David V. Pomeranz, President and CEO of RiverSpring Living | CEOs You Should Know

David V. Pomeranz, President and CEO of RiverSpring Living | CEOs You Should Know

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi everyone, This is Steve DOLLI sign and welcome to
this week's This week's edition of CEOs you should know
I am thrilled to be joined by David Palmers, the
president and CEO of River Spring Living. David, thanks for
being here today.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Thanks for having me. It's great to be here.

Speaker 1 (00:11):
We're excited to have you, and we're excited to jump
in a little bit about your background and about River
Spring Living. So let's start off today really talking about
your background and what led you to your role as
presidents EA.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
So it's sort a bit of an accidental career. The
Heabret River Spring is in Riverdale, and I was going
to school at Manhattan College, and I was looking for
a part time job, and I took a job there
pushing wheelchairs so I could take residence to their activities.
So I was twenty some odd years at the time,
figure to just make a few dollars on the side,
and forty years later, I'm still sitting there.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
It's awesome.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
The truth is, my grandparents were deceased before I was born,
so I had people act as grandparents. But this really
filled a void for me, so I, in a sense
had many grandparents immediately, and they all had people for
me to date or to get married too, and it
was a really welcoming environment.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
That's a really fulfilling environment too.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (01:02):
So you mentioned you've been there for over four decades
to River Spring living. What has kept you inspired and
motivated along that journey.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
The residents themselves are incredibly powerful and interesting. You know,
people think when people get older that they're weak, they're diminished,
And yeah, physically they have challenges. Many of them are
dealing with diseases, but they've lived a life, many of them,
and they've seen things that generations that come after them haven't.
So I like to tell the story that when nine
to eleven hits, which is a tragedy in this country

(01:33):
and certainly in the state, the strongest, most resolved people
were the residents of our home.

Speaker 2 (01:37):
They lived through Pearl Harbor.

Speaker 3 (01:39):
They had the perspective understanding that you come through things
like that, and they were to sense the strength for
our organization happens again in COVID.

Speaker 2 (01:47):
COVID, everybody's going crazy. What's going on?

Speaker 3 (01:49):
URSI home to the epicenter of challenge. Staff are running
around worried, what are we going to do? How do
we staff the place, the residents like, we've been through polio,
we've seen things like this before, so really incredibly meaningful
to see the power, the vitality and the way these
residents live their lives.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
Yeah, that's inspiring. I'm sure that there's been many different
moments throughout the careers like that, right, What are some
of the top transformative moments in the career that have
really shaped the organization's growth.

Speaker 3 (02:20):
You know, things have changed in geriatric care over the years.
So you know, when I first started working in the organization,
I met a woman on my first day. Her name
was Anna Silverstone never Forget on the seventh floor. She'd
lived there for twenty five years when I met her, Wow,
twenty five years. In those days, there were no options,
so she was widowed. What are you going to do?

Speaker 2 (02:39):
She went to live in a facility.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
So the transform of our industry has been that there's
so many more options for people and so they have
assisted living, they have home care, so when they get
to long term care, there's lots of options for them.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
So it's really.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
Interesting to see how they utilize them and how people
are now understanding better. As time is going on, the
divergence of needs for married couples, So if they both
live for a period of time, it's more likely than
not one of them will develop some kind of memory
impairment or some kind of physical frailty, and organizations like
us build that in to understand that we have whatever
they need so that they can age in the same

(03:15):
place with different needs to be met.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Absolutely, And you guys have been in the forefront of
innovation with senior care. What I've banned some of those
biggest investments that you're proud.

Speaker 3 (03:26):
Of, Well, the one we're most proud of currently is technology.
We're doing a lot in the technology space. We've had
some real incredible support from some donors to give us
the advantage of doing some things that we never would
be able to do otherwise. I'll just give you a
couple of examples. Virtual reality is something that people play with.
It's a fun thing to enjoy. For seniors, it means

(03:47):
a little something different. It means they can be transported
to places they've never been, and some places they go
back to places they were born and then it gives
them a chance to reminisce where they were previously.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
That's incredible.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
But one of the fun things is in our rehab program.
But people come to us and then they go back
home after they finish their rehab. With virtual reality, we
send their family home with a camera. It films their
apartment or their house and they put on the VR
and so when they're with us in our facility doing rehab,
they're doing rehab in their own home virtually, and for
them that makes them feel very motivated. It really improves

(04:17):
their interest in doing it. It makes them feel excited
that they're almost home, and it gives us a chance
to see things in the home which we could advise
them about. So if they're wires drewn all over the
floor or something that might be dangerous, it gives us
a chance to see those and help them to prevent
those when they get back home.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
That's a really incredible use of technology. Who would have
thought that virtual reality would be able to do that.

