Transcript Generated by AI 00:02 Hey, Mark Parkinson back with Park Place and 00:04 super excited today because we have our next Let's Talk segment. 00:08 Want to first of all, thank First Quality for sponsoring Let's 00:12 Talk and allowing us to run these videos and put everything up on the website 00:16 without people having to join and pay money and pop up ads and all of that. 00:20 Thank you very much to Sima and the great people at First Quality for supporting 00:24 this effort. 00:25 Why am I excited? 00:26 I'm excited because we're here to talk about the Vetter organization. 00:30 And there's probably some of you that don't know about the Vetter organization 00:35 because it's pretty much exclusively in Nebraska, 00:38 but the Vetter organization is one of the very best, 00:42 if not the best nursing home organizations and providers in the 00:46 country. 00:47 That is not hyperbole. 00:49 It is based on actual outcomes. 00:51 I've known about Vetter for a long time because Stacy and I owned and operated 00:55 our buildings in Kansas and Missouri, and Jack Vetter became a mentor and 00:59 certainly an inspiration for us. 01:01 But a lot of the people in the across the country don't know about Vetter. 01:04 It's got 23 skilled nursing facilities, 6 assisted living facilities, 01:09 10 independent living facilities, and again mostly in Nebraska. 01:15 What is incredible isn't a number of facilities that Vetter has. 01:17 What is incredible is what it has accomplished in those facilities. 01:21 So let me just give you some of the highlights when you talk about being a 01:25 great employer. 01:26 Vetter has been named a top employer for 10 consecutive years. 01:30 It's local newspaper in Omaha had a contest for top employers. 01:35 Vetter won it so much that they banned Vetter from being involved in the contest 01:39 anymore. 01:40 100% of the Vetter buildings have received the AHCA Bronze Award, 01:44 75% have received a Silver Award, and Vetter has won the only Gold Award of 01:49 any provider in Nebraska. When you look at the clinical outcomes. 01:53 So that is what is shocking and that's where I really became impressed with that, 01:58 their numbers. 01:58 When I was at AHCA, we started measuring these clinical 02:01 outcomes and then comparing providers and Giff came to me one day and said, 02:05 "who are these folks in Nebraska?" 02:08 And I said it's Vetter. 02:09 And I'm not at all surprised by the results. 02:12 So listen to some of these numbers. 02:14 Their five star rating is 4. 3 versus 3 for for the entire country 02:19 that you know, outperforming the metric by 1.3. 02:24 Their turnover numbers are what are really shocking to me. 02:27 When you look at the total nurse turnover their the national turnover rate is 46% 02:33 Vetter is at 33%. 02:35 But the shocking number comes in RN turnover where the national average is 02:40 43% Vetter is at 24%. 02:43 Company wide, in every job position, their turnover rate is only 31% again 02:49 extremely low for our sector. 02:52 And when you stack up all of the clinical measures that CMS put puts out on five 02:57 star compare, we rank organizations at AHCA over the 03:01 years and consistently Vetter was either one or two across the country among all 03:06 providers and clinical outcomes. 03:09 Now just absorb for a minute that they've accomplished this in Nebraska. 03:14 Nebraska is not a state that jumps out to you as like a super high Medicaid rate 03:19 state because it's not. 03:20 So they've accomplished this in what really is a pretty challenging 03:24 environment. 03:25 We're here today to ask the simple question, how has Vetter done it? 03:29 We're here to celebrate what Vetter has done, but really, 03:32 I think more important than that, we're here to get some input from key 03:36 people at Vetter on how they've done it, hopefully with some ideas that the rest 03:40 of us can copy. 03:42 So very happy today to be joined by Heath Boddy, 03:45 who is the president of the Vetter organization. 03:48 Some of you may remember that Heath was the CEO of the Nebraska Healthcare 03:52 Association for many years, left that position, 03:55 came to Vetter to become the Chief Operating Officer and is now the 03:58 president. 03:59 Heath, welcome to Park Place. 04:01 Thank you. 04:02 Glad to be here, Mark. 04:03 Appreciate it. 04:04 And we're joined by Glenn Van Ekeren as well. 04:07 Glenn was with the Vetter organization for over 26 years. 04:11 Most of those that time was spent as the president of the organization, 04:16 really a huge part of their fifty year history. 