsons

Summer Vacation

I had a very nice vacation at our cottage in the Adirondacks. On the way to our camp we saw a boat for sale and stopped to check it out. I loved it and we needed to replace our old one which was getting beat up, so we bought it and I had a new toy to play with all week.

The weather was really hot for the first 5 days and then we had 3 days of rain and cooler temperatures. I got in most of the things I wanted to do including some golf, kayaking, swimming and sunning. We also took a day trip to Lake Placid for lunch on the lake and shopping.

Included in our vacation week was a 60th wedding anniversary for my parents and a 3-day weekend visit by my daughter's family. There was always family around and plenty of activity to keep us busy.

I hope to get up to camp at least once more before Summer ends. We trailered the boat home so we can use it to explore the many lakes near by, but I still like boating on our camp lake the best.

So now I'm well rested and it's back to work to play catch up with all the correspondence and get back on track with all the work in progress.