Transcript Generated by AI 00:00 Welcome to Park Place. 00:01 I'm Mark Parkinson and we are here with the very first segment of Let's Talk. 00:07 Let's Talk is a monthly segment where we interview a complete superstar in the 00:12 sector. 00:14 The mission of Park Place is your success. 00:16 We're trying to do everything we can to help you succeed, 00:19 and there's really no better way to do that than to talk to somebody who has 00:23 succeeded and learn from them what they've done and get their advice on 00:27 maybe what we can all do. 00:28 So we're very, very excited about this segment. 00:31 The segment is brought to you by First Quality, who has terrific products, 00:35 and their support of this segment and the entire website are a big part of what 00:40 allows us to do this for free. 00:41 There is no cost to people and we want as many people as possible to hear the 00:45 really good news about people that have succeeded in the sector and how they've 00:49 done it. 00:49 Now the criteria for a superstar is you got to be completely committed to quality 00:54 and a proven track record or providing great care and you have to have done 00:59 amazing things in the sector. 01:02 And today we have somebody who absolutely meets both of those criteria. 01:06 When we were sitting around talking about who could we get for the first segment of 01:11 Let's Talk, the first name that came up was Norman 01:14 Roquege. 01:14 And people said, well, I mean, that would be great, 01:17 but Norman doesn't do interviews. 01:18 You're probably not going to be able to get Norman to do it. 01:22 So I made an appointment, went over to the offices, 01:25 begged a little bit, groveled a lot, didn't take a lot, 01:28 but Norman agreed to do it. 01:30 So Norman worked. 01:31 Super thrilled that you're here with us this afternoon. 01:33 Welcome to Park Place Afternoon. 01:35 Thank you so much. 01:36 Honored to be here. 01:37 You know, it feels like it's a pretty good time to 01:39 be Norman Rokish right now. 01:40 Every every time I turn around, you're either getting an award, 01:44 giving an award, buying buildings, being on the ACA board, kids, 01:48 getting married. 01:49 It feels like it's a pretty good time for you. 01:52 Yeah. 01:52 Yeah. 01:53 Thank, thank the one above. 01:54 It's obviously well from the one above, but I would definitely say it's not about 01:58 me. 01:58 And that'd be award that we've got them. 02:00 And the growth that we've had is really about the people who made Marquis, 02:04 what Marquis is today. 02:06 Yeah, well, that's it's great of you to be humble 02:08 like that. 02:09 And but I also know that you've had an incredible amount to do with that. 02:12 We're going to talk a little bit about the strategies that have gotten to where 02:16 you're at. 02:17 You're the founder and president of Marquee. 02:19 You're up to over 115 ish buildings and kind of in the Mid-Atlantic. 02:23 You got all these other ancillary services. 02:25 And as we talked about many, many awards and we're we want to find out 02:29 today how you did it. 02:30 And I think to to learn that we got to go back to the beginning. 02:34 It it feels like from the very beginning as a child, 02:36 you were maybe destined for this sector to tell us about that. 02:40 Sure. 02:40 Yeah. 02:40 Well, growing up as a middle child grew up with 02:44 my elderly grandparents who were both Holocaust survivors. 02:48 Mom was an only child. 02:49 And so my grandparents got into their later stage of their life in the 80s. 02:56 My parents took their single family home and converted into a two family home. 03:01 And I was a lucky 1. 03:03 And I really do feel lucky that I got to sleep with my grandparents every night 03:07 for seven years straight. 03:09 So it gave me a sense of understanding what it means to respect your elders. 03:14 And it gave me a sense of, you know, these are our family members and we have 03:18 to take care of them. 03:20 That's incredible. 03:21 So what what was the age when you started living and actually sleeping? 03:24 Yeah. 03:25 So I was, I was traveling around nine years old. 03:27 So really until I was like 16 years old, took care of, I mean, again, 03:31 every every day, came home, settled to hell to my grandparents and, 03:34 you know, did my homework and then spent the 03:37 brilliant rest of the night with my grandparents. 03:39 And unfortunately, when my grandfather passed away, 03:42 I was the first one to find there. 03:44 So really led me through that process of seeing my grandparents age in place and 03:48 unfortunately, you know, pass away as well, 03:51 but really gave me a better understanding of the responsibility that family member 03:55 has for the loved ones. 03:57 That's great. 