San Juan Capistrano, CA, January 22, 2007 — Contact:
Scott McCaskey
Goldman & Associates
757-625-2518
Passion and Unique Model Help Alzheimer’s CEO Grow Company 80 % in 3 Years
Working at his aunt’s psychiatric hospital as a teen, Loren Shook saw first hand the therapeutic effects that animals and children have upon people with cognitive and memory problems. Those learning experiences are still with him, part of a passion and business model to bring meaningful life to people that many in society have given up on.
Shook’s California-based company, Silverado Senior Living, provides care for people with Alzheimer’s disease and other memory impairment. The company has innovated many unique practices to create a better life for its residents. For example, over 500 animals reside in Silverado’s 13 communities to provide comfort, stimulation and enrich resident’s lives. To meet this commitment the company spends more than $500,000 annually to take care of these animals. Additionally, the firm’s employees are encouraged to bring their children to work to provide intergenerational interaction and enjoyment for residents, as well as a solution to child daycare. Shook’s unique ‘dignity in risk’ approach and data tracking system show that people with memory impairment actually flourish rather than flounder when appropriate risk remains part of their lives. These practices and others have helped more than 2,500 residents learn to walk and/or feed themselves again. The big difference made in people’s lives also translates to Shook’s balance sheet. Silverado has grown by approximately 80% since 2003. The company’s revenues hit $81 million for 2006 and projects revenues of $100 million for 2007.
“Many people still do not realize the real differences you can make in the lives of people with Alzheimer’s and for their love ones,” says Shook, who has more than 30 years experience in developing and managing assisted living communities, behavioral health care systems and sub-acute care hospitals in the U.S., Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom. “You have to provide an environment that gives people a freedom to live.”
Shook co-founded Silverado in 1996. The company is headquartered just south of Los Angeles in San Juan Capistrano and has 1,800 employees. There currently are 13 Silverado communities in California, Texas and Utah, with three new locations under construction.
Shook’s passion and his penchant for doing business a little differently have helped Silverado dramatically grow other areas of the company. The hospice division was started in 2004 and had revenues of about $969,000. Projected revenues are above $21 million for 2007. The senior services/home care division was also started in 2004 and had revenues of about $1,110,000. Projected revenues for 2007 are above $10 million. Hospice and home care are projected to account for 21 percent and 11 percent, respectively, of Silverado’s total revenues in 2007. Each division accounted for about 2 percent of total revenues in 2004.
“We’re making our business conform to people’s needs,” Shook says. “Our commitment to bring meaningful life through passion and creativity better serves those for whom we care, whether it’s in our communities, receiving care in their current home or at the end of life on hospice.”
Shook is now introducing a new management model that he says is particularly appropriate for his philosophy and the business of senior living. The love versus fear model is based upon a respect and embrace philosophy, instead of the fear and avoid model that is commonly used. The new paradigm will support his plans to grow the company by 25 percent annually, recruit the best employees and augment the firm’s extensive training program.
“Our staff is already passionate about what they do, so this is a natural progression, a transformation from ethical to spiritual,” Shook says. “It instills trust, respect, understanding and accountability, and will ultimately lead to a happier staff and better quality of life for our residents, patients and clients. We’re going to build our company culture around this.”
For the future, Shook sees Silverado continuing to significantly expand its home care division to better serve an aging population that increasingly will look to find ways to stay at home longer. Hospice services also will expand. Shook says Silverado by 2011 will be a $250 million company with 35 communities, $45 million in home care revenues and 1,000 hospice patients.
Shook is on the board of directors of the Assisted Living Federation of American and the American Seniors Housing Association. He received the Glenner Alzheimer’s Family Center Sterling Award for 2006, and in 2005 was Ernest and Young’s Healthcare Entrepreneur of the Year for Orange County, California and Arizona. Before co-founding Silverado, he was the president of Community Psychiatric Centers.
For more information, or to arrange an interview with Mr. Shook, contact me,
Scott McCaskey, or Audrey Knoth, at Goldman & Associates at 757-625-2518 or at: scott@goldmanandassociates.com, or at: Audrey@goldmanandassociates.com. Visit Silverado Senior Living at: www.silveradosenior.com.