04:19 He is now retired, but you may recognize that Glenn is a 04:22 contributor on Park Place. 04:24 He's a fantastic speaker. 04:26 He's speaking at association events across the country and he's an incredible 04:30 human being as well. 04:31 Glenn, welcome to Park Place. 04:34 Thank you for allowing the old guy to join you today. 04:37 I appreciate it. 04:38 Well, we decided to dust you off and bring you 04:40 out and get some of that great advice that we know that you have. 04:44 Well, I showered and everything so bleeping 04:48 this it's official now. 04:50 We're we're honored. 04:51 So Heath, I could have gone, I just could have spent the whole half 04:54 hour talking about the awards that you've run, your clinical outcomes, 04:58 all of that stuff. 04:58 It's it's inspiring and it's amazing. 05:01 So let me just ask you the very big question. 05:03 How, how has Federer done? 05:06 Well, again, thank you. 05:08 Being here with two of the greats in this business is a a little bit overwhelming 05:13 for me, but I'm honored to be here. 05:16 You know, the, the thing that is so prevalent to me 05:19 about Jack and Eldora and the 52 year legacy of this company and certainly 05:24 Glenn's leadership for over 26 of those years is the idea that we got clear and, 05:30 and centered on our mission, vision and values. 05:33 And so how have we done it? 05:35 We've done it through an absolute foundation in who we are and what we 05:40 believe and the people we spend an inordinate amount of time and energy and 05:45 affection and things on people. 05:48 And so, and, and a lot of that is Glenn's leadership. 05:51 He, he has really brought this company and 05:53 he'll tell you the stories. 05:55 But when Jack asked him to come here, it was all about orienting the company 05:59 towards making this a great place to be a part of. 06:02 We already were having clinical outcomes where it was a great place to live and, 06:06 and asked that we make people outcomes work, 06:08 work outcomes where people really want to be a part of this. 06:12 So if you ask me, having this foundation of mission, 06:15 vision and values and you'll hear Glenn talk about that a little bit today, 06:19 I hope that's certainly been part of his approach and his leadership. 06:23 And then you add to that layer that that we do everything through people. 06:27 That's really how we've done it lately. 06:30 We spend a lot of time, I'm more wired analytically than Glenn. 06:34 And so we spend more time on data and but we've got a nice synergy and that data 06:38 doesn't drive everything and people don't drive everything. 06:41 We, we have a nice synergy with people and 06:43 performance. 06:44 And so it's the data and it's the people side. 06:46 But certainly first the people. 06:48 I mean, he's, I think what you just said is, 06:51 is remarkable what you're saying. 06:53 And this, this is coming from what arguably is the 06:56 best provider in the country. 06:57 Or you're saying the base of it all isn't some strategy we have on 07:01 rehospitalization or isn't some strategy we have on census or isn't some financial 07:06 model or some algorithm. 07:08 The base of it is our mission vision of values. 07:11 100%. 07:12 I, I don't know this to be true, but I would imagine if you would have 07:16 asked Jack, you know, 20 ish years ago, 25 ish years ago and said, 07:19 what's it all about? 07:20 He would say something like treat people really well and the rest of it's going to 07:24 generally work itself out. 07:27 We don't we don't land right there today, but that does talk about how important 07:31 people are in this equation. 07:33 You guys get it. 07:34 All the viewers today got it. 07:36 It it is people caring for people which metrics or mechanics that doesn't cover 07:40 the spread in this in this kind of a business. 07:43 So absolutely people are there. 07:45 There is no other secret sauce. 07:46 Our secret sauce would be our approach with with people culture. 07:51 That's great. 07:51 And Glenn, I, I think you are the face of the sector 07:53 when it comes to the importance of mission, 07:55 vision and values and culture and all of that. 07:57 So just give us your thoughts about it. 07:59 And then it's kind of secondarily, how do you actually make that real in in 08:04 the in an organization and in buildings. 08:07 Lot of thanks, Mark To piggyback on what he said. 08:10 He's right. 