03:58 Yeah. 03:58 And so how did you end up in, you know, sort of formal long term? 04:01 So I think that really, you know, gave me the drive as as a young child to 04:06 say when I grow up, I, I don't be a fireman or policeman or a 04:09 lawyer or doctor or an accountant like, you know, most Jewish folks. 04:14 I said, I want to take care of older people. 04:16 And you know, mom was a real estate agent, Dad worked for the City of New York Board 04:20 of Education. 04:21 And I had a relative who was in the industry. 04:25 He was an administrator running a couple of his family members facilities. 04:30 And they said, what do I need to do to become the 04:33 miniature? 04:33 And you know, he gave me some great advice and I got 04:37 the first opportunity as AIT to work for a mid sized company at that point. 04:42 It's back in 1999 and got, you know, an opportunity to really see first hand 04:48 what nursing homes were like. 04:51 I mean, I'm told that I had no idea. 04:53 And again, I knew I wanted to take care of people. 04:55 I didn't know what it means. 04:56 And, you know, industry setting and nursing home just 04:59 let me have no idea what the difference was. 05:02 That's great. 05:02 So you how how long were you What, what building was that and how long were 05:06 you there? 05:07 Yeah. 05:07 So I started in 1999 as an AIT, worked for a year. 05:12 Instantly enough, the first six months of that facility 05:17 that I worked at, we actually closed that facility. 05:23 So it was struggling and they couldn't keep up with the census and had staffing 05:28 issues. 05:28 And so I spent my first six months closing that facility waiting to come 05:33 into the industry and finished my AIT at another facility and then got my first 05:38 opportunity to become an administrator. 05:41 And interestingly enough, you know, I, I, I don't want to discredit, but you know, 05:47 I from my preceptor to perhaps the ownership level, 05:50 didn't get the best training, but hands on learning experience as an 05:55 actual administrator was so different. 05:58 So got my first job as an administrator, traveled close to two hours each way, 06:04 every day, each way, every day. 06:08 And literally hands on experience, like really understanding, you know, 06:12 the business and the standing systems and process and all that. 06:15 And then got an opportunity two years later to take over facility 5 minutes 06:22 from my house. 06:23 So that was, that was jumped at it. 06:27 And that was, that's the facility you were at for like 06:29 almost 10 years, close to 8 years, close to 8 years. 06:32 Yeah, it was a facility that I took over before 06:34 I took that over. 06:35 It was I asked a very close friend of mine who was working in that same town. 06:40 I said, what do you know about this facility? 06:41 He says stay away with a 10 foot pole. 06:45 I said why? 06:45 He says, well, they're the largest facility in this area. 06:49 They're down by over 100 beds. 06:52 Unionized facility, one of the worst reputations in in the 06:56 community. 06:57 And you'll never turn that place around. 06:59 You'll never turn the place around. 07:00 That's the in rate inmates running the asylum. 07:02 And so don't take it, travel two hours, don't take it. 07:06 And against his advice, I decided to take the facility. 07:11 And it was as bad as they said it was. 07:15 Let me tell you that much. 07:16 It was definitely as bad as well. 07:17 Describe, tell what was it like when you went in 07:19 there? 07:21 Well, let's take, let's put it this way. 07:23 The administrator was afraid to get out of his office. 07:26 OK. 07:27 And and so you had some ******** unionized staff who really called the 07:33 shots in that facility. 07:35 And I think I remember one of the first months being in the facility, I, 07:41 I walked into the facility on a Sunday night and I passed by one of the day 07:47 rooms, you know, in the facility. 07:50 And I see two CN as just watching TV, cold balls going go off and all that. 07:54 And I said, OK, I got AI got a man up here. 07:58 Do I do I call him out on this? 08:00 And these were 2 male or leads, you know, big guys. 08:03 Do they call them out on this or they'll just pass by and make believe they didn't 08:07 see that? 08:07 And I said, this is where, you know, I show what the miniature is about. 08:11 And I said James and I forgot the other guy. 08:13 Do know the guy's name, James. 08:14 You know, if Coba's going off, why are you watching TV? 08:17 And they look at me like this is the first administrator that ever said 08:20 something about it. 08:21 So I think setting the tone from the get go, that is a new sheriff in town, 08:25 setting the tone from the get go that it's about patient experience, 08:29 I think is what was the beginning of turning the bullet around. 