Assisted 4 Living, Inc. Issues CEO Letter to Shareholders, July 15, 2022

SARASOTA, Fla., July 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ --

Dear Valued Shareholder,

During this unprecedented time in the healthcare industry, the past 12 months have been extremely challenging for our company in many ways. We are pleased to report that we continue to weather these challenges, and would like to share how we are positioning ourselves as a leader in the post-acute area of healthcare.

The acquisitions of Banyan Pediatric Care in March 2021 and Trillium Healthcare Consulting in June 2021 created the core business of Assisted 4 Living, Inc. Operating these two companies while still in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly came with both expected and unexpected challenges. 

Despite the trials presented by COVID-19, we have been making many operational improvements as we set our course for success. Our goal is to create a financially solid and efficient company that is based on employee engagement, quality outcomes and a strategic platform that will positively impact the delivery of care in rural settings.

Our company has taken a number of far-reaching steps to improve our efficiencies and performance over the past 12 months. We have:

• Assembled an experienced Senior Leadership Team that has joined our CEO, Louis Collier, to lead our turnaround. Dale Poe, our Chief Operating Officer; Diane Harden, our Chief Financial Officer, and Sandra Bowers, our Chief Nursing Officer, each has more than 30 years of experience, while Melannie Ladd, our Chief Human Resources Officer, has over 20 years of experience.
• Appointed Michelle Flynn, a highly experienced healthcare executive as the President of Banyan Pediatric Care Centers.
• Created a financial services and operational platform with an internal team of well-qualified accountants and support staff. We implemented internal controls, transitioned to a new software program, and created accounting processes to integrate Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Purchase Orders and the Revenue Cycle.
• Extracted all necessary financial and operational data from disparate companies to lay the foundation for a cohesive strategic platform.
• Introduced a comprehensive "Recruitment and Retention" plan.
• Implemented a comprehensive Business Development plan led by Laurie Surprise, our VP of Business Development.
• Redefined our approach to regional leadership, with accountability, transparency and a focus on developing facility leaders.
• Completed the integration of pharmacy services within all facilities.
• Successfully acquired Grace Care Centers, consisting of three facilities in Texas.
• Opened two new Banyan Pediatric Centers in Sarasota, Florida and New Port Richey, Florida.
• Began implementation of a medical management platform in more than half of our facilities to improve quality of care and expand our clinical capabilities.
• Developing a comprehensive Behavioral Health program.
• Created a Central Admissions Office to provide consistency in response times and the complicated admission process.
• Negotiated a contract with a Group Purchasing Organization and with a new pharmacy provider.
• Developed our strategic platform, which includes:
• Realignment of leadership teams of "lower census" facilities;
• Continued reduction in agency staffing;
• Elimination of Minimal Data Set Coordinator (MDS) and Business Office Managers (BOM) assistants;
• Elimination of overtime for non-clinical positions;
• Creation of a regional facilities maintenance system;
• Realignment of regional leadership teams and corporate office staffing.

As a result of our work, we've seen many positive trends that reflect the company's consistent improvement in performance:

1. The average daily attendance for Banyan Pediatric Centers has grown from 47 to 85, and continues to grow weekly, with a goal of reaching 120.
2. The census for Trillium facilities has improved from 937 to 1,102, while the skilled census has grown from 62 to 154. (As a comparison, a recent industry article stated that only 25% of U.S. skilled nursing facilities have reached their pre-pandemic census levels.)
3. The annual revenue run rate for Trillium has increased from $73 million to $98 million and continues to increase.
4. The annual revenue run rate for Banyan has increased from $3 million to $4.3 million.
5. Our overall CMS Star Ratings have improved from an average of 2.55 to 3.5, with most of our facilities receiving 4 or 5 stars in the category of nursing staffing.
6. We have reduced numerous expenses through a more efficient approach in our daily processes, new contracts with preferred pricing, and other with an expected annual savings of close to $10 million.

As for the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were heavily affected in January and February of this year by the second outbreak. We had 326 employees test positive and 418 patients test positive, with 27 of our 30 facilities impacted and 14 of the facilities closed to admissions for extended periods. In addition, we had significantly increased costs in supplies and agency staffing to care for our patients. 

Our teams in each facility did a remarkable job in addressing these challenges and providing the highest quality of care to our patients. It's important to note that this outbreak could have been considerably worse in several of our facilities, but our Infection Prevention program worked extremely well as our employees carefully followed the program's processes.

We have made tremendous progress since the acquisition of Trillium in June 2021, and are working collectively to build a path forward based on quality, financial performance, and employee engagement. While the integration of the acquisition has been more challenging than expected, we have kept our focus on creating policies and procedures that have become the foundation of our company.

While this progress gives us much to celebrate, we are also excited to share that we have rebranded our parent company, creating a new brand with the goal of becoming recognized as a leader in post-acute healthcare. While we changed our registered legal name in December 2021, we are still awaiting regulatory agency approval of the name change, whereupon we will publicly announce our new name, Arboreta Healthcare, Inc., along with the introduction a new logo to represent our parent company and adult post-acute care facilities.

As we initiated marketing and public relations activities last fall, we found that we were spending a large amount of time explaining that assisted living was only a small portion of our business before we could share the story of how we are caring for our patients.

With this in mind, we embarked on a quest to find a unique name to the industry that would encompass all of our subsidiary brands and eliminate the confusion of the assisted living moniker.

Just as an arbor provides shade or shelter formed by trees or climbing plants, an arboreta (the plural of arboretum) is a family of trees that is grown with this purpose. Arboreta plays an important role in the preservation and management of trees and provides a place where endangered species can be protected.

We are working every day to make this company the leader in post-acute healthcare, providing quality outcomes while we serve as a vested partner in our communities and a place of choice for employees.

Sincerely,
Louis Collier
Chief Executive Officer/President
Assisted 4 Living, Inc.

This correspondence may contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws about our business, or financial condition and prospects that reflect our assumptions and beliefs based on information currently available. Words such as "expects," "intends," "plans," "estimates" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although there may be certain forward-looking statements not accompanied by such expressions. Because forward-looking statements relate to the future, they are subject to inherent uncertainties, risks and changes in circumstances that are difficult to predict and many of which are outside of our control. We can give no assurance that the expectations indicated by such forward-looking statements will be realized. Therefore, you should not rely on any of these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are made only as of the date of this news release, and except as otherwise required by law, we have no obligation to update or revise such statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

SOURCE Assisted 4 Living