New year, new realities, and repositioning for long-term success
Dear Friend,
From vision …
As a valued member of our community, you are probably familiar with our vision statement that came about through our strategic visioning process of a few years ago. That statement describes our intent: “To become a regional resource as an integral part of a continuum of care throughout the Bay Area that provides senior adults with a variety of life-enriching programs and services that are accessible, promote individual dignity, encourage independence, connect them to their community and reflect the social, cultural and spiritual values of Jewish tradition.”
… to reality
Jewish Senior Living Group (JSLG) is the separate entity that the Jewish Home of San Francisco’s trustees launched that is entrusted directly to bring our vision to reality. In essence, the Jewish Home spun off “a parent” (i.e., JSLG) that will provide management and “back-of-the-house” services to the Jewish Home of San Francisco, Jewish Home & Senior Living Foundation, Moldaw Family Residences, and other future operating entities. Additionally, JSLG will guide our community to determine how we can best serve a broader range of Bay Area elderly. It will serve as the development arm to foster and grow a network that will address the changing and wider scope of older adults’ care, service needs and interests.
Key initiatives
Central to strategic visioning is change, not constancy. So how do we take our vision – to become a truly, nationally recognized network of senior living programs and facilities – and make it concrete? What do we need to change or re-evaluate? Allow me to share a few of our key initiatives for the new year:
Site master plan
Involving as it does bricks and mortar, it does not get more concrete than the Jewish Home’s site master plan. By realigning our existing Silver Avenue campus and, where necessary, replacing or refurbishing the aging elements of our infrastructure, we will be able to meet the changing needs of older adults we serve and respond to trends in senior living. Our goal is to have the Jewish Home’s national reputation for quality and innovation become synchronous with modern centers of excellence that fit community needs and that will support our long-term financial viability.
This mention of our site master plan segues into our two current campaigns, one to renovate our rehabilitation center, the other to expand our research center.
Rehabilitation center campaign
Rehabilitation therapy is a major element of the Home’s core program – for both our long-term care residents and for our short-term care patients, who come to the Home to recover from a severe illness, surgery or other form of hospitalization, and then return to their own home. The rehabilitation program is an important part of our vision for the future. Increasing the size of the center by 3,500 square feet and providing state-of-the-art equipment suitable for our current and future needs comes at a cost of $2.5 million. With thanks to the commitment and support of our community – a $1 million challenge grant from the Koret Foundation, a gift of $400,000 from the Jewish Community Endowment Fund, and a grant of $100,000 from the Mount Zion Health Fund – we look forward to offering our rehabilitation program in an expanded, up-to-date facility that reflects the level of excellence
that has become the Home’s hallmark.
Campaign for Research on Aging
The Home’s Campaign for Research on Aging
responds to the future challenges of our older adults’ changing healthcare needs. Combining our unique clinical and research expertise with that of the University of California, San Francisco, we aim to have a world-class research center, including examination rooms and laboratory services, from which we will develop and coordinate a clinical research agenda devoted to diseases and conditions associated with very old age. Funds raised will also be used to endow the Harris Fishbon professorship (in partnership with UCSF), which will be dedicated to exploring new and improved therapies for aging adults, and endowing positions for visiting scholars and graduate students in geriatric medicine, thus ensuring the next generation of geriatric healthcare providers. To date, we have raised $2 million of this $5 million campaign.
Reformed healthcare environment requires repositioning
What we are doing – both strategically and concretely – is designed to reposition ourselves to be relevant and successful as America’s healthcare system undergoes an overhaul.
With tens of millions of Americans now guaranteed access to medical insurance through the Affordable Care Act, new, fully integrated and coordinated models of care will evolve, such as home and community-based services. To this end, we will continue to explore collaborations with organizations whose missions are similar to that of the Jewish Home’s, with the aim of extending the breadth of care, programs, and services so as to better serve constituent members.
Healthcare consumers and payers will expect greater value; in other words, reduced costs while maintaining or improving patient outcomes. To ensure our future success, we will find ourselves working with Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) – defined as a group of healthcare providers that work together to manage and coordinate care for a distinct population that shares in any savings achieved by reducing the total cost of care while maintaining or improving patient outcomes.
As the healthcare provider environment becomes increasingly competitive, our flexibility and ability to implement change efficiently will be called into action, so that we may be well-positioned to negotiate for adequate reimbursement under new payment models. Reimbursement will be based upon achieving certain quality benchmarks, reached not only by fulfilling regulatory reporting and performance metrics, but also by taking into account patient satisfaction and nursing home ratings.
The time for working in silos is rapidly ending. Collaboration between healthcare providers, collaboration within facilities themselves, and a trained, educated staff that is adept in the use of electronic medical and health records will, in turn, facilitate collaboration with ACOs.
To put it succinctly: The model for continued relevancy and future growth in the reformed healthcare environment is being able to provide the right service, at the right time, in the right setting, at reduced costs, and with enhanced patient/consumer satisfaction. This is our challenge. We are repositioning ourselves so that we will be poised to turn this challenge into an opportunity for long-term success.
Daniel Ruth
President & Chief Executive Officer
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