08:32 And you know, 7 1/2 years later, when I left the facility to take on my 08:37 role as a regional, the building was 242 out of 242 with a 08:41 waiting list. 08:42 Wow. 08:43 And when you, when you walked in, what was the sense of one 38138 out of 08:49 242? 08:49 And I, I, I will never forget. 08:52 I, one of my closest friends in the industry 08:55 to today, you know, called 20 plus years later, 08:58 was a six foot 2 Irish Catholic surveyor from the New Jersey Health Department and 09:04 my first year as administrator and she was a lead surveyor. 09:09 She comes into the facility and she meets me without even saying hello. 09:13 She says, you see this pen, Norman? 09:16 I said yes. 09:17 She says, I have the power to destroy your career. 09:21 I was like, welcome to New Jersey. 09:25 And she says, listen, if you want to be successful here, 09:29 work with me, collaborate with us, be honest with us. 09:32 We'll do it together. 09:34 We'll fix this place around. 09:35 We'll make it happen. 09:36 And to this day, you know, we she would actually make my kids come 09:39 in every year during the last day of survey. 09:42 Say hello to them. 09:43 We would correspond and communicate throughout the year. 09:46 And she's retired at least 10 years and we still speak, you know, 09:49 the holiday season and all that. 09:52 You know, I think, I suspect we have a lot of administrators 09:54 that are watching this or will watch this. 09:56 And what, what's your, how did you turn the building around? 10:00 What, what did you do to, to make it so much more? 10:03 I, I think it's all about leadership. 10:06 I think it's all about heart. 10:08 I think it's all about showing your staff that you care as much about them as you 10:12 care about your patients and their families. 10:15 I think it's about getting the buy in from your staff, 10:19 have them drink the kool-aid into why good facility matters to them. 10:24 You know, the better the cure, the better the experience, 10:27 the better the culture, the better the outcomes, 10:30 the better the census, the better the ability to be able to give 10:33 back to the your employees. 10:35 You know, we the employees are there, yes, for a paycheck, absolutely. 10:39 And you know, many of these employees are single moms, 10:43 you know, or working 2 jobs and again, back in those days making $9 an hour, 10:50 $8 an hour. 10:51 Obviously that has changed the last 25 years. 10:54 But you know, when they understand how important the 10:57 whole domino effect is and how, what it means to them for their quality 11:02 life, for their paycheck and all that, I think that's the world of difference. 11:07 And I think getting them to see that, you know what, 11:10 we can collaborate together, we can make this a better culture for 11:15 them. 11:16 Having a better work experience and having a better patient experience, again, 11:20 took time. 11:21 Building leadership around me, hiring smart people, 11:24 hiring experienced people. 11:27 I think that's what really changed that facility. 11:29 What, what, what did you do so that the employees 11:32 knew that you had those beliefs and that passion for them? 11:36 Well, I think, I think, I think from the get go, 11:39 being on the floor is, is, is is one-on-one. 11:42 Being on the floor is being a presence knowing every employee's name, 11:46 knowing their kids names, knowing that you're there for them. 11:50 I think that's that's the one-on-one. 11:51 I mean, the, the, the folks who, you know, sit in their offices and don't make 11:56 themselves available for the staff. 11:58 Yeah, you could say you have an open door 12:00 policy, but being a presence on the units not 12:02 once a day. 12:02 I mean, I literally would go morning. 12:06 I, I, I remember the sage advice that I got 12:09 after I got my license. 12:10 I'd done AIT for a year and I asked one of my regional clinicians at that point 12:15 and I said, my name is Toya Summers. 12:17 I said, Toya, I want to be the best administrator out 12:20 there. 12:20 Give me some advice. 12:21 She says, Norman, when you get in your building and you 12:25 know whatever time your morning meeting is and whatever building you're ever 12:31 going to run as administrator, your morning meeting's at 9:00. 12:35 You be in your building an hour beforehand. 12:37 You get into your building, you drop your bag in your office and you 12:41 walk the floors, say good morning to your staff, 12:43 walk into the kitchen, hit the floors, read the 24 hour port. 12:46 This is before PCC days. 12:48 So you had the 24 hour port inner station reading and all that and know what's 12:51 going on in your building, walk into the shower rooms, 12:54 walk into the laundry room during that one hour. 12:57 So by the time you get to your morning meeting, 12:59 you're asking the right questions, you're holding people accountable. 