Speaker 3 (04:38):
Also, we have devices that could predict fall risk. So
we put you onto a screen, you start to walk,
It manages your gate and your speed and it gives
you a score. So it determines whether you are at
high risk low risk, and we can work with you
in therapy and do some things to help you have
a high risk to avoid that fall.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
That's incredible. I know that you've been also to the
technology spearheading the Houser Care Connect, which is a national
model for implementing new technologies for older adults. Can you
share more about that initiative and the impact it's been having.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
Yeah, First, let me just say that the woman the
Housers rita Houser who's a really well known philanthropist who
supports a number of not for profits, and she really
saw the need for us to the opportunity really and
the need for us to do some things in this space.
And so she has spearheaded all these things, and she's
the kind of philanthropist who comes and tries these things out.

(05:32):
So one of the things we put in was a robot.
So there's a robot. When somebody falls and breaks a
hip when they go to a facility for rehab, what
generally happens is they have two therapists that give them
a wedgie or they're walking down the hall so they
don't fall. With this robot, somebody who's had a fall
and broken a hip, they go into harness and the
robot guides them as they're walking. So there's no risk,

(05:53):
they don't have to be afraid of falling. They have
a greater confidence and they prove much faster. So, you know,
technology is everywhere every business, and people think, well, why
would it be in a long term care facility. It
should be everywhere. You know, where would you go to
a hotel that didn't have Wi Fi? Where would you
go to anywhere that wasn't high tech. I'm in a
high tech studio today, So people expect those kinds of things,
including our seniors. And you know, our call bell system

(06:15):
for example, call bells are the number one complaint in
all hospitals and all nurse frooms in the world.

Speaker 2 (06:21):
You push that bell.

Speaker 3 (06:22):
We've been in hospitals and in situations like that, it
feels like it's twelve hours before somebody comes. It might
be five minutes, but it feels like twelve hours. In
our facility. When you push that button, immediately it calls
the cell phone of the caregiver. The cagoer gets on
the phone, it says what do you need? If it's
life threatening, they're there instantly. If it's I want a
cup of water, could jamie the remote control, they can

(06:43):
triage it. And today's world with staffing challenges, it's important
to be able to utilize staff as effectively as possible,
and this kind of technology really does that for people.

Speaker 1 (06:53):
That's amazing. I never would have thought that the different
advancements in technology would have such an impact. So it's
such an interesting priceerspective.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
Yeah, well, you know there are people and you know
in our facility, older people are doing the same things
that younger people doing.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
They date.

Speaker 3 (07:06):
We have a dating program so they're able to we
quote jay dating.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
I mean there is J Day we call g dating,
So grandparents.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
I don't want to get in trouble with the Jay
dat part, so grandparent dating and they fill out forms
and they see if they have common interests and they
go on coffee dates.

Speaker 1 (07:21):
That's awesome.

Speaker 3 (07:22):
And you know, people think because they're older that they
don't want intimacy, they don't want to be touched, and
nothing can be further for the truth. They want to
do all the same things they've always done.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
That's incredible.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
I know.

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Another partnership you have is the partnership with the New
York Presbyterian and it's been really instrumental in expanding care services.
How's that collaboration come about.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
So that most things happen because of people, and so
we've shared people over time that needed help either for
the hospital or for our facility, and you build relationships.
New York Presaterian is one of the finest hospital systems
in the world, certainly in New York State, and you know,
they have a lot of expertise and a lot of
need for our services. So when people are in the
hospital and they're older, generally hospitals are not a great

(08:04):
place to be for an older person. You know, there's infections,
they need the beds for people that need to have
surgical procedures, so they need to move them out quickly
to a safe place, and that's one of the roles
we play, and we do that for them, and we
have rehab for their patients who need rehab and for us,
when our patients need great medical care, we can send
them to them. So it's really worked out well in

(08:24):
both regards, and certainly during COVID it was a very
important partnership. We actually opened a building on our campus
to take care of people with COVID WOW, and there
were people that came from the hospital from New York
Presbyterian Hospital who needed to get out of the hospital
because they needed space for people that were sicker. So
as they healed and they could get sort of downgraded
to a lesser need of a care, they would come

(08:45):
to us.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
You guys were that destination. Yes, that's awesome. Sounds like
an infante COVID.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
Seems like it was one hundred years ago, and yet
it really wasn't that long ago.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
It feels like that. Thankfully, I let us stay there. Well,
you guys have had so many different accomplishments throughout the year,
and it sounds like you guys are continuing to make
those advancements even today. Looking ahead at the future. What
are some of your key goals that are on the horizon.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
Goals?