08:11 I remember very clearly one day going to Jack and saying why am I here? 08:16 I mean, what, what do you really want me to accomplish? 08:19 This was early on, probably year 2000. 08:23 And Jack said, Glenn, I've always wanted our company to be a 08:27 great place to work. 08:28 I don't know how to do it, so go make it happen. 08:31 And that became the marching orders for the next several years is how how do we 08:37 make culture live? 08:38 And culture, frankly, is kind of a mystery to many leaders. 08:43 And so we just simplified it by saying that it's how we do things around here. 08:48 Culture is going to be our personality. 08:50 It's who we are. 08:51 It's what we do. 08:53 It's why we do what we do. 08:55 And more importantly, it's how we do what we do. 09:00 So it's how we get things done around here. 09:02 And a key element that's already been brought up, 09:06 a key element in creating culture is to make sure that your mission driven and 09:12 values LED. 09:13 You don't, you don't just have a mission, you live the mission. 09:17 And we've been finding new and innovative ways for 26 years to bring the mission to 09:24 life. 09:24 And I think the same is true of values. 09:27 And what we learned early on is that your culture is pretty much the gap between 09:33 your stated values and the behaviors that you're observing what's going on. 09:39 And so we built the mission treating others as the most important person in 09:42 your life. 09:43 We built that and the values into everything that we do, 09:48 especially into our culture. 09:51 So we became passionate and try every day to figure this all out. 09:56 But how, how do we create an environment where 09:59 people feel good about themselves, they feel good about the people they 10:03 serve, the people they work with? 10:05 They'd go home at night feeling good about the organization. 10:10 And that all evolved around a major kind of emphasis that said, 10:13 how do we make better senior living a place where people love to be a police, 10:18 a place where people love to come to work where they don't want them, You know, 10:23 they don't want to leave. 10:25 And so our, once again, our mission and our values clearly 10:30 describe the attitudes, the behaviors and the actions that we 10:36 expect every day to create the culture that we want. 10:41 And I hope he can talk about this a little bit more. 10:44 But it all begins with upper leadership. 10:47 If the owner, for instance, or the president isn't committed to it, 10:52 you can't expect other people to be committed to it. 10:56 So we as a leadership team always kind of had this motto that we need to be it. 11:01 We need to be everything that we want that culture to be. 11:06 And if we're not, we can't expect the culture to come to 11:09 life. 11:11 I always felt like our team members expected us to provide a healthy, upbeat, 11:17 positive example of what they want the environment to be. 11:22 And we need to be the heartbeat of that. 11:25 So culture is embedded into everything that better senior living does. 11:30 And in fact we have, which I hope we can talk about some of 11:34 our world class standards, but we have a world class formula that 11:38 says culture times, strategy times, execution will equal world class results. 11:43 But it all if culture isn't there. 11:46 You can have all the greatest strategies in the world, 11:49 but you need people who are willing to put those strategies into place and, 11:53 and to execute. 11:55 It's not culture isn't simple, Mark. 11:57 It's, it's extremely difficult and you can't, 12:00 you can't just hope that culture comes into play. 12:04 It it really requires an unwavering belief, first of all, in people, 12:10 a commitment to make the mission and the values real and they become a part of our 12:17 lives. 12:17 And then of course, there has to be a universal understanding 12:21 and commitment to this is how we do things around here. 12:24 And none of us have a right, including the president of the 12:27 organization to violate how we do things around here. 12:29 That's how culture comes to life. 12:31 Let me press on something that that you said, 12:34 Glenn and I think for the audience to to grab this, 12:37 this could be one of those Nuggets that people try to take out what you heard 12:41 Glenn talk about when he's talking about mission treated one as the treat everyone 12:46 as the most important person is actually the boiled down version of dignity in 12:50 life. 12:51 Our formal mission statement. 