As many of you are aware, Tara Bethell left Beatitudes back in November of 2017. At that time—we brought in an Interim Director of Human Resources until a replacement was hired. During our search, we had the opportunity to look at and evaluate our organizational structure and the decision was made not to replace the original Sr. VP of HR and Risk Management position and instead allow myself (with over ten years of Human Resources experience) to oversee the HR Team from an executive level (including the corporate risk management role) and hire a Director of Human Resources to oversee the day-to-day operations. I am grateful for the opportunity to continue to grow and develop as a leader by taking on these responsibilities. Additionally, this change allows others to be part of our organization and provide new ideas and knowledge to ensure we continue progressing as a leader in the field of Aging Services.
Our new Director of Human Resources, Barb Williams, joined us in early February and was introduced at the February Town Hall. Barb has already hit the ground running in the month she’s been here—meeting with employees, department heads and learning her way around our community. She has worked in the field of Human Resources for 18 years and has the PHR (Certified Professional in Human Resources) and SHRM-CP (Society for Human Resources Certified Professional) certifications. She has spent most of her career in the healthcare field, gaining this experience by working at medical universities and homecare. Barb enjoys working with employees in the senior living and health services fields because she can help those who provide care and support to residents. When Barb isn’t working, she loves spending time with her family, reading and hiking. She’s been married for just shy of 30 years to her husband, Kevin, has a daughter—Brianna, and son—David, as well as a grandson—Damien. Barb is also a pet lover and has three dogs (Keena, Chessie and Nichole) and Ally, the cat.
Another management change will be taking place on March 19th when Priscilla Von Wilczur will be joining us as our new Health Care Center Director of Nursing. Priscilla comes to us with over 36 years of nursing experience and has specialized in long term care and rehab. Most recently, Priscilla was the Director of Quality Management for Sun Health La Loma Care Center. Priscilla helped lead the team to a deficiency free survey in 2017 and maintain a CMS (Center for Medicare Services) 5-star rating for several years. Priscilla has a great eye for detail, excellent follow-up and high quality expectations of her team.
You may now be wondering where our current Director of Nursing, Teresa Borton is going. After spending a couple of weeks transitioning Priscilla into her new role—I am very pleased to share that—Teresa will begin a state-approved Administrator in Training (AIT) program on April 2nd in our Health Care Center. Teresa will spend over 1,000 hours during the following six months learning and rotating through all of the departments within the Health Care Center, gaining the experience and understanding to take on the Administrator role. Don’t be surprised if you see her shadowing staff—which may involve cooking meals, serving meals, being a CNA, cleaning floors, helping maintenance, etc. Teresa will go through her program with oversight from myself as her preceptor. She will be assigned a site evaluator who will review her monthly progress reports, come on-site to ensure she is following her training program and provide any additional support she may need. When she finishes this program—she’ll take her state exam and then federal exam to become a Licensed Nursing Home Administrator (LNHA). Afterwhich she will take over as the Administrator of the Health Care Center and oversee day-to-day operations.
Teresa has done a great job as not only the Director of Nursing these last few years, but has also been my right-hand in operations. With this experience, plus the AIT program under her belt, I know she will make a positive impact as Administrator for our community.
While all these exciting changes happen, please know that our commitment to providing quality resident services and care as well as providing our employees with a positive and purposeful employment experience hasn’t changed; we hope you will see that this will just enhance it.
This week, we celebrate Long Term Care Administrator’s week, from March 11th through the 17th. In honor of this special week—we would like to thank and congratulate @cknupp, Sr. VP of HR & Health Services, for everything she does involving long term care at our community. If you see her around campus, be sure to congratulate her this week!