13:01 You're getting to your from the nursing department to your EVs department, 13:05 to the director department said this way, I notice I'm running around. 13:08 So if we're not ready, you know, for, you know, visitors to walk in, 13:12 be it potential customers, be it health inspectors, 13:15 be what it may be, keep them, keep them on their toes. 13:18 And I think that's that's one O 1. 13:20 I think secondly, I mean, the families are a big part, 13:23 have always been a part, will always be a big part of success. 13:26 So, you know, yes, you can say you can call me and all that, 13:30 but being there for the patients families, being a presence for the patients 13:35 families, give them yourself on every single family. 13:39 I would give my card with my cell phone. 13:41 I always say 24 six, but you know, I'm available, you can call me. 13:45 And they didn't. 13:45 And I never looked at as much as there may have been complaints and all that as 13:50 Oh my gosh, these people are pains. 13:52 Like you know what, it's always that this is someone's family 13:54 member. 13:55 And if this is my family member, I'd be doing the same. 13:57 So I think that showed the staff that you know what, 14:01 we take customer experience and patient experience very seriously. 14:06 That's true. 14:07 I mean, that's great advice. 14:09 I talked to Barry Monk and Barry's told me he was an AIT for you. 14:13 He told me that you not only were grounded in the morning, 14:16 you were out on the floor almost whole day. 14:18 Yeah, yeah, I, I would not leave. 14:21 You know, again, specifically this facility that was out 14:23 for close to 8 years. 14:24 I would get in there by like I said, 8:00 the latest, 14:27 usually anywhere between 7:30 and 8:00, but and I wouldn't leave till usually at 14:32 7:00 at night, but I would not leave before I did it 14:35 rounds on all four units again and not like that, but I would every night. 14:40 And I just, I was in Salisbury, MD yesterday in one of my buildings. 14:44 I was talking to the 311 supervisor there. 14:46 I was telling her that back in the day, young administrator, 14:50 I would call my supervisor, 311 supervisor every single night at 14:54 10:30. 14:54 We would go over staffing, we would go over rehospitalizations, 14:58 we would go over any incidents or accidents and just he knew that he'd 15:02 expect to call at 10:30 and he would have to give me a full report. 15:06 So he was ready for that report and it helped him. 15:09 And the same every morning I woke up at 5:00, 15:12 I called MY117 supervisor every morning at 5:30. 15:15 Lufko and Lorna Rosalvo, this is 20 plus years ago, 15:18 but two Filipino women call him every morning and say what's going on house 15:22 staffing for the day and he call outs, what are we working on and all that. 15:26 So I think knowing every patient, every metric and, and literally I, I, 15:32 like I said 242 when I left, I literally knew every patient, 15:36 what room them, they were, they were bed A or bed B. 15:40 That's how crazy it was. 15:42 Well, it's not surprising that you had a 15:44 waiting list for, for residents and how fortunate they were 15:46 to have you as the administrator there. 15:49 One of the things that we talked about is that you didn't own that building, 15:52 but you felt like you were an owner, You acted like an owner. 15:56 Describe that. 15:57 And and what advice would you have to administrators that are in buildings 16:00 where they don't feel a sense of ownershi? 16:02 How do how do you get that sounds too sure. 16:05 Well, you know, I always know I always knew that I wanted 16:08 to grow in this business. 16:10 You know, did I ever imagined that I one day own 16:13 115 buildings and some ancillaries never mentioned that. 16:16 But I always knew that I wanted to this is my career and I wanted to make it my 16:20 life's mission. 16:21 And, you know, to that point, my daughter's doing AIT, you know, 16:25 next generation, you know, my kids are, you know, somewhat in the business, right? 16:29 And so I know that if, and my mother always told me you do 16:34 something, you do it 100%, don't do it 80%, don't do 90%, do 100%. 16:39 And I knew if I really wanted to go places that I would have to give my 100%. 16:44 And I remember my first boss back to my AIT days, 16:47 once told me you'll never know what it means 'cause this is my building and my 16:53 money. 