12:52 And the reason I'm pointing that out is to say one of the things that Glenn LED 12:56 us to that we try really hard to do is to make sure that these in this case mission 13:00 vision values. 13:01 Hopefully we'll talk a little later about world class. 13:03 What does that mean to every team member? 13:05 What does it mean that the bedside table side cleaning a room, riding a mower? 13:09 And, and that's the part that I, I would say we continue to work towards 13:14 and helps this permeate and again, not just live in posters and framed art 13:18 on the walls. 13:19 It helps it be a part of every interaction in our, in our operations. 13:24 So Heath, let me, let me bring it down to kind of like more 13:27 nuts and bolts type things in buildings because it's, 13:30 it's one thing to have a great mission statement, a great set of values. 13:36 I think if you can also then marry that with some expectations that you set for 13:40 people that mirror those mission and values, 13:43 you've really got something which I think is one of the things that better is done. 13:48 So it it feels to me like you've done that through your world class standards. 13:51 Can you tell us about your world class standards and how that works? 13:55 Sure. 13:56 So we have well, let me let me just back up. 14:00 We were talking about world class before it became this, you know, 14:03 really well known tagline all over the place. 14:06 The difference with us is it's not rhetoric, 14:09 it is a measurable results driven approach to the most important things in 14:14 our business. 14:15 And so today we're talking about skilled care, 14:17 but we have it in every part of our business. 14:18 We have it in our pharmacy, in our home health, 14:20 we have it in the senior living side of the business. 14:22 And that's important because I, I would say this, 14:25 I've been in this business 35 years, operator LED campuses. 14:30 What we ask people to, to achieve, to strive for it. 14:34 It's really hard. 14:35 I, I'm not going to kid you really hard, but here's the deal. 14:39 It's really worth it because the end of every one of those numbers is our people. 14:44 If somebody's grandma, grandpa, mom, dad, and and people listening today get that. 14:50 So it's super important. 14:51 We measure things that you would guess that we would measure. 14:53 We measure satisfaction, we measure turnover. 14:56 We measure some things, you may not guess, but the biggest part of that is that 15:00 we're constantly trying to show team members all the way through the chain of 15:05 folks in our environment, how they fit into that. 15:08 How does we have a standard called pristine, which is about how well kept, 15:13 how clean, how well repaired an operation might be. 15:17 And, and our goal is to make sure that maybe a 15:20 bedside caregiver, maybe a housekeeper, that they understand how, 15:24 how does that pristine fit for them. 15:27 When I say it's hard, I would just say this and Glenn, I'd, 15:30 I'd be interested in, in your thoughts on this. 15:33 We would say it's hard enough. 15:34 We would say to you, you're a world class operation if you hit 15:38 80% world class, that's how hard it is. 15:41 And here's what I'll tell you in the history of the program since 2009, 15:45 we've had two hit 80% and, and we're hopefully this doesn't come off 15:49 wrong, but I think our operations are doing some 15:52 really good work and two of them have hit it. 15:55 That's how hard it is. 15:56 But the aspiration towards it, it's a little bit like the ACA quality 16:00 awards, the aspiration towards being world class 16:02 makes us better. 16:04 So the World Class Center just took to summarize that a little bit though. 16:07 It's 10 or 12 standards for every building that the administrators, 16:10 the DOMS and everybody that's working in the buildings is trying to achieve. 16:15 And I think you have a contest where everybody knows everybody else's score 16:19 and then once a quarter you, you award the the building that's done 16:23 the best. 16:24 The great point. 16:25 Thank you for that. 16:26 Absolutely. 16:27 We have a bunch of that. 16:28 We're no different than other healthcare leaders, I would guess. 16:32 We have a bunch of very competitive people. 16:34 And so the idea that the scoreboard is out there where everybody sees it, 16:37 it's not a secret. 