Trinity Hospice - Turnaround

Company: Trinity Hospice
Company Description: Trinity Hospice, the nation’s 7th largest hospice provider, offers palliative care/support to terminally ill patients and their families. Trinity focuses on meeting the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of terminally ill patients and their loved ones. Trinity has rapidly expanded through internal growth and acquisition and now operates from 24 locations across 9 states.
Nomination Category: Company, Office & Product Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Business Turnaround

Nomination Title: Trinity Hospice: Change Inspires Performance

   1. Tell the story about what this nominated company achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Since its founding in 1998 and the 2001 investment by a leading private equity firm, Trinity Hospice remained challenged because it did not possess the proper infrastructure to support the aggressive roll up being pursued or the ability to incorporate acquisitions, hence it was realizing significant losses.  Additionally, Trinity didn’t have appropriate standards or accountabilities in place and was unable to adhere to the right guidelines and protocols. 

In 2004, Steve Plochocki was named CEO - recruited to help foster a turnaround.  He quickly realized that Trinity lacked:

·A corporate support system for the field organization
·Local center managers overseeing sales, marketing, operations and business
·Standardized clinical protocols and guidelines
·A clinical operational structure
·An overall accountability system across all levels

Plochocki and his team implemented key initiatives to stimulate growth, which now form the basis of its operational structure, including:

·Executed a performance–based system.   By using incentives, local empowerment and peer group rankings (monitored by monthly operating calls), standards were raised and performance improved. .
·Changed attitude and spirit of organization:  Through incentives, empowerment and collaborative processes to solve problems, establish policies, procedures and best practices, the workforce became fully engaged, fueling positive human spirit within the organization. 
·Upgraded compliance and clinical operations:  Created a regional oversight structure, to ensure compliance with government standards and regulations.
·Relocation of the corporate office:  Moving the corporate office from Tulsa to Dallas in 2005 allowed management better access to larger pools of resources. 
·Improved cash flow.  Reduced its days of sales outstanding (or DSO, a benchmark used by healthcare companies to gauge revenues by determining # of days it takes to collect) by 10 days from 61 to 51.  This enhanced cash flow and improved operations.
·Restructured the field organization:  Established three regions, each led by a regional vice president and a regional director of business development. 
·Created additional administration positions.  Hired, trained and nurtured program administrators to oversee day-to-day operations of individual business units, each having profit and loss responsibility.
·Launched focused internal sales blitz:  Implemented sales program using its own sales experts as ammunition.  These sales pros visited various branches and motivated employees, drove revenue and spurred market referral opportunity. 
·Developed standards, best practices and training programs for all positions. 
Set standards for employing key training programs that appropriately positioned clinical experts and enabled them to deliver quality patient care.

Trinity’s financial performance is improving.  In the 2004 fourth quarter, the company recorded an $805, 000 loss in EBITDA which was reversed throughout 2005, culminating in 2005 EBITDA of $5.6 million and pre-tax income of $779,000.  Revenue grew 10 percent and admissions to Trinity’s programs at its 24 locations in nine states grew in excess of 20 percent from 3,519 in 2004 to 4,253 in 2005. Its patient census (number of patients on service at a given time) has risen to nearly 1,300 (as of year-end 2005). 

   2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

http://www.trinityhospice.com/news/docs/tulsa%20awd%20rele.pdf

http://thestevies.com/ABA06Attachments/TrinityHospiceBestBusinessTurnaround.pdf

http://thestevies.com/ABA06Attachments/TrinityHospiceBestTurnaroundExecutive.pdf

   3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader of this nominated company:

Steven T. Plochocki joined Trinity Hospice as CEO/board member in 2004. 

The 30-year healthcare industry veteran and entrepreneur, known as an architect of turnarounds, received the 2002 Orange County/Inland Empire Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year award and inducted into the Entrepreneur Of The Year Hall of Fame that same year.

Plochocki is credited with the turnaround of InSight Health Services.  He earned the 2003 American Business Award for best business turnaround, which was featured in Donald Trump’s recent book, “Trump: The Way to the Top: The Best Business Advise I Ever Received”.  InSight earned two dozen awards, for performance management and business practices.