As Westerville, OH-based Ohio Living celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, President and CEO Larry Gumina recently spent a few minutes with McKnight’s Senior Living Editor Lois A. Bowers talking about the need for long-term care providers to innovate, grow and show appreciation to employees.
Q: Congratulations on the 100th anniversary of Ohio Living. What do you believe have been the keys to the organization’s longevity?
A: I’ll tell you without hesitation, it’s been the people in this organization, and our values. We went through a rebranding in 2016 from Ohio Presbyterian Retirement Services to Ohio Living, but we kept ‘faith’ in our tagline, which is ‘faith, compassion, community.’ With our faith-infused values, we’re able to do the right thing, and we’re supported by a terrific board of volunteers who come from areas throughout Ohio. They set the vision for the organization, and they support the needs of 2,700 team members who are providing care to about 75,000 Ohioans a year in all of our markets.
Q: Speaking of volunteering, you’re on the board of the national LeadingAge organization and involved in some other organizations as well. And you mentioned people who volunteer for Ohio Living. What do you believe are the important benefits of being involved in organizations in this way?
A: That’s a great question. I think the benefits are … having the privileged ability to set vision for an association that provides care and support to those who need it the most. So therefore, from the LeadingAge national perspective, I’m working with [President and CEO] Katie [Smith Sloan] and my board colleagues to set the vision of LeadingAge, which supports about 5,400 providers from coast to coast.
What do I believe the return is for board members at Ohio Living? They have the ability to influence change, and we’ve continued to be innovators. We’re a very innovative organization, and I thank the board for that, too, because what else can we do to continue to serve more older adults throughout Ohio? And they set the vision. They assist us in some creative, innovative initiatives like the Perennial Consortium, creating our own Medicare Advantage plan, provider-owned, where we can exercise our judgment on coordinating the care for those who we serve. And I’d rather have our clinicians at bedside make the healthcare decisions for our residents as opposed to a third party, with all due respect.
Q: How long have you been with Ohio Living?
A: My 10-year anniversary was Dec. 28.
Q: During that time, what have been the biggest changes?
A: If I were to leave the organization tomorrow, which I don’t have any plans to do, one of my proudest accomplishments is the alignment of the organization. If I go back 10 years prior, it’s not that we were moving in different directions. It’s just that our operating divisions weren’t moving in the same direction. We’re very aligned through all of our operating divisions now, and there’s kind of like a golden thread that flows, whether you’re a team member of ours who is providing end-of-life care to about 400 hospice patients a day or you’re a receptionist at the front desk of Ohio Living Westminster-Thurber.
Secondly, in looking back over the last 10 years, is introducing some innovative ways that we can enhance care delivery and services to older adults throughout Ohio.
In the midst of this pandemic, we started a Medicare Advantage plan. As of January 2021, we have two plans up and running, one in Colorado, and one in Ohio. Juniper Communities, Ohio Living, Christian Living Communities and AllyAlign Health are the owners. And in Ohio, we have four other providers who own the plan. We have about 500 enrollees, and as occupancy continues to improve, so will our enrollment. It’s a nice way to enhance our care delivery and prevent money leaving our respective missions, regardless of tax status.
We’re also doing primary care. We created our own pharmacy. You have to continue to innovate and continue to grow, especially as we’re coming out of this pandemic.
Q: Are there other areas into which Ohio Living plans to grow at this point?
A: We’re in 51 or 52 of the 88 counties in Ohio. We’re going continue to fi ll out some market density in terms of our existing markets. We’ll grow peripherally in other markets, and I would envision we’ll be moving beyond Ohio in the contiguous states. [We have] no desire strategically to go to California and New York, but the contiguous states would make sense for us.
There’s also an opportunity for us — and when I say ‘us,’ I’m talking about the industry — to proactively introduce value propositions to someone who is living in the general community. Maybe they will move into one of our campus communities one day, and maybe they won’t. But what could we do to help them optimize their aging experience? We’re continuing to move in that direction. We don’t have it figured out yet, but we will.
Q: What do you believe are the keys to being a great place to work in senior living?
A: Communication, communication, communication. Lifting up our team members, letting them know that they’re making a difference, letting them know we care about them, letting them know that they’re important to the well-being of this mission.
Something I started doing about 18 months ago is, when a team member has a milestone employment anniversary — 5, 10, 15, 20 [years] and so forth — I’ll give them a call at home. I will either leave a message or, if I speak to them personally, I’ll say, ‘I know today you celebrated your anniversary at Ohio Living, and I’m just calling to say thank you for affording us 10 years of your life, and thank you for doing what you do and, more selfishly, thank you for doing it with us.’ It sends a message that I care, and I do care. I think the more we can do that, the more we can remind our team that they are appreciated — it’s hard work — and support them whatever they do. I think that’s core critical.
Q: You referenced the pandemic. You were vocal at the beginning of the pandemic about a disparity in personal protective equipment among healthcare settings, particularly long-term care versus hospitals. How do you think the government’s response to the needs of long-term care has been since that time?
A: I think they’ve improved. We care for a very challenged individual at a point in their lives when they’re very, very fragile. And that’s been very challenging. And if you look at the COVID-induced expirations of this country, you look at the age cohort, the most significant population has been north of 80 years old. And in my opinion, we’ve been treated unfairly in the media. As most recently as President Biden’s State of the Union speech, about a segment of the nursing home industry where they want operations to improve, but yet it’s casting a net on the entire industry, which I take issue with. If you go backwards, to answer your question, about 23 months ago, we weren’t thought of, to me, as well as we should have been in terms of PPE distribution. The government, in my opinion, has improved, but I think there’s still a long way to go.
Q: Are there any additional thoughts you’d like to share about the history of the organization and the reasons behind its success?
A: I’m just going to go back to that great question you asked before: what’s a key driver? It’s our people. It’s our leadership. It’s from the boardroom to my predecessors serving as former CEOs of this organization to members of our team who have served and who have left us and retired. We pride ourselves on some longevity here in terms of talent. And, again, you’re just doing the right thing. We’re embarking on our next 100 years building on the foundation that others have built for us. And I’m just incredibly privileged and humbled to be supporting a team of 2,700 here as we provide great care and services to older adults throughout Ohio.
Editor’s Note: An abbreviated version of this discussion appeared as an “A Few Minutes With…” department titled “100 years old and still growing” in the April print issue.