16:38 Everybody's numbers, everybody sees everybody else is. 16:41 We do recognize it quarterly and then we also have an annual award that is a very, 16:46 very big deal. 16:47 It is a a bronze statue with some really big meaning in our company that would 16:52 travel and the person that has to if the if somebody would have to relinquish the 16:57 award, IE if they were the annual recipient last 17:00 year and they have to relinquish it to somebody else. 17:03 They're the ones that take it to the new to the new campus to sort of in a place 17:08 of honor to say well done. 17:09 This is this is now in your environment. 17:11 So, so world class standards is measuring 17:14 things are rehospitalization, census budget, census budget turnover, 17:19 team satisfaction, customer satisfaction in your, you tie, 17:24 you tie incentives, you tie bonuses for administrators and 17:28 Don. 17:29 So those are right. 17:30 So we, the way we have taken world class into 17:33 our bonus structure is that we've boiled down most. 17:36 So 80% of somebody's bonus potential at the operational level, 17:41 at the at the community level would be 4 key world class indicators, 17:46 team satisfaction, customer satisfaction, quality and stewardship. 17:51 So here's the way we look at it. 17:53 If we've got it, if somebody is going to get paid on a 17:56 bonus, we've got happy teammates, we've got happy residents and families, 18:00 we're giving quality of care that we expect of ourselves. 18:04 And financially we're we're doing well. 18:07 Well, everybody wins. 18:08 Then the company continues to do well. 18:10 The the individual continues to do well. 18:11 It seems like that really fits well and what people can get their arms around 18:15 from a structure. 18:16 So there's a lot of what people would call touchy feely stuff with Vetter, 18:19 which is the culture or the mission, the values and all of that. 18:22 But you've also got these very specific expectations that you're the people need 18:27 to hit and and it's very well known if they're hitting them or not. 18:30 If they hit them, they receive incentive to do so. 18:33 Clint, Clint, I know this whole world class thing 18:35 developed on your watch. 18:37 Have you seen it change behavior in buildings? 18:40 What what are your thoughts about that? 18:41 Absolutely. 18:44 And the background here is a kind of a overarching vision that we want to be a 18:49 world class organization who is transforming the view of senior care by 18:54 doing what we do like no one else does it. 18:56 That's that's what drives us. 18:59 And a funny little story. 19:02 In the beginning, I was talking to Doctor David Gifford and 19:05 telling him what our new aspiration was and that's that we were going to be a 19:10 world class organization. 19:12 And he looked at me. 19:13 He says, great idea. 19:14 How do you plan to prove it? 19:17 And that's where the energies began to be invested in figuring out what are the 19:22 measurements going to be that can help us get there, 19:25 because you can't just declare you're going to be world class. 19:29 And Heath alluded to rhetoric. 19:31 We had a phrase that said its results, not rhetoric. 19:34 So we got very specific about all of that and then realized we need to create a 19:41 plus processes, simple processes so that even C level 19:46 people like Glenn can get A level results. 19:50 And it was interesting, Mark, it all boiled down to if we live the 19:55 mission, the vision and the values to the UNTH 19:59 degree, we will achieve world class results. 20:03 So. 20:05 You ask, does it change behavior? 20:07 I would say that in the beginning we were not achieving the kinds of percentages 20:12 we're doing today. 20:14 And I think that the result is when people embrace world class, 20:19 there is a mindset and a lifestyle change. 20:22 I Keith, is that fair? 20:24 Do you see that 100% fair at work and in the rest of your life? 20:30 Our mission, vision and values, treating everyone as the most important 20:34 person absolutely permeates at the grocery store, 20:36 at the stoplight and at work. 20:38 Yeah, I agree with you, Glenn. 20:40 Glenn, you talked about, again, if we're trying to give people ideas 20:43 about how they might go approach it, I think there's two more things that we 20:47 should press on. 20:48 And one of those would be unified leadership teams. 20:52 And then the other one, I was going to say, Glenn, 20:53 is compassion and accountability. 20:54 Those have been two really pivotal approaches. 20:57 Do you want to talk about? 20:58 Sorry, Mark, I'm kind of grabbing you. 21:00 Don't. 21:00 **** that, Glenn. 21:02 Which one? 21:03 Why don't you grab one of them and I'll grab the other? 