In the arena of senior skilled care, where State of Iowa regulations are forcing many small skilled care communities to close, The Continental Care Center at Seymour, located in Seymour, Iowa are bucking the trend. Morgan Cline and Bill Burch purchased the community in an effort to prevent its planned closing. Their leadership combined with the leadership of Beth Owens, the administrator combined with the unusual dedication of a crew pulled together from the deep rural rolling hills of southern Iowa are making for unusual success.

In just two years, this group has done something unheard of. They’ve taken a community whose fate seemed sealed and brought it back to life. Since the purchase, Cline and Burch have invested over a half million dollars into the community. “90% of the investment was to improve care. We still have a long ways to go to make it look nice but families are very smart about recognizing care as a priority.”

Beth Owens, when asked how The Continental Care Center at Centerville could survive, in a town was on the verge of a “ghost town,” answered:

I can’t speak for others, but here both the new owners and myself as a manager tried to clearly communicate expectations by alerting staff of our high quality of care standards, that systems and policies will be changing, and doing the hard work of making sure things do change. Bill Burch, Morgan Cline, and the rest of the staff try to lead by example – as a manager I strive to show concern for the residents at all times, spend time listening to residents, staff, and families, make sacrifices where important and I try to work hard to show your concern for the success of the business. Thanks to the management and ownership working together to set strong goals and establish priorities, we spent money where money should be spent, on important quality of care. I think this witnessed to the community, residents and staff that we do invest in the best for them. Since we took over, we’ve done things like installing a new sprinkler system, a new fire alarm system, a new wireless monitoring system, a new stand up lift, a new copier, recruited the best dietician consultant, a fantastic foot doctor, provided new therapy services, recruited the best Medical Director to replace our prior one due to retirement, and improved staff pay. If our occupancy holds we plan to provide more benefits in 2010.

Betterment of The Continental Care Center shall continue in the future. Owens, Burch, and Cline all have such dedication to small-town America that this is just the first step in a long line of steps to improve Main Street America.