16:54 And I was like thought about that long and hard. 16:57 And I, you know, I said to myself after a couple weeks, 17:00 think about that. 17:01 I said, I'm going to treat it like it's my money. 17:03 I'm going to treat it like it's my building. 17:05 I'm going to treat it like I own this and own every aspect of it. 17:09 And I think when you feel like you own it, even if it's not on paper, even if it's, 17:14 you know, not your P&L per SE, but you treat it like it's yours, 17:18 it's a game changer. 17:19 That's great. 17:20 That's great advice to administrators that that want to eventually own. 17:24 So how, how did you make that transition? 17:26 How did, how did you end up sure getting into 17:28 ownership? 17:29 So you know, after I left that facility that I ran for 17:32 7 1/2 years, I got enough to to become a regional 17:35 administrator in a couple of facilities, which which gave me experience to be able 17:39 to run multi site facilities. 17:42 And at that point, literally at that point where I just took 17:46 this position with this company being regional, 17:49 my current partners had reached out to me and said, hey, 17:52 we're getting back into the business. 17:54 So my current three partners who've been my partners for the last close to 15 17:59 years are folks who I know for listen to my high school days. 18:03 We go back literally a very long time. 18:05 And the one of my partner's family has been in the industry for three 18:08 generations. 18:09 True story. 18:10 His grandmother, also a Holocaust survivor, 18:13 came over to the United States after the Holocaust and her first job was in 18:18 Chicago as a clock in a nursing home. 18:23 She became the business office manager, eventually became the administrator of 18:27 that facility and then she ended up buying that facility and started the 18:31 family business. 18:31 So my partner's mom grew the the family business on multiple facilities out in 18:38 Chicago. 18:38 And so my partner and my other two partners were more than the commercial 18:42 real estate, the multi family and say, hey, listen, 18:46 we want to get back into the long term care industry. 18:49 Family's in this little time and I said, OK, what do you got? 18:52 And I said, well we don't have anything yet. 18:54 I said OK, call me when you have something available. 18:57 And you know, this really was perfect time because it 19:00 gave me the ability to get my hands on experience running multi facility sites. 19:05 And then they came back to me literally a year later and said, OK, 19:08 we got our first building. 19:10 Mom's owned this since 1993. 19:12 She lives in Chicago, you know, Billy's in Boston. 19:16 She can't run anymore. 19:17 So she's giving it over to us. 19:18 Let's start with that. 19:19 And it was a decision, you know, do I, you know, 19:21 take that leap of faith that this is going to be a company that's going to 19:26 grow, will be successful versus staying with a 19:28 company that has a proven track record that, you know, has great ownership, 19:32 that's committed and all that. 19:34 And I'm taking some some great advice from people who I believe in. 19:40 I took a leap of faith and we started this company with one facility in 19:44 Rockville, Massachusetts. 19:46 How, how have you grown it to 115? 19:48 And it feels like it's going to be more than that in the future. 19:51 How have you done that? 19:53 How have I grown? 19:54 Obviously with the grace of the one above, first and foremost. 19:57 But really it's it's been about scaling with the right people. 20:02 Really, I mean from from the very get go, knowing that we have to have good people 20:08 at leadership level. 20:09 And so you mentioned Barry Monk, Barry Monk's you know, I was a preceptor. 20:13 You know, I don't want to say I told him every, 20:15 you know, because he by far has outpaced me in his 20:18 knowledge. 20:19 But you know, he was my first administrator in the 20:21 building. 20:21 My actually my second ministrator because we had the building in Boston and bought 20:25 a facility in Philadelphia and Barry was a administrator. 20:28 Then as we grew, he became the, you know, regional and then VP and all that. 20:32 And same with my financial team at back office. 20:34 You know, my we used to outsource that years ago 20:37 when we first started because again, I had three buildings. 20:41 I had a building in Philadelphia and Boston and Chicago and I was running all 20:44 over the place and didn't make sense for us to have a back office. 20:47 So we outsourced it to one of the local companies. 20:50 Great company. 20:52 But then we decided, hey, you know what, as we're growing, 20:55 let's build an infrastructure. 20:57 So we built a new structure. 20:58 We started with our back office, we hardened in conference billing team 21:01 and all that and the same an operational perspective. 