Beverly Whistleblower

Here’s an interesting little article about the former director of operations for Beverly LIving Centers in one of the midwestern states.  “Ken Williston,” as he’s called in the article, says he was the representative of the national office, and assisted nursing home administrators in meeting the company’s clinical and financial goals.  Seems he realized that Beverly was attempting to eliminate family choice of hospice care in favor of SeraCare, which is owned by Beverly.  Mr. Williston reported this finding to his immediate supervisor and to the company compliance officer, and was unemployed within 30 days.

Williston, himself a nursing home administrator, states “Its all about family choice, patient choice.  That’s what its all about.  By law, the family has the right to choose their hospice care and home care.  I raised that point with management, and that’s why I’m sitting here right now.”

Beverly is one of the chains that was recently (2005) acquired by a private equity firm (Fillmore Capital).  Williston says that they know nothing about nursing homes, and they’ve cut the overhead by ten to fifteen percent to increase their income.

Also sounds like Beverly was increasing their income by encouraging families to “choose” additional health care from their own companies – more money in, less money out.