BOSTON, May 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Harborside Healthcare Corporation, one of the nation’s largest and most respected skilled-nursing and long-term care companies, today announced that Damian Dell’Anno, the company’s president and chief operating officer since August 2001, will become Harborside Healthcare’s chief executive officer effective June 1, 2005.
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Mr. Dell’Anno will succeed Stephen L. Guillard in the CEO’s post. Mr. Guillard, who has been Harborside’s chief executive for 17 years, is leaving the company to become executive vice president of Manor Care, Inc., the leading owner and operator of long-term care centers in the United States.
“Harborside Healthcare is known as a strong advocate for delivering top quality care to our elders and the disabled, and that is a mission I intend to continue and strengthen in every one of our facilities,” Dell’Anno said. “All of us at Harborside are immensely grateful to Stephen for his contributions to the success of the company. I look forward to working with our more than 8,000 full and part-time employees to take an already great organization to a new level of growth and success.”
Mr. Dell’Anno, 45, joined Harborside Healthcare in 1989. He served as head of Harborside’s specialty services group and was instrumental in the initial development of Theracor, Harborside’s rehabilitation therapy company. Until 1994, Mr. Dell’Anno was responsible for the supervision and coordination of all of Harborside’s reimbursement-related matters until 1994. He was promoted to chief operating officer in 1994, and took on the additional role of president in 2001.
Harborside’s services fall into four general categories: Long-term care, care for Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, specialized medical care and rehabilitation. The company is an industry innovator in developing and providing post-acute care, long-term care, and other specialty medical programs and services.
From its Boston headquarters, Harborside operates 45 facilities in eight states in New England, the Mid-Atlantic and the Midwest. Nearly 5,000 individuals receive care at its facilities in Connecticut, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio and Rhode Island.
“Stephen Guillard has our sincere thanks for his very successful tenure building Harborside Healthcare into one of the nation’s leading long-term care providers. We have enjoyed our partnership with him and wish him all the best in his continued career at HCR Manor Care,” said Lars C. Haegg, managing director of Investcorp International, Inc., the majority owner of Harborside. “Damian Dell’Anno is the obvious choice to step into the CEO position by virtue of his strong record of accomplishment as president and COO. We are very comfortable that Damian will take Harborside to the next level of success.”
In 2002, Harborside Healthcare was one of the first in its industry to adopt an unprecedented, voluntary quality initiative in which the company and its employees pledged to follow a formal code of conduct and ethical management practices. Called “Quality First: A Pledge to Improve Quality through Accountability, Compassion and Leadership,” the initiative was the first of its kind in the healthcare industry.
In August 2004, Harborside Healthcare became the first long-term care company in the nation to publish the results of a detailed, annual quality survey of all of its facilities.
Harborside also has published the results of its annual family satisfaction surveys for the past two years. Since 2002, the satisfaction rate of family members who depend on Harborside Healthcare to care for their loved ones has risen from 71 percent to 82.2 percent.
Harborside has won more national quality awards per facility than any other major long-term care provider in America of its size, including the prestigious American Health Care Association (AHCA) Quality Award recognizing long-term care facilities that seek excellence in all aspects of providing care and services.
“Harborside Healthcare is proud of what we do. We are providing care for people with some of the most difficult and complex conditions in our nation’s health care system. And, we are succeeding in an industry in which it is becoming more and more difficult to recruit and retain high quality administrative and direct care staff,” Dell’Anno said. “Customer satisfaction is the best reflection of the quality of care we deliver. Our hardworking and committed employees live that goal each and every day.”
Prior to joining the company, Dell’Anno served as director of budget, reimbursement, and cash management for the Mediplex Group, Inc., from 1988 to 1989. From 1985 to 1988, he was payment systems director for Carney Hospital, a 400-bed acute-care facility in Boston, Massachusetts.
Before that position, he was manager of accounting at Brockton Hospital and a Medicare auditor for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. Dell’Anno, a native of Somerville, Mass., holds a B.S.B.A. degree in accounting from Suffolk University.
For More Information, Please Contact: Bradley N. Shiverick Vice President of Quality Assurance & Improvement Office: (617) 646-5504 Fax: (617) 646-5454 Mobile: (978) 853-5745 bshiverick@hbrside.com
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CONTACT: Bradley N. Shiverick, Vice President of Quality Assurance &Improvement of Harborside Healthcare, +1-617-646-5504, or +1-978-853-5745,bshiverick@hbrside.com