ALFA recognizes Emeritus Senior Living with 2010 Best of the Best Award

The Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA) has awarded Emeritus Senior Living (NYSE: ESC), headquartered in Seattle, Washington, its prestigious 2010 Best of the Best Award, a national recognition reserved for the nation's most innovative and effective business practices in the senior living industry. 2010 winners will be profiled in the May/June issue of ALFA's flagship magazine, Assisted Living Executive.

“We are very pleased to be recognized by ALFA for these three programs, and in particular are very proud of the recognition we received for our Home Visits program”

"These innovations recognize companies that have put their imaginations to work to continually improve and streamline operations, enhance resident care and services, train and retain quality employees, and much more," says ALFA President and CEO Richard P. Grimes. "Plus, the industry-wide benefit of the Best of the Best Awards is the program's ability to multiply excellence as these and other companies in senior living adopt these best practices as their own."

Emeritus Senior Living was recognized for three separate innovation programs, each of which will be recognized within Assisted Living Executive magazine and during the Awards Program at the 2010 ALFA Conference & Expo:

• Emeritus' Home Visit Program is a complimentary service to connect seniors in the local communities where Emeritus operates with the vital health, social, and support services they need to maintain their quality of life at home. Born out of Emeritus' philosophy of social responsibility, the Home Visit Program entails sending a range of employees, including care aides, marketers, housekeepers, and maintenance employees, to homes of at-risk seniors to check on their safety and welfare. "We know the program enhances our exposure in the local community," says Jayne Sallerson, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, "but the bottom line is there are so many resources out there and a lot of families don't know how to access them. We're the people that help educate the families."
• Emeritus' Northeast Division Dining Contest challenged the division's 60 communities to earn points for completing a series of tasks designed to enhance the fine dining experience for residents. Points could be earned for demonstrating quality dining services, improving employee education and recognition, getting resident feedback, and collaborating with activity and memory care departments on creative, resident-centered food-related activities. In all, more than 1,000 employees received training at 165 in-services; about 90 percent of the dining departments collaborated with other departments on food-based activities; 70 percent of communities made a visible improvement in the dining environment; and 30 communities used food as a "hook" to draw media attention to their community. Three winning teams won cash to buy something for their dining program.
• Emeritus' "E&Me" intranet is a new employee website designed to achieve greater consistency in communication and systems among its 316 communities in the wake of the Emeritus-Summerville merger. E&Me includes many impressive features: it puts a face on each department, allowing senior management to connect with communities; allows two-way communication for news and announcements; and provides instant access to all manuals and documentation. The site was developed in-house to be extremely user-friendly, particularly for community-based users. So far, website traffic is up 50 percent compared to the old system.

"We are very pleased to be recognized by ALFA for these three programs, and in particular are very proud of the recognition we received for our Home Visits program," commented Granger Cobb, President and Co-CEO of Emeritus Senior Living. "Our Home Visits program allows us to put our qualified resources to use by reaching out to help seniors and their families in our local communities. I am very proud that so many of our locations have adopted this program and are making a difference in their communities."

For details about each winning strategy, see the cover story of Assisted Living Executive's May/June 2010 issue. The ALFA 2010 Best of the Best Award winners will also be recognized at the ALFA 2010 Conference & Expo, May 25-27, in Phoenix.

Additionally, Emeritus team members will be sharing their expertise at the ALFA Conference. Jayne Sallerson, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, will be participating in a forum titled, Shaping the Future, a discussion on what 2013 will look like for the assisted living industry. Chris Hyatt, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Emeritus, will be speaking as part of a panel titled, Emerging From the Recession, where he will share lessons learned from the economic downturn.