Bright House
Company
Overview
Ownership & Structure
Bright House is chartered as a nonprofit 501(C)(3) corporation in Middletown, CT, with the goal of providing holistic and respectful assisted living and skilled nursing home care to a small group of elderly residents. Our primary location is the old Wayfield Bed and Breakfast, on Farmer’s Road, which we have spent the last five months converting into a two building nursing home facility in line with Eden Alternatives "Greenhouse" model for enlightened elder living. (See architectural drawing, attached.)
Team
Management team
Caregiving Management
Bright House offers a different management structure from that of the typical hospital-model nursing home. Our primary caregivers, the 6 Elder Assistants, work as a self-managed team, meeting with the Medical Director and the nurse on-call every morning to coordinate care for the coming day.
Although the Medical Director has the ultimate responsibility for the health and well-being of all residents and visitors, the nursing and caregiving staff, with their different kinds of knowledge about the residents’ physical, social, and mental well-being, are expected to note, discuss, and recommend courses of action for all residents who, in their combined estimation, need help.
A 2001 study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found that the small percentage of Chief Nursing Officers reporting no nursing shortages in their facilities at the time of the study cited formalized programs focused on the needs of, and professional recognition for, their nursing staffs as the reason for their adequate staffing. Our compensation packages, management structure, and caregiving requirements are designed to continually remind our LPNs and Elder Assistants how very valuable they are.
Dr. Mildred Johnson is our Medical Director. Dr. Johnson has served as the head of Gerontology for six years at The Connecticut Hospital, and oversaw the creation, last year, of their Elder Assistant training program, which provides certification for Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA) to provide in-home hospice and respite care. Dr. Johnson has 20 years of experience working with elderly patients in this area, and has been integral in designing the physical layout, management structure, and priorities of Bright House.
The rest of our already-hired caregiving staff brings a whopping collective 75 years of professional experience in caring for elderly patients.
Financial Management:
Madeleine Morgan has been overseeing financial management of nonprofit organizations in Connecticut for 27 years. She became involved in our project when her mother developed a long-term care plan with Dr. Johnson which included home-based hospice care. "I wish everyone could have the same love and attention Dr. Johnson showed to my mother," Madeleine said. Ms. Morgan will be in charge of all financial operations at Bright House, overseeing billing, personnel payment and benefits, and development efforts.
Advertising and Marketing:
We are fortunate to have a skilled public relations officer in our group. Janice Ruthers is a retired ad executive living in Middletown with her husband (a professor at the university). She will be working 20 hours per week in our offices as a volunteer for the first two years of our plan, helping us design advertisements and brochures, and to plan events like our Open House in December to let the public see the results of our efforts.
5.1 Management Team Gaps
We still need to hire one swing-shift LPN, and one Elder Assistant. We are currently recruiting through Dr. Johnson’s connections at The Connecticut Hospital, and expect to complete our team by mid-December, at the latest.
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