Brentwood is filled with a wide variety of successful healthcare companies. Advocat Inc., led by president and CEO Will Council, has found its niche in the evolving nursing home business, operating facilities in eight states. 

Council spoke with David Green for this interview. 

 

 We started in the late ‘80s as a combination of two companies with the vision of becoming a rural-based long-term care provider. Through the years we’ve focused on either rural or bedroom communities. For example, we have a building in Smyrna, but not Nashville.

 

 Several years ago CMS, the government agency that administers Medicare, decided it would be good for skilled nursing providers to take on more comprehensive rehabilitative patients. So we began to gear to those rehabilitation patients. We focused mostly on elders who suffered a stroke and were going to return to their homes after rehabilitation or elderly folks who were getting their knees or hips replaced. We’ve been very successful in growing that business. However, as of a couple of years ago that growth has really flattened out, primarily because as the economy has tightened people have stopped elective surgeries.

 

So more recently we have been re-focusing on adding traditional nursing home patients. In a business with heavy fixed costs, every extra patient that you are taking care of is meaningful. So we have been focusing on such services as Alzheimer’s care, geared to the longer-term patient.

 

When I was coming out of school, I was going into public accounting and they were aggressively recruiting. I had one fellow who I ended up going to work for. He said, “Picking public accounting firms is hard to do because we all look a lot alike. Don’t fall in love with the people and go to work there because of the people, because they are probably going to change. Find the culture that’s right because the culture doesn’t change.” I still believe that today. I try to focus on the culture. Our culture is great and I try to preserve it.

 

If you are asking about the dream job, I’d love to be the owner of a double-A or single-A baseball team. You work in the summer. You work in the winter, but not really. You interact a bit with the athletes and you interact a lot with the community.

 

From a more serious standpoint: When I came out of college, I was more ideally suited to be an auditor and I did that for 14 years. But I have evolved to the point where I think I am a pretty good accountant, but a better leader. I think I have found my calling. I love working with the healthcare professionals. I’m not a bedside caregiver, but I do understand what they are trying to do and help them try to do that in a way that provides quality care for our patients.

 

I came to Advocat as CFO nine years ago. That was a very difficult period for our company. One of my jobs on Wednesdays was to make sure we had enough cash in the bank to make sure our checks were going to clear on Friday. We were on the brink of bankruptcy. We floundered for a year. The CEO then retired and the board looked around the table and said, “Who’s going to run the company?” They asked me to be interim CEO. I said to myself that I would make the best of this. I went to the people here and said I want three ideas from each of you. Let’s try something different. Folks got behind that, we got a better energy behind the company. We started growing the top line.

 

Take care of your people. Your people are all you’ve got. We’ve got millions and millions of dollars of fixed assets in buildings and equipment. That has no value at all if the people inside are not providing great nursing home care.
 

About the columnists: 
David Green is owner of David Green Communications in Brentwood (www.dgreencommunications.com), a marketing and PR firm. He is former managing editor of The Tennessean. Contact him at 615-517-5653 or dgreen@dgreencommunications.com

Teresa N. Miller, owner of Miller Marketing ( www.teresamiller.com), is a 25+ year veteran in the public relations and marketing industries serving clients in Tennessee and Alabama. Contact her at 615-482-4182 or teresa@teresamiller.com.