A lot has changed since Boyd Hendrickson was hired as a nursing home administrator back in 1970. Take bingo, for example.
In those days, when an announcement for a game was broadcast over the PA system, employees quickly cleared out of the hallway.
“If you weren’t getting hit by a wheelchair, it would be people walking,” the Skilled Healthcare Group Inc. CEO and chairman recalls amusingly.
Today, those residents, most of whom were alert and ambulatory, probably would be residing in assisted living facilities.
Hendrickson’s firm, which has only about 80 skilled nursing units and 20 assisted living facilities, has helped drive an evolution in the business. The facilities’ 54 Express Recovery units, which are located inside the buildings, attract patients recovering from hip, knee and other similar operations. Befitting a modern facility, the units are equipped with everything from Internet cafes to flat screen TVs to massage rooms and jacuzzis.
“It was kind of like the old ‘Field of Dreams’ movie,” Hendrickson explains. “We built it to see if they would come, and they came.”
Others in the field credit Hendrickson with jumping into the Medicare pool early.
Skilled Healthcare has “shown the way in terms of what a 21st century facility can and should look like,” says Paul Diaz, CEO of nursing home giant Kindred Healthcare Inc.
Hendrickson, who turns 65 this month, has seen more than most in his nearly four-decade-long stint in long-term care. He has risen to the top of companies such as then-behemoth Beverly Enterprises, and turned around others, such as Skilled Healthcare Group.
Now in what he calls the twilight of his career, Hendrickson says he could be having more fun than ever. When he addresses employees at meetings, he tends to choke up when talking about the company and how much he appreciates them.
“Veterans of his speeches always have tissues at the ready for him,” says President and Chief Operating Officer Jose Lynch, a rising star at Skilled Healthcare.
The owner’s compassion and dry wit endear him to colleagues and employees alike.
“The so-called life of the party syndrome fits him,” says Bruce Yarwood, head of the American Health Care Association.
Starting out, working in long-term care seemed more interesting than his job at a bank, Hendrickson recalls. Mormon, he grew up in Provo, UT, and attended Brigham Young University. His father, an electrical engineer, worked at U.S. Steel. He credits one of his two brothers, Blaine, a former AHCA chair, with bringing him into the nursing home business.
When not working, his life revolves around his wife, Sue, and his two young children, daughter Logan, 15, and son Parker, 14, who plays on a competitive soccer team. His adult children are Darren, 39; Kelly, 36; Krista, 33, and Kami, 31. He also has seven grandchildren. The whole family gathers each July Fourth in Park City, UT.
Hendrickson is pleased he has had the opportunity to change the way people receive care.
“You feel like along the way somehow, somewhere you’ve been able to do some good,” he says.
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Resumé
1969
Graduates with B.S. degree in business management and accounting from Brigham Young University
1970
Becomes an administrator for the Beverly Enterprises nursing home chain
1983
Formalizes Care Enterprises, formerly of Tustin, CA, and takes it public
1988
Returns to Beverly as executive vice president of operations
1995
Tapped to be president and COO of Beverly
2001
Becomes president and CEO of Evergreen Healthcare, Vancouver, WA
2005
Named chairman of Skilled Healthcare Group Inc.
2007
Skilled Healthcare Inc. goes public. Known as SKH on the New York Stock Exchange
From the October 01, 2009 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
