Business Spotlight: Healthy at Home

The historic Ozarks Methodist Manor might be tucked away in a small town, but it does business in a big industry on the precipice of unprecedented growth.

Call it a boom by the baby boomers. When an estimated 10,000 Americans turn 65 years old each day, demand for senior care quickly outpaces supplies.

Statistically speaking, the Springfield metropolitan statistical area will be short some 900 skilled nursing beds and another 300 assisted living beds by the year 2020, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

“This is sort of the new bubble, right now,” says Jim Hodge, a veteran business consultant hired by the board to manage the nonprofit Ozarks Methodist Manor. “With all the baby boomers retiring, it’s going to be a high-growth area.”

The 90-year-old residential care facility on 30 acres in Marionville runs about 90 percent capacity across its 32 apartments and 78 skilled nursing beds, says Ozarks Methodist Manor Executive Director Tracy Glenn. About two-thirds of its 58 independent living cottages are occupied, she says.

“We had more move-ins last year than we’ve had in a long time,” says Glenn, a Marionville native. “People like the small town. We’re still close enough to Springfield to be convenient.”

Senior care companies are responding.

With the projected trends, St. Charles-based Focused Senior Communities is building a $15 million, 80-bed senior living campus in Ozark. And in mid-2013, The Fremont Senior Living invested $5.6 million to expand and add some 70 assisted living and memory care beds in southeast Springfield. Eight months later, the expansion was at capacity.

Glenn says Ozarks Methodist Manor currently is not considering an expansion, but light interior upgrades are planned next month.

“We stay pretty full,” she says. “We definitely have the land to expand here.”

Small-town charm
The Lawrence County town of 2,000 is nestled about 25 miles southwest of Springfield, where the Marionville welcome sign on Highway 60 pays homage to quirky critters running around: “Home of the white squirrels.” Glenn says the squirrels are part of the charm residents appreciate.

“Marionville is famous for them. They’re everywhere,” she says, pointing to Olney, Ill., as having the only other white squirrel population. “Nobody knows how they got here or why, they’ve just always been here.”

Glenn has worked at Ozarks Methodist Manor since the mid-1980s, when she cleared tables and served drinks as a dietary aid in high school. She returned two years ago as director of nursing and this year took on the executive director role after passing state and federal exams for residential care administration.

Others on staff count continuous employment by the decade. For instance, activities coordinator Brenda Garner and marketer Pam Jenkins have worked there over 40 years each, and some nurses are approaching 30 years of employment.

Ozarks Methodist Manor contracts with Mercy Dr. Brad Garner in Aurora as medical director. During visits a couple of days a week, Garner and his nurse practitioners focus on skilled rehabilitation. Glenn says all 78 beds are dual certified for Medicare and Medicaid, and last week nine of the current residents were referred for rehab from area hospitals.

“We see a lot of hip fractures and pneumonia,” Glenn says, noting rehab stints usually last 20 days before patients go back home. “A lot of our patients, when they get to go home, they get to continue to see Dr. Garner.”

Five-star rating
Residents receive three meals a day, covered in their $2,000-$3,200 monthly fees. Hodge says food and medical supply costs are the top challenges in doing business.

“We spend one-and-a-half times more for food than the industry standard for residential care facilities,” says Hodge, who was on the 12-member board that governs the facility until his company, James Hodge & Associates Inc., received the management contract in October.

Ordering from food services supplier Sysco Corp., Glenn says Ozarks Methodist Manor’s food cost is over $3 per person per day.

Among the food perks is a soft-serve ice cream machine.

“Unfortunately, there also are homemade cookies everywhere,” Glenn says.

The manor last month received a five-star rating from the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services based on health inspections, staffing and quality measures.

With a $6 million annual operating budget, Hodge says the rating factors directly impact the profitable bottom line.

“That’s unique in the industry,” he says. “We’re enjoying a profitable entity with a good census in a facility that is very old. It’s just different and has its own unique personality. In today’s world with a lot of stainless steel and hard tile, it brings a lot of warmth.”

On land originally occupied by the Methodist Collegiate Institute in the 1870s, the manor started as the Methodist Home for the Aged the year after the college moved to Carthage.

Hodge says the operators have developed a philosophy centered on the residents over the years.

“It’s their home and we’re they’re guests as management and staff,” he says.