A conversation with Floyd Schlossberg and a peek at Alden Management.

By Steve Moran

In my world of attending conferences, I have discovered that I am not the only conference junkie out there, though I am betting I top the list, which will hit something like 18 by the end of the year. Over the course of the last couple of years, I kept seeing this one older guy who, as near and I could tell, mostly kept to himself. We had nodded to each other a few times and that was it.

When we would nod to each other, I was kind of afraid to engage in a conversation that almost certainly would have to start with me saying . . .

“I am Steve Moran and I can’t remember if we met before . . .”

I do this dozens of times during the conference season but every single time it is embarrassing to me. My sort of lame excuse is that I will have in the neighborhood of 1,900 conversations with around 1,300 people, and I just can’t remember everyone (but I remember more each year).  

Finally, I knew I wanted to have a conversation. I was guessing that he would have some cool stuff to talk to me about.  

I introduced myself and he introduced himself — which meant either we had not really met before, neither of us could remember, or he was gracious enough to pretend like we never met.

I asked him what he does and he started to tell me that I had to see some pictures. Out came his iPad and he showed me picture after picture of these amazing short-term stay skilled nursing facilities in the Chicago area.

That was my introduction to Alden Management and Floyd Schlossberg. Our conversation ended with him inviting me to come visit.

Cool Stuff

I was in Chicago for the amazing (and getting better every year) SMASH/SHINE conference. I blocked out an extra day to go visit some communities and executives in the area. On top of my list was Floyd and some Alden Management communities. Bob Molitor, their CEO, gave me a half-day to tour including three facilities and lunch in the last one.

They currently have around 35 mostly skilled nursing facilities in the Chicago area and are today primarily focused on short-term rehab stays. They are a vertically integrated company, which includes their own construction company, architectural and interior design group, pharmacy, rehabilitation company, hospice and more.  

Their buildings have amazing interiors that include carpeting in corridors and resident rooms. There was zero smell. The common areas looked more like hotels than care communities. You can see some photos I took below.

The Sky is Falling . . . or It is Rosy Pink

Coming out of NIC’s 2016 fall conference, most of the discussion surrounding skilled nursing was moderately gloomy. It was along the lines of “. . . It is going to get tougher, but at some point it has to bottom out after which it will get better.”

I asked Bob about their view. While he acknowledged that in the short-term reimbursements are declining, he said they are still making money. As the payment model shuffles, they are committed to being the preferred short-term stay communities in their marketplaces. As a result, they are quite bullish on their future.

Attracting Youth

The other thing that really impressed me . . . they have a bunch of very young, bright administrators. They work closely with the University of Wisconsin where they have what may very well be the best nursing home administrator program in the country.

They strongly believe that disruption equals opportunity.