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Big news! Pioneer Network and The Green House Project today announced their intention to enter a formal alliance.
Center for Innovation, Inc., the organization that owns the Green House trademark, is committed to maintaining and expanding both the Pioneer and Green House brands in the years to come, with plans to build a shared executive leadership team currently under active discussion.
“For years, GHP and Pioneer have collaborated on a variety of eldercare reform initiatives, driven by our shared history and mission to improve the lives of nursing home residents today and in the future,” Pioneer Network CEO Penny Cook said. “Together, we will go farther than we could as parallel travelers on the same path.”
A recent report from National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine on the state of nursing home care in the United States – which described the current system as “ineffective” and “unsustainable” – underscores the dire need for real change driven by increased partnership among changemakers.
“In the wake of the COVID-19 disaster in nursing homes and other eldercare settings, reform-minded organizations must band together to amplify their voices and cut through the ineffective rhetoric that has held back true change for decades,” GHP senior director Susan Ryan said. “A Green House-Pioneer alliance is a vital step toward real systemic transformation.”
The transaction is expected to close in early fall. Once the combination is formally completed, the joint entity will serve as a full-continuum consulting, advisory, and education partner for eldercare organizations looking to spark cultural, organizational, and physical change.
Pioneer Network and Green House have an intertwined history. Founded in 1997 by a group of forward-thinking long-term care professionals, Pioneer Network has worked to foster elder-directed operational culture in nursing homes and other congregate settings across the country.
Geriatrician and Pioneer Network co-founder Dr. Bill Thomas then launched The Green House Project in 2003 to dramatically reimagine the physical structure of the nursing home itself, abandoning institutional mini-hospitals in favor of small homes with private rooms and warm communal areas that don’t just feel like home – but truly are home.
If there’s one overarching lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s that no one solution can fix the deep fractures in our eldercare landscape. Elders in the United States and around the world deserve to receive high-quality, dignified care and supports in the setting of their choice – whether that’s at home or in a congregate setting.
By combining forces, Pioneer Network and GHP can draw on their decades of shared experience to improve the lives of people living in nursing homes today, while also building a better eldercare infrastructure for future generations.
“Moving forward, organizations looking to break from the past and implement elder-directed care will have a single address for cultural and physical transformation,” Cook and Ryan said. “No matter where you may be on your journey to improve your eldercare offerings, Pioneer and Green House will be here to help.”
To celebrate this new alliance, we’re encouraging everyone to join us at our annual conference in Denver from July 27-30!
The partnership between these two giants in the culture-change movement is exciting and promising. No other organization has the clout in the world of long-term-care that together Pioneer Network and the Green House Project will have. As Jennifer Carson says in her blog comment following this one, culture change is not about creating a better system. Administrators have a plethora of excellent training programs, consultants, and care models — systems, if you will — to chose from. It is, as Susan Ryan says here, about systemic transformation. Transformation is about changing priorities. I am hoping against hope that, listening to the voices of residents, family members and the direct-care staff who have the most frequent interactions with residents, these allies will use every tool at their disposal to move LTC communities to redirect their priorities.
Penny and Susan: Here’s to you! May you persuade LTC owners and administrators to redirect their efforts and assets toward those that will lead to person-centered care communities.