21:04 We bought, you know, hired operators and clinicians and sales 21:07 folks and all that. 21:08 And you know, you talk about the scalability we've had 21:11 over the last close to 15 years. 21:13 I would say probably 80% of my leadership has been with us 9 plus years, you know, 21:20 so 9 over the 5th. 21:21 You know, we're been around since beginning end of 21:25 2010. 21:26 So you know, that says a lot. 21:27 I have people been with us literally since day one. 21:31 We, you know, unfortunately we've seen a lot of very 21:33 large companies fail. 21:35 And that's been happening now for the last 20 years, 25 years almost. 21:40 As you get bigger, how do you maintain the quality that I 21:44 know you require for your standards? 21:46 How how do you keep that going? 21:47 Yeah, so I'll, I'll preface by saying we're not perfect. 21:51 And, and we're, you know, we're far from perfect. 21:53 And it's, it's you know, there's the regulatory side of things, 21:57 but then there's a reality side of things. 22:00 And you always want to give the best care to your patients and you always want to 22:04 understand that this is someone's family, someone's fat, someone's father, mother, 22:09 brother, sister, son or daughter, right? 22:11 So if you're not in there for the right reason, 22:15 then I really don't want you to work here. 22:17 And I, I, when I used to do orientation for my 22:21 staff back in the day when I was administrator, I, 22:24 I would go and I would tell them, this is not the food industry. 22:29 This is not McDonald's or Starbucks. 22:31 This is not the education industry. 22:33 This is not the finance industry. 22:35 This is human beings that we're taking care of. 22:38 This is lives. 22:39 This is someone's family member and understanding that is paramount to any 22:45 success. 22:46 And they think, you know, I've grown up in the industry over the 22:51 last 25 years watching these companies. 22:54 I, I came in at the height of these 22:56 companies growth. 22:57 And always I, I, I in the beginning when we started 23:00 marquee back in, you know, end of 2011 and 2011, 23:04 I used to say to my folks, they may be bigger, 23:07 but they may not be better than us, right? 23:11 And I've recruited over the years a lot of folks from those larger companies who 23:15 are now practically non existent. 23:17 I think the fact when you grow too big and you lose sight of why we're doing 23:23 what we're doing, that's when things begin to crumble. 23:27 And I get asked a lot of times, you know, from either the banks that we work with 23:32 or you know, even the regulatory folks, you know, 23:35 when we go from new application or whoever may be, you know, wanting a stop, 23:39 you know, your acquisitions and all that. 23:42 I always say when I lose focus of why 25 years ago I went into this industry and 23:47 if that doesn't matter to me anymore, that's when I stop buying and we're not 23:53 there yet. 23:54 But but you know, walking to the building, I'll tell you, 23:58 I always say I'm an administrator. 24:00 I wear my Yamaka administrator first, my owner is Yamaka second. 24:04 And I love being my buildings. 24:07 I would say probably my buildings three out of the five days a week. 24:12 Obviously depends on the, the month and you know, 24:14 what have going on, but the meat and potatoes is where the, 24:18 it's in the buildings. 24:19 You know, it's, it's, it's, it's seeing what's going on. 24:22 It's seeing the vibe and feeling that vibe and, 24:25 and seeing the patient staff interaction and, and being able to address it. 24:30 I was like I said, I was in the facility yesterday and in 24:34 Salisbury, MD. 24:35 There was a couple flies, actually, But you know, 24:38 I picked up on some things that, you know what, 24:40 my 3 1/2 hour drive back home yesterday I felt the need to address with my operas 24:45 and say, hey, this is something I observed and let's 24:49 look into it. 24:49 And based on the data that we had, we one thing went to another and by this 24:54 morning, 7:00, we already have a action plan of how we 24:57 fix that. 24:58 Yeah. 24:59 So, you know, all, even though you're over 100 buildings, 25:01 you know, all your administrators. 25:03 Yeah. 25:04 And describe your this, we're shooting this on a Thursday morning. 25:07 Describe what you've done your your week, the first three days of this week. 25:11 Yeah. 25:11 So I think it's instructive for folks to understand how you've been able to hold 25:15 us together. 25:16 Yeah. 25:16 So Monday I did KPIs, which we do monthly KPIs with all of our 25:21 facilities. 