Ballard: Primrose celebrates 30 years of high-quality senior care

It’s not often that a small business exists past 10 years.

It’s even less likely that it flourishes so much so that expansion is necessary.

But that’s exactly the case for Primrose Retirement Communities, which this year is celebrating three decades of enriching the lives of senior citizens socially, mentally and physically.

Primrose was founded in 1989 by Jim Thares, who is a certified public accountant by trade. The first facility was built in Aberdeen and was a personal ambition of Thares’. He was motivated to get involved in senior care after watching his own grandfather live at home alone in his later years. At that time, there were very few options for people who were older, save for moving in with an adult child or into a nursing home. As Thares tell it, his grandpa was essentially sitting around waiting to die.

“I thought, ‘Shame on us.’ Here are people that have been productive in life and raised families and had jobs and they still have life. We need to do a better job of fulfilling them in their later years of life,” Thares said.

Fast forward three decades and today there are 41 Primrose communities across 17 states, with more planned in the future. The company employs around 1,500 people and was recently listed as one of the 20 of best employers in the senior living industry by the Nebraska–based health care-intelligence firm NRC Health. In a current climate that sees many senior health facilities closing or struggling, Primrose continues to do something right. If you ask employees, most of that can be chalked up to the values and morals of the man at the helm.

Thares did extensive research into the market before opening his first independent care facility. But long-term financial and expansion strategies for Primrose certainly were not on his mind. He simply saw a need in the community and went about answering that as best he could.

“I really never had an exit strategy or had a vision for where it would go. At the time, I was just passionate about what we were doing. It was never about how many we built or how much money we made. I just felt that if we were good at what we did, the financial piece and other rewards would come with it,” he said.

Since its conception, Primrose has worked on changing the perception surrounding senior care. It started out as one independent living center for seniors who still wanted to lead fulfilling lives, but without the burden of owning and keeping up a home. Eventually, the company expanded to include assisted-living centers and more recently, Memory Care apartments for those living with Alzheimer’s or other types of dementia. The ongoing goal is to provide care for seniors in all types of health capacity, keeping the residents at the forefront of every decision made.

“Our philosophy is a person-centered care approach, so how do we do it the right way every time for that person, and recognizing it’s not going to be the same for everyone,” said Dylan Kessler, training and development coordinator at Primrose. “Every resident we have and every resident we serve is the most important person to someone. And that often gets lost in certain areas of health care, but it’s very much on our minds.”

“We make sure our staff is trained to go to where that person is, kind of live in that person’s reality versus expecting them to live in our reality. That’s never how it should be,” Jessi Weldon, director of sales and marketing, said. “We should be able to change our ways to best meet what that person’s needs are at any stage in their journey.”

To celebrate 30 years, the home office invited more than 100 representatives, including some from every Primrose site, for a week of activities, keynote speakers and employee appreciation. Having the conference in Aberdeen was a no-brainer for organizers, not just because of the economic impact it would have on the community but because they wanted to bring everyone to the place it all started.

“Being based out of the Midwest, I think a lot of those values, like hard work, respect and accountability, is pretty evident in our company,” Thares said.

“I think seeing Aberdeen provides context as to why Primrose is so successful. To be able to show our staff from around the country that it’s important to us that we’re from Aberdeen,” Kessler said. “We’re proud to be based in Aberdeen. This is who we are and who we’ll always be. To show that to our staff is really important to us.”

Kessler has been with Primrose for nearly seven years, while Weldon has had her position for 14. Most of the workers in the home office have been there at least five years, and some founding members are still heavily involved in everyday processes, including Thares. That longevity of staff is something Primrose is proud of, Weldon said, and shows just how much importance the company places on employee satisfaction.

“When you go to work every day and you know you’re doing the right thing, you know you’re enhancing lives, that’s a pretty amazing thing,” she said. “Jim’s standards are so high and the company’s standards are so high that you always know you’re never going to falter on your ethics or your morals. You’re always going to keep that resident at the core of everything you do, and I think that’s rare.”

Ongoing training, quarterly conferences, annual leadership retreats and a culture that encourages open communication are staples to making sure operations run smoothly at all Primrose sites. When employees are happy and confident, patients will be better cared for, Kessler said. It all goes back to one of the company’s mottos — relentless improvement.

“We’re constantly learning, we’re constantly trying new things to provide the best care that we can and to provide our team the resources they need,” he said. “It’s impractical and irresponsible to expect them to provide care for our residents if they’re not being cared for themselves.”

Thares wants to continue his work in senior living as long as he can do it the right way. That means maintaining relationships with both residents and staff, and avoiding being too corporate.

“If we still have the opportunity to change lives or impact lives in a positive way, we’ll keep doing what we’re doing,” he said. “I guess I still feel like there’s still a lot of (people like my grandfather) out there.”

Thares’ passion for the senior community and his continued involvement in even minute details are constant motivators to staff, according to Weldon. It’s also a reason why Primrose looks for certain kind of people when hiring — those whose personal beliefs reflect Thares’.

“For Jim to have been able to have the vision to do it right is pretty amazing. I think it’s because he set such a strong foundation and did it the right way and didn’t take shortcuts,” Weldon said. “The business end of it is just an end result. It’s what you do on the front end that’s important. The results will come if you do the right things.”

“And they have,” Kessler added. “We can teach someone what to do, we can’t teach them who to be.”