Transcript Generated by AI 00:00 Hey, Mark Parkinson back with Park Place, and we're so glad that you're here. 00:04 We have another segment with Glenn Van Akron, 00:07 who is generously sharing with us the programs, 00:10 the great ideas that they implemented, Better Healthcare that's really made 00:15 Better Healthcare one of the best companies in the entire space across the 00:20 country. 00:22 And it's been terrific. 00:23 When is just, he's willing to tell us how he's done 00:25 this and how the company's done it, which has been great. 00:28 One of the things that Vetter does that I don't see in other operations is it's 00:33 free to do. 00:35 It's relatively simple, but takes a lot of discipline over time 00:39 to do it. 00:39 And it's a thing called mission moments. 00:42 And we're going to talk today about what a mission moment is. 00:45 So Glenn, welcome back. 00:46 Thank you so much for being with us. 00:48 Thank you, appreciate it. 00:50 So Glenn, before we get into a mission moment, 00:52 can you just remind us what the better mission statement is? 00:57 Absolutely. 00:58 Well, officially it, it is dignity in life. 01:01 But we have looked at it as dignity in life means we will treat every person as 01:06 the most important person in our life. 01:08 So regardless of where we are, it needs to become a lifestyle and 01:12 everything that we do. 01:15 Yeah, I'm in it. 01:16 It is remarkable. 01:17 I mean, it's just that the viewers could just let 01:19 that sink in, treating every person like the most 01:21 important person in the world. 01:24 And The thing is, it's not just a statement. 01:26 I, you know, when I visited your headquarters, 01:28 when I go into your buildings, your people are, you know, 01:31 looking me in the eye. 01:32 They're greeting me by my name. 01:33 Sometimes you have welcome committees for whether it's a vendor partner, 01:37 whether it's a resident, whether it's ACEO hack or former 01:40 politician, whatever. 01:42 It's incredible that you do this. 01:43 Now, on top of that, you know, the question that is how do you make this 01:47 real and how do you get people actually living it? 01:49 And I know that one of your strategies has been mission moments. 01:53 So tell us what a mission moment is. 01:56 Well, mission moments are simply time that we 02:00 set aside to share how we've seen the mission or vision or values being lived 02:05 through people's attitudes, their actions, their behaviors, 02:10 the specific things that they're doing daily. 02:14 And our our passion inside the organization and especially as leadership, 02:19 is to make our mission vision and values not just and align the walls. 02:24 We have a very nice picture of our founders, 02:27 Jack and Eldora on a poster with the mission vision values all listed, 02:32 which is great. 02:34 But we want the mission, vision and values to walk the halls, 02:38 not just be a poster, but be a reality in people's lives. 02:42 And so mission moments are times that we set aside to reflect on how team members 02:48 are making what we believe in with all of our heart come to life. 02:53 So very often when I'm back at your headquarters, when you start a meeting, 02:57 you start it with a mission moment. 02:59 How often does this happen? 03:01 And then tell us like kind of what a mission moment would be. 03:04 Mission moments are their daily because every meeting begins with mission moment. 03:09 So a good example is on Monday morning, our entire Home Office gathers at 9:00. 03:16 We do what we call Fresh Start and we kick off that session with all of our 03:21 mission moments and will be people who have been traveling all week in the field 03:27 and they share what they've observed going on at our facilities. 03:31 So every meeting, I think that's the important part. 03:35 I was in a facility yesterday. 03:38 They had an all staff meeting and the administrator began with, OK, folks, 03:43 what are the mission moments? 03:45 And I would say seven or eight people stood up to share things that they had 03:50 seen the way a resident was treated, the way a team member got down on his 03:55 hands and knees to better understand how a resident was feeling at the time. 04:01 They were talking about a lady with dementia and just sharing how one of the 04:06 team members was so understanding and empathetic to help her feel comfortable 04:11 in a, in an irritable moment. 04:15 I these mission moments just provide wonderful reminders of why we exist. 04:21 And again, what behaviors and attitudes and actions 04:24 are expected of all of us to display, not just when time. 04:28 You know, I always say we don't treat people as the 04:31 most important person in our life, just when they're easy to get along with 04:35 this, this is a lifestyle. 04:36 This is who we need to be. 04:38 And so to implement this, what, what would you, 04:40 what would a provider need to do? 04:42 They need to say to their C-Suite folks, every time we start a meeting, 04:45 we're going to talk about our mission and examples of it. 04:47 And then you'd also say to your building leaders the same thing. 04:51 Absolutely. 04:52 And every department meeting, every, every meeting begins with the mission 04:57 moment. 04:57 Before we get to the quote business of the day, 05:00 we need to talk about who we are and why we are even talking about the things 05:05 we're talking about today. 05:07 Because it all goes back to what we believe and what drives us to do what we 05:12 do. 05:13 So you've, we've talked about these mission moments. 05:16 We've also talked about the better world class standards where you've set 05:21 objective standards that really reflect this mission and encouraging people to 05:26 achieve those. 05:28 Let me just ask you a simple question. 05:29 Does this work? 05:30 I mean, it sounds great, but but are you getting results from this? 05:34 That's, that's a wonderful question because we 05:36 asked ourselves that for a long, long time. 05:38 Does this really matter? 05:41 And 1st I want to say that the world class standards are not separate from our 05:45 mission, vision and values. 05:47 They represent the mission, vision and values. 05:49 They represent how we would live them to the UNTH degree. 05:54 So when I look at our standards and the outcomes we have, 05:57 I would say to you absolutely it works. 05:59 100% of our facilities have won a HAHCAS Pardon Me Bronze award, 06:05 80% over time have won the silver quality award. 06:11 We have 1 gold winner, we have one who had a visit this year. 06:14 So we are not sure yet. 06:17 We are constantly ranked, Mark, as you know, 06:20 number one or at least in the top five in the nation in our five star rating last 06:27 year, our survey results company wide, according to CMS ranked second in the 06:33 nation. 06:35 We've been certified as a best place to work, 06:37 a great place to work for 9 years running since we started the process. 06:42 And I, I think another significant outcome is 06:45 that we're in the top ten in nursing and CNA turnover in the nation. 06:51 We ran 33% total turnover this year. 06:55 And it's funny, we're not happy. 06:57 We want, we want to just keep driving it down, 07:00 down, down, which we have for the past 26 years. 07:03 We've been bringing it down. 07:04 Glenn, thanks again for sharing all of this with 07:07 us. 07:07 It's not only generous of you to do so, but it's incredibly inspiring. 07:14 People can implement these, these ideas and these processes. 07:17 None of this stuff is incredibly complicated or overly expensive, 07:21 but it does require that the passion to be doing what we're doing and then the 07:26 discipline to continually have mission moments and continually talk about them 07:30 and just got to keep at it. 07:32 So this is this is exactly what this website's all about, 07:36 helping people succeed. 07:38 You're, you're, you're helping us achieve our mission. 07:41 And I'm just so grateful for the time you spent with us today. 07:43 Well, I'm honored to be a part of the process, 07:46 Mark, Thank you for asking me. 07:48 Great. 07:48 Well, thank you all for for watching this 07:50 episode of of Park Place and we look forward to future conversations with 07:55 Glenn. 07:56 Thanks, Mark.