Speaker 3 (09:12):
You know, there's a never ending battle to improve the
quality of life to what can you come up with
next that'll give them something more interesting to think about
to do. And I think when I think about that
question now, I think really about dementia care because generally speaking,
people go to long term care when they have memory impairment,
and you know, for a time, memory pairment was a

(09:33):
focus in this world, and there's many focuses and many
things going on, and I feel like it hasn't really
gotten the attention in the last number of years. It
should certainly with COVID and other things going on, and
I think there's more work to be done to improve
life for people at dementia. I'll tell you one thing
we did this year which I'm very proud of, which is,
you know, people generally with memory pairment stay in facilities
and it's like that's their life in a facility. And

(09:55):
this year we broke them out. We said we want
to go out and do some things. And this is
going to be pain for me to say as a
Red Sox fan, but I reached out.

Speaker 2 (10:02):
To the Yankees. Can we edit that out? Later reached
out to the Yankees.

Speaker 3 (10:05):
The Yankee said, you want to bring your folks with
dementia the Yankee Stadium.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
We'll create a special way for you to do that.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (10:11):
Lon tros who's the CEO of the Yankees, took my call,
met with him. He organizes himself. We took bus loads
of people over to tour the stadium to walk on
the grass.

Speaker 2 (10:20):
With their children.

Speaker 3 (10:21):
So the same children they took took them to the
Yankee Stadium and they read to do stuff.

Speaker 2 (10:26):
We've done the same thing.

Speaker 3 (10:26):
With botanical gardens, the Bronx Zoo, the ideas people at
dementia shouldn't be isolated in a way, they should live
the lives they've always led. So I think there's more
to do in that space. There's more for us to
educate other providers. And you know these are people that
the numbers of people with dementia's only growing. Yep, the
numbers are staggering and scary, and I think it's up
to usify new ways to engage them.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
That's awesome. What are an incredible initiative and those are
probably lifelong memories that you're creating for those families.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
So just take the Yankee part out from me absolutely.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
Looking at hat are there any upcoming project?

Speaker 2 (11:00):
Thanks?

Speaker 1 (11:00):
Are initiatives that you're particularly excited about?

Speaker 3 (11:03):
Well, actually, we're constructing a new building which we're very
excited about. It's called River's Edge. It's what's called a
life care community, and this will allow people who come
at an earlier stage of their life and basically they
graduate their life throughout their time with us. So they'll
live in a very independent setting golf simulators, fancy restaurants, pools,
but as their care needs change over time, they'll be
able to move to our assists of living, our nursing home,

(11:25):
and again, as I talked about before, these spouses differing needs.
So one could be independent in the river's edge, one
could be in a dependent situation the assists of living.
So we're trying to give more opportunities for more variety
and more depth to be able to handle people whatever
they need.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
That's important, not one size fits all. So it's nice
to be able to have that wide variety absolutely. So
looking ahead, I know that there's probably some in addition
to all the positives, there's probably some unique challenges. What
are some of the biggest hurdles you faced in your
career and how did you overcome them?

Speaker 3 (11:57):
Well, funding is one of them, you know. Unfortunately, you know, government,
whether it be state or federal, doesn't always think about
elderly people in their needs. The costs of medicaid or
significant there are always a target of cuts. They're really
insufficient to provide the quind of quality care that long
term care organizations want to provide. So I think that's

(12:18):
something that's going to be addressed, probably through some kind
of negative crisis at some point where you know, like
the mental health world went through with Willoughbrook. I think
there's going to need to be some things that have
to happen for people to wake up and understand that.
So we're constantly trying to advocate and to promote seniors
in their needs. They've paid a lot of taxes, they've

(12:39):
done a lot of things to live their lives in
a proper way, and it seems at the end of
life that there aren't the kind of dollars there for
them that they need. So I think that's an incredible challenge.
It will only get harder. I think, without being political,
I just think over is in charge of the politics
of the state and the country. They're challenged with a
number of complex issues. Seniors seem to always be at

(13:01):
the bottom of the list, so people like myself in
this career and others are trying to get them to
the front of the line. Always to realize they've paid
their dues, they've done their time, and they need their services.
So I think that's something that will continue to be
a tough topic going forward.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
Yeah, for sure, they should be thankful that there's people
like you, though at the front lines obviously advocating for them.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
I'm on the way to becoming one of them.

