Turnaround Management

Background

Founded in 1895 within the Christian tradition, Lutheran Living is a 181-unit community located in Muscatine, Iowa, and is the only continuing care retirement community in the area. Lutheran Living offers age 55-plus townhomes, independent living apartments, and assisted living apartments; Alzheimer’s disease and memory loss care; and a Medicare-certified short-term transitional care center and a long-term skilled nursing health care center. Lutheran Living is a social ministry organization of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and is only one of four in the state of Iowa. The community was facing severe regulatory compliance issues, had been struggling with leadership consistency and historic financial challenges, had limited cash reserves, and the physical plant was largely obsolete. Prior to our engagement, Lutheran Living was a stand-alone, self-managed community.

Solution

Health Dimensions Group (HDG) partnered with Lutheran Living’s board of directors on several key initiatives to stabilize the community. HDG helped salvage the community from the brink of decertification, worked diligently to assist in recruiting interim and permanent placement leadership roles, and assumed responsibility for day-to-day operations of the community. Working closely with staff at Lutheran Living, HDG assisted the community in correcting deficiencies, establishing new operational norms, re-educating staff, and enhancing the overall quality of care and quality of life for the residents. HDG’s experience helped provide immediate improvements in the management of the community and promote the long-term stability and assurance of achieving Lutheran Living’s mission in providing compassionate Christian ministry and addressing the individual health care needs of its resident community. HDG has continued to provide ongoing consulting, advisory and comprehensive third-party management services for the past thirteen years.

HDG successfully helped salvage the community from the brink of decertification, eventually leading them to achieve satisfaction rates above 90% for both residents and families and earnings in excess of $2,000,000 per year.

Results

Through the provision of HDG’s third party management services, HDG has been able to work with Lutheran Living’s board of directors to stabilize and turn a dire situation into a $19M campus repositioning outcome. In conjunction with the board of directors, HDG has been able to drive several qualitative and quantitative outcomes over the past thirteen years including, but not limited to, the following: