How to change on-site care providers without unsettling residents.

Can an independent living community change its on-site care provider?

Yes. Several of our partnerships began as a change of provider. Done in the right order, residents keep the caregivers they know, families hear the news from the community first, and care continues without a gap. Most communities go from signed agreement to our first day of care in about 60 days.

What questions tell you whether it is time to change?

• Can your provider show you a record of each scheduled visit?
• Is there a supervisor in your building, or at an office somewhere else?
• Do you know who is working in your building today?
• Is your community named as additional insured on the provider's coverage?
• When a family raises a concern, is there one person you can call who can fix it the same day?

If the answers are general, ask for the document behind them. Our full list is in ten questions to ask before choosing an on-site care provider.

What happens to the caregivers residents already know?

Where another provider is leaving, we offer positions to its caregivers, so residents keep familiar faces.

How do residents and families hear about the change?

From you, on your letterhead, before anything changes. We draft the letter and the mailing for your approval, and we agree the dates with you before anything is announced.

How do residents move their care over?

About two weeks before the start we hold enrollment days. We spend two or three full days in the building, morning to evening, and any resident or family member can sit down with us one-on-one, ask questions and choose services. Every resident keeps the right to choose any provider, or none.

What happens in the first weeks?

A member of our corporate team is in your building every day for the first week, then five days a week through the second and third weeks. At day 30 we survey every resident and family we serve and review the results with you.

What does the community need to do?

• Lease us a small office at fair-market rent.
• Approve the resident letter and the dates.
• Set a regular meeting between your executive director and our site supervisor.

We have no on-site provider today. Is the process different?

No. Whether you have a provider today or none, we follow the same sequence.