21:05 You grab unified leadership and then I'll go to compassionate account. 21:08 I would love to do that. 21:10 For literally Mark, for 26 years, I preached to administrators. 21:15 If you do not have a unified leadership team in your building, 21:19 world class isn't even a possibility. 21:23 And that's true with culture, it's true with world class, 21:26 it's true with everything that we're attempting to do. 21:29 You can't go beyond where you are. 21:32 If there's poison in the building. 21:34 And it begins with the leadership team. 21:38 There are administrators who jumped on that right away, 21:41 and there are other administrators who when I would ask them, 21:45 so tell me about your leadership team, how unified? 21:48 Well, we've got one person that's not really. 21:52 And then I go and I look at their world class results and I can tell you right 21:56 away, neither the culture or the unified 21:59 leadership team is there. 22:01 It's, it's a given. 22:03 It's it was proven to me for 26 solid years that if you don't have a unified 22:08 leadership team, it's almost impossible to be able to 22:12 create the world class culture and the world class results that you that you 22:17 want to create. 22:19 What's really fun about that is we can see that metrically. 22:22 Yes. 22:23 So here comes Captain Analytical. 22:24 We can see what Glenn's describing. 22:27 When a team actually gets unified, we can start to watch their metrics 22:30 change. 22:30 It's really cool. 22:32 Yeah. 22:32 So what was the other concept you wanted to talk about here? 22:34 Yeah. 22:34 So let me press on compassionate accountability. 22:37 You're talking about how, how does this work? 22:38 We've got all these world class standards. 22:39 We've got these outcomes that we expect where, you know, 22:42 you talked about the touchy feely side of the business. 22:45 Compassionate accountability is actually an approach I learned from Glenn. 22:48 And I guess I don't know that I thought I wasn't great at some, you know, 22:52 hard conversations, but but I certainly had some room to grow 22:56 in that. 22:56 And Glenn taught me this approach called compassionate accountability. 22:59 And essentially it means, look, I kind of envisioned like I've got my arm 23:03 around this person that I'm visiting with and saying this, this standard, 23:07 this thing we're striving for. 23:09 I understand that you're not there. 23:10 What can I do to help you get there? 23:12 I understand you're struggling with it, but the standard is not going to change. 23:16 I think the idea that we care enough about or love people enough, 23:20 the people that work with us to have these conversations has drastically 23:25 changed, especially Glen. 23:26 I don't agree. 23:27 The last few years where all the way through our structure, 23:30 people are having more of those conversations to say, 23:32 I really care about you and I want you to be here. 23:35 But this stuff is so important. 23:37 We're not moving the standard. 23:38 Let's talk about how we help you get there. 23:40 That may sound pretty normal to people. 23:43 It's to me, it's harder than it than the than the 23:45 phrase describes. 23:46 It's been it's been pivotal for us. 23:48 Yeah. 23:48 And I to add to that, I people get so scared of compassionate 23:53 accountability. 23:54 And that's why we put the word compassion in there. 23:57 I'm not going to do it out of anger. 23:59 I'm not going to do it out of hate. 24:00 I'm going to do it because I care for you deeply and I see you in the future and I 24:05 see great potential there. 24:07 But right now there's a little bit of an issue that we have to get resolved in 24:12 order for to you in order for you to achieve the potential that you're 24:16 designed to achieve. 24:17 I think it's a, it's a very loving leadership approach 24:21 that I know some of our folks struggle with a lot. 24:26 But boy, once you understand that compassion comes 24:29 first, holding people, accountability is a partner, 24:33 some wonderful things can happen. 24:37 Now, there are so many different things we 24:38 could talk about that you've done well that have contributed your success. 24:42 But I want to make sure that we talk about your investment in leadership 24:45 because it is profound. 24:47 Glenn, tell us about the Better Way Training and 24:49 what that's all about. 24:50 Yeah, well, we love the Better Way training. 24:54 It almost started as an accident because we felt as if we were not communicating 25:00 effectively with new leaders, what our belief was and how we're going 25:05 to do things around here, our mission, vision and values. 