If you talk to Joe Steier about business, sooner or later he’ll turn the topic to sports. That’s because the 6’5″ CEO of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.-based Signature HealthCARE thinks they have a lot in common. Steier, who played basketball in high school and golf in college, believes you master competitive challenges through preparation and teamwork.

That philosophy carries over to executive education. Signature HealthCARE is a family-based organization with a mission of revolutionizing the long-term care industry. Steier knew his company couldn’t be a transformational force unless his senior management team had the necessary business skills. That meant putting the entire group through an executive MBA program. Steier was looking to do more than pay for degrees; he wanted a return on investment in the form of a competitive advantage.

“As a CEO, if you invest your education dollars in one great institution, the curriculum is more consistent, and your team walks away with a more meaningful experience,” he says. Steier found the educational partner he was looking for in the University of Miami School of Business Administration and its Executive MBA in Health Sector Management and Policy program. He was among the first wave of Signature HealthCARE executives to attend the program, beginning in January 2005. To date, 14 of the company’s management team have earned their MBA in the UM program, and another eight are currently enrolled.

The first group of Signature HealthCARE executives to go through the UM School of Business Administration’s Executive MBA in Health Sector Management and Policy program.

Signature HealthCARE, has more than 10,000 employees and operates 65 long-term care facilities in seven states along the southeastern U.S. “We consider ourselves one organization trying to change how society perceives nursing homes,” says Steier. “We don’t want to be labeled with the traditional stigma associated with nursing homes; our core business has been changing the image of those types of facilities through our innovative quality-of-life programs, education, product development and a culture change for our residents.”

As a result of its educational partnership with the School of Business, Signature HealthCARE has begun using the classroom knowledge gained to put four large-scale projects in motion:

  • A dashboard operating system to provide guidelines and key metrics for processes throughout the organization. Clinical and financial data is analyzed on a daily basis.
  • Replacing the traditional regional operating model with a facility advisory board structure to create greater communication and teamwork between the home office and facilities. Service gaps are being eliminated, and more focus is being put on the residents.
  • Overhauling human resource management practices to better attract, utilize and retain the best employees. This is being accomplished through superior job designs, behaviorally based interviews and application of motivation theories.
  • Creating the Institute for Long-Term Care Studies — a stand-alone non-profit learning organization focusing on education and training, with an emphasis on adult learning strategies. High-quality content is delivered through state-of-the-art technology.
    Steier says such classroom-to-workplace shifts result in a huge return on investment for the company. “By having multiple executives in the MBA program exploring the issues our company faces, we solve two or three global problems a year that we never would have recognized otherwise,” he says. “When you do a knowledge transfer with a cohesive group at the same time, they’re going to respond.

“We have a pay-for-performance incentive in Maryland, we have a big pharmacology task force lowering medication costs, and we’re doing a lot of outcome studies. Overall, we’re seeing costs coming down and quality going up.”