Horizon House Blog

Each month, our CEO Sara McVey shares updates from her life inside and outside of Horizon House.

Horizon House Bright Spots

As we move into our second month of 2019, let’s take a few minutes to show a little gratitude for all that was accomplished last year along with a few reminders about the ingredients that are in the Horizon House secret sauce:

• 545 residents, ages 68 to 103, from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, run 70+ committees, and plan programs, 7 days a week
• 99% of residents feel staff members are respectful
• 98% of residents are willing to recommend Horizon House as a place to live
• 99.73% was our average occupancy in Independent Living (IL)
• 47 new neighbors in 30 different apartments joined our Community
• 84% of residents contributed $422,000 to Partners in Caring, continuing our legacy
  of Residents’ Assistance
• 77.2% was the average occupancy for Supported Living (SL)
• 79% residents use the pool, gym, and attend fitness classes
• 276 talented and fun, full and part-time staff members perform with purpose
• 27 nationalities among staff, ranging in age from 17 to 74
• 11 promotions and 9 retirements were celebrated
• 20 staff in 14 departments benefited from the Employee Education Fund

Master Plan Updates

Horizon House views the Master Planning process as having three legs, (1) things we need to do, (2) things that support the secret sauce of our culture, and (3) things that have an impact on revenue which is important for our continuing ability to absorb economic shocks.

The Board is continuing to explore the following Master Plan priorities during this first phase:

• Refining the scope of Anderson Hall (Support the Culture)
• A serious review of the Central Tower, including HVAC upgrades (Need to Do)
• Further review of Supported Living (Revenue Producing)
• Ways to create accessible and meaningful Staff spaces (Support the Culture)

At this time, no specific decisions have been made as staff work on gathering additional information for Board discussions throughout the year. The Master Planning process is a continuous state-of-mind as our buildings are at different stages of maturity. It is important that we create a phased approach to make it manageable financially as well as from a staff and resident perspective. Future phases of planning will look at the rest of our buildings, as well as our amenity areas, including dining.

Senior Living In The News

At the January Board meeting, Horizon House leadership discussed the intentional design of Assisted Living communities in the marketplace. Click here for an article that showcases an example of the caliber of the options
available:

The Board also discussed “Technology as a Disruptor for Senior Living Communities.” Senior Living is facing disruption on multiple fronts, technology will continue to increase the ability of older adults to remain independent and out of congregate housing until later in life. Read more here about technology in Senior Living communities.