25:10 And so ultimately it became a three day training program for every new leader in 25:17 the organization. 25:18 So if you're a department head at the facility or you're at Home Office or in 25:22 our businesses, you will go through the Better Way 25:25 training. 25:26 It's all about learning who we are as a company and why we do what we do the way 25:32 we do it. 25:33 That's literally the heart of the program. 25:36 It's not about telling you how to do your job, 25:39 but it's laying out the expectations of who we are as a company. 25:45 One of the things that we do in IT is take a deep dive the 1st morning, 25:49 the entire morning, we take a deep dive into the mission 25:52 division and the values and what does that mean in terms of practical 25:57 application in your world? 25:58 How do we bring it to life so that it not only is hanging on the wall, 26:03 but it's walking in the halls, in our facilities and in our service 26:07 lines. 26:08 It's also a way to discover what our people philosophy is, 26:12 how do we treat people around here and how do we create that people focused 26:16 culture. 26:17 So a fun little thing that I do, I don't know if Heath will continue it it 26:21 maybe it's time to put it to bed. 26:24 But after our discussion on mission vision and values, I said, listen, 26:29 I have an offer for you if the if this morning has been uncomfortable for you, 26:35 if you feel as if you can't live up to the mission, 26:38 vision and values of this company, I will have our CFO Brian write you a 26:44 check for $2000 right now. 26:46 And you can feel free to leave. 26:48 And there's no hard feelings. 26:51 And the reason I do that people is because if you can't buy into the better 26:55 way, life is going to be miserable here and 26:58 you deserve to have a way out. 27:00 And so I'm going to give you that way out. 27:03 I think I remember 1 when we were writing the book and I think people that have 27:07 read our book know that one of the five companies that wrote a chapter about was 27:10 better. 27:11 There were people that had described you as a cult because of some of this 27:15 behavior. 27:16 And you actually took that as a compliment. 27:18 I did. 27:19 I said thank you because if, if you buy in and not because, you know, 27:25 why, I would say because we can prove it again. 27:29 I mean, if you buy into the philosophy, it's not just philosophical, 27:33 but the metrics are there. 27:36 It, it becomes a way of life. 27:37 I mean, Keith, you talked about treating not just the 27:40 people's most important person in the world at work, but also outside of work. 27:43 And it's it's it's it's amazing, you know, Mark. 27:46 And what's interesting is even after making my meaningful adjustment that you 27:51 call retirement, it's just as important to me today as it 27:55 was in my 26 years because it's it becomes a really a part of your makeup of 28:00 who you are. 28:02 Yeah. 28:02 So, Heath, you've brought the better way not just to 28:06 your top level folks. 28:07 You've also got this Dignity in Action award. 28:09 Tell tell us about that. 28:11 Yeah. 28:11 So what? 28:12 We can be accused of stealing ideas. 28:16 So one of our communities developed this idea and somehow it came to us. 28:19 And I'm sorry, I don't remember how. 28:21 And it was called Dignity in action. 28:23 And the idea at that community was a resident, a family, 28:26 maybe a teammate would lift up a non leadership level person for living 28:31 mission, vision, values, creating dignity in someone's life. 28:35 We saw that and thought, holy moly, that's really profound. 28:38 And then we veterized it. 28:39 So we went whole company and went really big, which is what we do here. 28:43 That's really sort of Glenn's influence in the company. 28:46 And so we created basically a mini vetter way. 28:50 Four people from the communities, 4 people per operation per year would be 28:55 eligible. 28:56 Again, they're nominated by residents, families, teammates. 28:59 They're in the operation. 29:01 And if they're chosen, then they can, they and a significant other can come to 29:05 our Home Office in Omaha. 29:07 We host them like kings and Queens. 29:09 We put on the nines. 29:10 We do a mini vetter way. 29:12 So they get a one day version, a boiled down version. 