25:22 And obviously, you know, the way we're structured, 25:26 we have two different divisions and we have, you know, 25:29 vision presidents and VPS and regionals and 100 buildings. 25:34 I like to split the 100 buildings with with Barry, 25:38 who's our CEO and Mindy's our CFO. 25:40 We'd like to be on at least 30 plus of the facilities KPI. 25:45 So I spent Monday traveling down to DC in the car doing KP is finished, 25:53 KP is Tuesday morning. 25:56 I headed out early in the morning, went down to Richmond, 26:00 visit four of our facilities for our very busy facilities. 26:05 Came back to DC Tuesday night and Wednesday morning back out early, 26:09 went to four additional water facilities and got back late last night doing sales 26:14 reviews. 26:15 I did sales reviews. 26:16 I was on a phone call with an attorney and my operator is at 7:30 this morning, 26:20 8:00 started sales reviews, came in to say hello to you and going 26:24 back to the office, continue my sales reviews and have 26:27 conference calls until probably 12:00 AM tonight. 26:30 That's correct. 26:31 You're certainly hands on and it's obvious, 26:33 you know how you've been able to to make this work even though you've gotten quite 26:37 large, you've recently rebranded with some of 26:39 your values. 26:40 Do you want to tell us a little bit about that? 26:41 Yeah, so we have over the past, you know what we've noticed is what got 26:46 us to where we are today won't get us to where we need to be tomorrow, right. 26:51 And so over the years, again, you think about post acute, right? 26:57 So back in 2014, we bought a facility in Easton, PA. 27:04 We bought it from a very large company that this was their only facility in 27:08 Pennsylvania. 27:09 Literally true story. 27:11 The day we took over, March 1st of 2014, I remember most of our positions, 27:17 they literally gave us the keys and they ran like hell. 27:21 You know, they said good luck. 27:23 You know, funny part about this, this is right across the street, 27:27 literally right across street, a very large hospital and they just 27:30 couldn't figure it out. 27:32 A nice location. 27:33 They couldn't figure out this is in the Lehigh Valley and and couldn't figure out. 27:36 And so I met with the CEO of the hospital and, you know, I asked him, I said, 27:45 listen, I want to earn your trust. 27:49 I know this facility is a troubled facility. 27:51 I want to earn your business. 27:53 Tell me what I got to do. 27:54 And he tells me, he says, Norman, listen to here three things, 27:59 terrible reputation, the building's outdated and you have 28:02 nothing of value to add to me. 28:05 So when you do those three, you come back and literally a year later, 28:09 we had renovated the facility. 28:12 At that point, I think we put them $2,000, 000 in the facility. 28:14 We had hired new leadership at the facility, 28:17 brought obviously our mojo in the facility and we developed specialty 28:22 programs. 28:23 That was literally the I think first facility that we had that we developed 28:28 specialty program. 28:29 The specialty programs for us was what's our value add? 28:32 The CE OS name was Bryan Fairstein. 28:34 He's still running a hospital, not that hospital, 28:37 a different hospital and what's that value add that you're offering that 28:40 hospital versus any other operator in the market? 28:43 And we said what's the pain point? 28:45 You know, we did our research behind his back and, 28:48 you know, what is the hospital's pain points, 28:51 What can we do that no other provider is offering and what can we do that's going 28:56 to be a service to the hospital and the community. 28:59 And so we started with something called the pulmonary rehab program. 29:02 I recruited the lead pulmonologist at the hospital with the lead respiratory 29:07 therapist at the hospital, recruited them to come to us. 29:10 Pulmonologists still stayed on at the hospital, but you know, 29:12 came to us twice a week. 29:13 The respiratory therapist came out full time. 29:15 We started this pulmonary rehab program. 29:17 And that was the birth of our specialty programs and across all our 100 plus 29:22 facilities, every single one of our facilities has 29:24 some type of specialty program, cardiac rehab, polling, 29:27 reactive stroke recovery we have and those are for our post cute for a long 29:32 term memory care programs and all that. 29:34 And so from 2014 on, we've built our model focusing not only 29:39 obviously on the long term care sector, but all heavy focus on the post acute 29:45 sector, obviously skill mix and all that. 29:49 You know, three years ago or so, you know, we, we really at that point, 29:54 I think we were at maybe 60 plus facilities and we looked at ourselves in 29:59 the mirror and say growth is nice, it's great, but who are we, right? 