Speaker 3 (13:24):
So you know, if you work in a place long enough,
I tell people one day, instead of going home in
the car, I'll the elevator upstairs.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
But I might not know when that day is.

Speaker 1 (13:33):
But yeah, I think they have a lot of years
ahead before it's that day. But let's talk about River
Spring Living. What is the one thing you want anyone
tuning in to really know about the mission of the organization.

Speaker 3 (13:46):
To care for people whatever their needs are. You know,
I think sometimes people come thinking they need one thing
and they really need something else.

Speaker 2 (13:53):
You know, it's complicated.

Speaker 3 (13:54):
Even people that are brilliant in their fields of business
have no idea what medicare covers and Medicaid covers. So
I think I want people to know they don't have
to know what they need. They need to go to
an organization like us, hopefully US, but others with whatever's
presenting with them, whatever they're seeing when they had Thanksgiving
dinner with their family, or whatever they're when they talk
to mom, what they're they're noticing, and talk to somebody

(14:16):
who can guide them. It's a complicated maze of services
and care and what's covered by what and what's this?
I think people need to talk to people and need
to professionals, get guidance, get support oftentimes because these are
very emotional and challenging issues. To decide when it's time
for replacement or services and bringing a home care person
too your house. It's never an easy thing to do.
It's necessary, but it's a little bit like matchmaking to

(14:38):
find the right person. So I yally encourage people to
reach out to us and to others when they're seeing
something before it becomes a crisis. The worst time to
make decisions is in crisis.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah, great advice for those that are tuning in that
might be interested in exploring opportunities within the healthcare industry,
What is some advice you would give them.

Speaker 3 (15:00):
Do your homework and again, as I said, do your
homework early, you know, think about things.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
You know.

Speaker 3 (15:06):
We had a reporter up in the Wall Street Journal
doing a story last week and the whole genesis of
the stores what I was talking about in terms of
the divergent needs. Sure, you know, you're married, you're happy,
everything's wonderful, and who wants to think about things which
went and that could be wonderful, But it's important to
have the conversations understand what the wishes are of your
spouse and sort of planned. What if I tell people
when they're dealing with their parents who have challenges, go

(15:28):
see places, talk to people, be ahead of the game
a little bit, think about it, even though they're tough conversations.
It's not fun to plan a well, to do a well.
It's not fun to go look at facilities that you're
not going to want to need until you need them.
But it's important, and I think these days it's important
to do the homework and to be proactive.

Speaker 1 (15:45):
Absolutely so. You obviously have walked us through your impressive
background at River Spring Living. Looking ahead when you eventually
part ways, what do you want your legacy to be?

Speaker 3 (15:58):
It's a great question, you know. I've had the blessing
of being involved in so many things over my career.
I think, you know, as I get towards this phase,
dementia care is important to me.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
I lost my mother to it.

Speaker 3 (16:10):
I've watched people suffer for many years, and I think
I want to be able to take that another step
down the road. I talked about the trips we've done,
but in terms of environments and the way people treated,
the way they're talked to, I really want to further
that ball down the road, so people are not scared
of dementia, then how to talk.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
To people with it.

Speaker 3 (16:28):
They don't shun them, and they find a way to
manage it because it's it's tough. It's complicated to be
with somebody you love and to see them diminished and
understand that they can't do the things they once did.
But it's important to find a way to create pathways
and to support them while they're doing it. So I
think I'd like to take dementia from the ten yard
line to the end zone.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
I'm looking forward to seeing that happen. Thank you, well,
we covered a lot today. Do you feel like there's
anything we might have missed that you want our listeners
to know about River Spring Living?

Speaker 3 (16:57):
I think I'm grateful that we on this. I'm grateful
that they've listened to it, and I hope whatever's going
on in their lives, grandparents, parents, that gets some thinking
and talking so they feel better prepared and less frightened
of the topic.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
That will be a success for me.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Absolutely. If any of those individuals are tuning in right now,
what's the best way for them to get information on
River Spring Living and learn more so.

Speaker 3 (17:20):
Riverspring dot org is certainly a way to find us
on the web, or fifty six Senior is a phone
number that can call, so either way, happy to help
anybody who has a need, or thinks they have a need,
or just wants to better understand what services are available.

Speaker 1 (17:33):
Awesome, well, David, it's been an absolute pleasure getting to
know you, learning about your background, learning more about River
Spring Living and all the amazing work you guys are doing.
We're really looking forward to it, so thank you so
much for being part of the show today.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
I really appreciate you having me.

Speaker 1 (17:45):
Thank you absolutely, Thank you everybody for tuning in, and
please tune in next week for next week's edition of
CEOs You Should Know