San Juan Capistrano, CA, November 10, 2006 — Contact:
Scott McCaskey
Goldman & Associates
757-625-2518
Company Grows by Refuting Conventional Wisdom About Memory Impairment Care
The proof is in the numbers. Since 1999, more than 1,400 memory-impaired people residing at Silverado Senior Living have regained the ability to walk. Over 1,100 Silverado residents have learned to feed themselves again. While the rate of falls that result in fractures among the frail elderly is 8 to 10 percent nationwide, Silverado’s rate is just one percent.
This unusually low rate has been achieved even though – and, in fact, because – Silverado does not use restraints and encourages each person in its care to be as mobile as possible, executives say. Data tracking has served a key role in these successes. Silverado is using these numbers to expand its business and shake up the industry’s traditional approaches to caring for those with memory impairment.
Although not required to do so by assisted living industry regulations, Silverado has taken the singular step of tracking and analyzing residents’ clinical data since it was founded in 1996. Silverado records approximately 45 measurements in 12 different categories on a regular basis to monitor resident’s health status at each of its 13 communities, located in California, Texas and Utah. From the residents’ abilities to see, to the strength of their arms and legs, to the types and quantities of medication they take, detailed information is compiled each month. It’s then analyzed, graphed and used by clinical teams to direct staff training and focus.
“You can’t just rely on anecdotal information to make critical clinical assumptions,” says Anne Ellett, Silverado’s vice president of health services. “You can’t improve quality of life and care unless you measure and track, not just from a medical perspective, but from a holistic view.”
Silverado’s data tracking provides solid numbers to back the theory at the core of the company at its founding: That those with memory impairment flourish, rather than flounder, when appropriate risk is allowed in their lives.
“A concern regarding frail elderly has always been that they could fall and hurt themselves,” says Loren B. Shook, who established Silverado and serves as its president, CEO and chairman. “The tendency in senior care has been to make these people as safe as possible by restraining them and using wheelchairs to lessen that perceived risk. We believe that this approach diminishes the body, by making it weaker, and the spirit, by reducing independence. Our data tracking brings statistical proof to a philosophy that we knew intuitively was right.”
Silverado terms this philosophy “freedom to live and dignity in risk.”
Silverado’s residents are encouraged to walk as much as possible and restraints are not used. Hallways are wider and equipped with side rails to facilitate walking. Some residents wear light-weight hip pads sewn into their clothing to protect them in case they do take a tumble. In the case of residents who must use wheelchairs to get around, Silverado focuses on getting them up and out of the chairs as much as possible. For example, when a resident in a wheelchair is seated at a table, he or she is transferred to a regular chair, rather than simply rolled up to the table in the wheelchair.
Silverado’s communities blend the ambiance of assisted living with the nursing expertise of a skilled nursing facility. All Silverado communities care exclusively for people with memory impairment that stems from a range of causes, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and Huntington’s diseases, vascular disease, medication interaction, and others.
When Silverado was founded a decade ago, it operated just one memory impairment community. There is now a waiting list at many of its 13 communities and the company currently has three new communities under development. Silverado has also expanded its portfolio by adding care management, home care, and hospice services. Outcome data is also collected for these services and the information reviewed to focus training and improve care.
Mr. Shook, Ms. Ellett, and other company executives regularly speak on Silverado’s approach to senior care at regional and national conferences, including those held by the Alzheimer’s Association, the Assisted Living Federation of America, and other industry groups. Mr. Shook says, “One of our core values is to change the world in relation to how the memory impaired are cared for whether they are in our company’s care or receiving services some other way.”
Silverado, based in San Juan Capistrano, Calif., is privately-held. Its 2005 revenues were about $75 million.