29:15 And then we have this huge celebration in the evening with all the things, 29:20 meals and and fun. 29:21 And, and here's the thing, it'd be it's really easy when you're in a 29:24 company and you know, many of the people that are probably 29:27 listening to the podcast, you get to the to this level of 29:30 leadership and, and you kind of forget how impactful 29:32 things can be. 29:34 But Glenn has always been the one handing out the awards. 29:36 And I had my first opportunity this last time. 29:38 I was blown away at the emotion that people were coming across the stage to 29:43 get their award. 29:44 And I was reminded this matters to people being recognized, 29:48 being valued for how they contribute, how they create purpose. 29:52 It matters to people. 29:53 I saw there was three guys in that one that were all over the road truckers in 29:56 their life and they're not transportation folks. 29:59 They were all all three were emotional coming across the stage. 30:01 It was it was a powerful evening. 30:03 So that wasn't Glenn and I can't take credit for that. 30:05 That came from one of our communities. 30:07 It is fantastic. 30:09 It's it's such a neat way to honor people and what they're doing. 30:11 Heath, one of the things I really love about 30:13 that is that there are a number of organizations that do recognize front 30:17 level people in one way or another. 30:19 But I love the fact that when you bring the people into the Home Office, 30:22 you do that, which is incredibly important, 30:25 but you also give them a day of, of leadership training if you put them 30:28 through a mini version of the Better Way, which really brings them into the whole 30:32 organization. 30:34 Believe it or not, we're actually passed our allotted time. 30:37 It's gone very quickly. 30:38 We haven't covered everything that I wanted to cover, 30:40 but that's OK because I think we've hit the highlights. 30:43 Heath, this is a tough business. 30:45 You, you started out talking about that. 30:47 Tell us what your view of the future of this whole thing is, 30:50 whether it's better or the sector as a whole. 30:52 Just give it. 30:53 Give us your thoughts about where all this is headed. 30:55 Well, for veteran, for the, for our sector. 30:58 I, I'm excited, Mark, I, you know, I've been doing this 35 years in the 31:02 business. 31:03 I know we've got our challenges, we've always had our challenges, 31:06 but I love what I see. 31:07 If you're just looking from a, from a, a demographic perspective about workforce 31:12 and those things, I think we have an opportunity in a 31:15 society that's changing to still do the hands on people based care approach to 31:20 show love and compassion tableside and bedside. 31:23 I I don't think that's going to change. 31:25 And I and I love that I see I'm kind of a tech guy, maybe not a full fledge, 31:29 but I love how it can start to interface into our world. 31:32 And I think those are going to be tools and opportunities for us as we go forward. 31:35 Our company is spending a lot of time continuing and who we are. 31:39 We were a skilled nursing based company and we're also evolving into many other 31:44 things. 31:44 We we're in pharmacy, we're in home health and I know lots of 31:46 the people listening are probably that we're actually looking at some stuff that 31:49 maybe not a lot of other people are looking at. 31:51 Again, it, for me, it's the many, many eggs, many baskets approach. 31:55 How do we make sure that we can create another 52 years like we've had in this 32:00 company to this point? 32:01 And I think that fully fits the sector. 32:03 I, I'm super excited. 32:05 I, I think there's great things ahead of us 32:07 and I certainly the, the ageing population doesn't do anything 32:10 but support that. 32:11 Well, Glenn and Heath, thank you so much for being with us today. 32:15 Thanks for what you've done over the last decades, 32:17 what Vedder's done now for over 50 years. 32:20 It is a real inspiration and it's stuff that other people can do. 32:24 It's not easy, but this incredible marriage of mission, 32:27 vision and values with compassion and accountability, with, you know, 32:32 expectations, with living a life that meets those 32:35 expectations. 32:36 I mean, it, it, it, it, it leads to the incredible results that 32:39 you've achieved. 32:40 And thank, thank you for doing it and for the 32:42 inspiration that you are. 32:43 Thanks again for to First Quality for making this possible and to all of you 32:47 for your continued support of Park Place. 32:51 Thanks, Mark. 32:52 It was an honor to be with you. 32:53 It was really good.