30:03 You know, it's, is it about the buildings or is it about 30:07 the people, right? 30:08 Is it what it's really about? 30:10 And is it purely about our specialty programs that defines who we are? 30:15 And one of our, you know, we do monthly VP meetings, 30:18 which we have all our pop leadership come together and one of our VP meetings we, 30:24 we ask ourselves what, what are our values? 30:27 And we spent the next six months developing our core values and through a 30:32 lot of things at the wall and some stuck, others didn't, 30:36 but we came out with our core values, which was passion, excellence and respect. 30:42 And that's applicable to your patients and their families and equally as much to 30:47 your employees. 30:48 And core values, you know, was something that was so important for 30:53 us to have that taught and given over to our staff, not only our leadership, 30:58 but our line staff because that the backbone of your success, you know, 31:03 the backbone of your success is not only having a good administrator and director 31:08 of nursing, but having Cnas and housekeepers and 31:12 activity aids and dietary staff that believe in what you're doing and drinking 31:17 your kool-aid. 31:18 And we did a lot of education on why we do. 31:23 Every facility had a mission statement and you could have different buildings 31:26 that had different mission statements. 31:28 And a year ago, we rebranded not only in our logos, 31:33 you know, which obviously took a lot of time to 31:37 come up with the right logos and all that, but more importantly, 31:42 we rebranded with our care new model, which was and is all about defining the 31:49 experience and not just your typical nursing home experience. 31:54 We went to above and Beyond. 31:58 That's fantastic. 31:59 It's been an incredible discussion. 32:01 Like the time has flown by. 32:03 Just have time for one last question, which is had. 32:05 Where do you see the future HUD? 32:06 Are are you an optimist? 32:07 Are you worried what what's your general view of where the sector is headed? 32:11 I'm, I'm bipolar because I'm, I'm both optimistic and pessimistic and 32:15 you got to be I believe, right? 32:17 So, so I'm pessimistic knowing that, you know, listen, 32:21 reimbursement's always going to be up in the air. 32:24 Are we getting enough Medicaid dollars? 32:27 Is the federal government going to be able to continue to support? 32:29 Is Social Security going to bust? 32:32 No, you know, definitely reason to be cautious, right? 32:38 But I'm optimistic because I think as we all know, the baby boomers, Sahara, my, 32:43 my parents are 78 and 79 and you know, they've already been patients in my 32:48 facility. 32:49 I'm optimistic because I think as you mentioned earlier, you know, 32:54 the large behemoth companies are practically nonexistent. 32:58 There's still a handful that are, that those that are around are actually 33:02 great folks. 33:03 And I, I respect them and I, I know most of them and really great 33:06 people. 33:07 But I think it's an opportunity for young owners and operators to really have a 33:14 place in the industry by branding themselves and what are they going to do 33:21 in the next 10 years? 33:23 What are they, how are they going to define themselves 33:25 and brand themselves in what they do. 33:27 And I think between the baby boomers and the value based systems that the 33:32 hospital's looking for, be it length of stays and re 33:35 hospitalizations and episodic cost and transitions or be it specialty programs, 33:41 I think those are going to be opportunities that for the next quote, 33:45 10 years are are for the operators who have the heart, who have the clarity. 33:51 I think it's it's going to be great times. 33:53 Well, Norman, what a great way to end it. 33:54 And thank you so much for being our first guest on Let's talk and thanks to to you 33:59 for watching. 34:00 Thanks again to first quality for making this possible. 34:03 I don't think we could have had a better first session of Let's talk and I can't 34:07 wait until next month with our next guest in. 34:10 In the meantime, thank you very much for your support of 34:13 Park Place. 34:15 Oh my God, if you're still watching this, this means that you watch the end of a 34:19 very long video on Park Place. 34:22 I'm not sure what that means. 34:23 It says something about you or maybe there was just nothing else to watch 34:27 today or maybe your priorities are a little bit off. 34:29 But whatever it is, we really appreciate your support. 34:32 And if you want to continue to follow us, follow us on LinkedIn, 34:36 on our various social 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