Design Champion: Harry Hobson, CEO, Plymouth Harbor on Sarasota Bay (Sarasota, Fla.)
Caring for seniors is in Harry Hobson’s DNA. Exposed to the industry as a young child by way of his mother’s role as owner/operator of a rest home for retirees, he found his future career in finance guided by a desire to work with older adults to make a difference in their lives. He made his way to a CEO position early in his career at senior living communities Rappahannock Westminster Canterbury and First Community Village in Upper Arlington, Ohio, affording him the opportunity to steer key decisions regarding improvements to quality of life—and he’s been doing it ever since.
Hobson transitioned in 2004 to the Plymouth Harbor continuing care retirement community, where he’s described as serving as both a “beloved leader and a devoted friend.” And when it was time to add a significant assisted living (AL) and memory care component to the site overlooking Sarasota Bay, he set out to do so in a manner that would create an AL environment that felt seamless next to independent living (IL). Additionally, the memory care component of the project includes innovative elements like sensory stations on a memory care walking path and innovative lighting solutions to support circadian rhythm.
He spent three years assembling the right team with shared values to achieve his vision. The project was completed in January 2018. Here, he shares more about what fueled him and where he hopes to see the industry head next.
Environments for Aging: Why was it so important to you to create an AL environment that’s indistinguishable from IL?
Harry Hobson: One of the challenges many of our older adults face is dealing with the reality of aging and becoming more dependent. It has always concerned me that so many communities (ours included) exacerbated that concern by transitioning residents from a comfortable homelike environment to a more institutional setting. This setting can often create a self-fulling prophecy of behavior patterns that encourage more dependence versus a maximization of independence.
My team was totally focused on creating assisted living and memory support components on our campus that nearly mirrored residential (independent) living environments. We challenged ourselves, the architects, contractors, and others to take this project personally and deliver residential comfort with stimulating ambience, from color schemes, furniture selections, and congregate spaces designed to encourage maximum social interaction.
At the end of the day, we realized success when residents and families began remarking that it was simply a change of address in the same neighborhood, with no references to moving to the “next level of care.”
Making that effort personal, you asked team members to imagine a loved one residing at Plymouth Harbor and what they would want for those individuals. How did this influence the project?
This was during the charrette, where our senior vice president of health services, director of nurses, and I sat down with a group of excellent architects. As the “owner,” it was my role to articulate the vision of what we wanted our new center to become.
As I looked around the table, I couldn’t help but notice how young (yet very experienced) the architectural team appeared. I certainly remember those days early in my career. I didn’t know it then, but later realized that my opinions were primarily based on my experience as a young administrator and the research I had done over the years. It wasn’t until I, myself, became somewhat “older” that I gained a better perspective for what our residents need and expect.
So, I asked the team to take their name cards in front of them and write a name on the back of the card representing a parent, grandparent, neighbor, or friend who needs assisted living or memory support. I then asked them to re-introduce themselves as that person. Then I requested that they have an “out-of-body” experience and become that person for the duration of the charrette, coupling those newly generated thoughts of an older challenged adult with their credentials and experiences as architects. It was like an epiphany for them as the dynamics changed significantly. This exercise turned out to be a key factor in how we eventually designed to our vision. We all arrived at a higher level of creativity.
Budget creep ultimately required scope reductions that focused on the memory care area. But you weren’t willing to let that happen and inspired a fundraising effort that preserved many innovations (sensory stations on a memory care path, water features in the garden space). Tell us about this effort, and why it was so worthwhile to you.
Most of us know that eventually our vision becomes a bit “healthier” than what our pocketbook can withstand. We have also experienced that step of value engineering. It’s necessary and without it oftentimes a project cannot reach fruition.
We didn’t want to dial back our vision so far that we wouldn’t be able to offer the accommodations, care, and services that we were passionate about. So, we committed ourselves to a philanthropic process that, if successful, would preserve those programmatic items that could be offered to our residents to maximize their experience at Plymouth Harbor.
Our foundation and its leadership worked tirelessly, assisting me in building a case for support among our constituency that led to success and the preservation of our initial vision.
Supporting circadian rhythm was a critical piece of the design. Why was it so important and what results have you seen so far?
Florida is the Sunshine State. We knew that we would be missing an opportunity not to maximize the beauty and abundance of blue-sky days. Sundowner Syndrome is a well-documented behavioral affect in older adults experiencing cognitive changes. Circadian rhythm is our internal clock that gauges such things as deepest sleep, highest alertness, best coordination, and highest blood pressure. Circadian rhythm is impacted by available natural light and length of day. If some degree of consistency can be maintained by natural light, then circadian rhythm may be better supported. We have noted that this has decreased the biological underpinnings of those experiencing Sundowner Syndrome by providing a better night’s sleep, which translates into healthier and happier residents.
This project also maintains a resort-like setting that’s not just to the benefit of residents and staff but to visitors and community members. Tell us about the environment.
Plymouth Harbor has long been recognized for its resort-like setting. It was important to our team to build upon that recognition as we further expanded our healthcare component. That thought process was the driver behind creating a two-story atrium dining room and congregate spaces such as our media center, lounges, water features, and center courtyards. These design features eliminate all institutional thoughts while preserving the feeling of being at a resort. It’s important to also remember that Plymouth Harbor consistently earns a 5-star recognition as a healthcare organization, which is a testament as to where our priority lay.
How have you embraced the characteristics that define a Design Champion, and where do you hope to see the industry heading next?
I have embraced these elements over time through evolutionary thinking. I have seen and experienced many models during my career, from the most institutional, sterile ones to those that mirror a home or hospitality-like environment. I have also seen the direct correlation between one’s environment and one’s state of mind. The more we can close the gap between these two models, the more rewarding the journey.
I’m constantly challenging myself and my team to pursue non-traditional avenues of creativity. We spend a great deal of time looking beyond our own industry toward best practices in hospitality, broad-based wellness programs, technological companies, and educational institutions. We search for those intersections where ideas and concepts from diverse industries, cultures, and disciplines collide.
I think there’s little doubt that one of the key challenges we all face is how we plan to address the shrinking workforce, both now and in the future. On the other hand, it’s exciting to know that one of the more positive trends ahead is focused on technology and how it can be embraced by long-term care organizations. Consequently, we must look for and create opportunities whereby we can address our collective missions without jeopardizing the importance of staying close to our residents and not allowing high-tech to overshadow high-touch.
To read Q+As with all of the 2019 Design Champions, visit efamagazine.com/trends/reaching-for-the-stars-efas-2019-design-champions/.
