If you’re feeling a little scared, concerned, or frustrated about taking the next step in your loved one’s care progression, then Chuck Bongiovanni, the CEO and Co-founder of Majestic Residences has a perfect care solution for you. After touring around several care homes—he realized that many of these larger communities needed to improve their care delivery for the elderly. While they can provide you with a perfect dining room, larger living space and more staff, it’s not necessary that you’d received care up to your satisfaction levels.
Each resident’s needs vary and thus, Chuck believed that the answer to meet this care gap was Majestic Residences, a home care franchise that enables customized care, tailored for each resident’s personal care needs, through smaller residential assisted living homes.
In an interview with Healthcare Everything, Chuck shares his unique approach that promises Honest, Observant, Memorable and Empathetic care delivered to both the residents and their families.
Following are the highlights of the interview:
Kindly tell us the source of inspiration. What led you to venture into Senior care services?
I spent nearly 30 years working with the last franchise system I founded, CarePatrol, a senior placement agency. Those franchisees help families find appropriate assisted living for their aging loved ones. Unfortunately, during my time touring and vetting facilities and care homes, I saw that many of them simply weren’t meeting the needs of the residents in their care.
I believed there was a better way, and I knew that I wanted to be the one to create it. I always thought that smaller residential assisted living homes were the answer, but the industry has historically been extremely fragmented and disorganized. “Mom and Pop” types of places have no universal standard of care and are typically behind the curve on new technology. We knew we could rise to the occasion and meet families’ needs for improved care delivery by utilizing updated technology and care management tools.
Brief us about the organization and shed some light on your journey as the company’s guiding light.
We began the company in June 2020. Our franchisees operate small residential assisted living homes where they provide non-medical senior housing services for seniors. Our residential settings range from about 6 to 16 residents.
Our journey began amid the COVID-19 pandemic when nursing homes and large assisted living communities were hit hard with COVID-19 deaths. We saw a shift from families feeling more confident in the big box type of facilities to feeling more comfortable moving their loved ones into these smaller, more controlled environments.
Can you elaborate upon the core values on which the company is built and what its mission is?
The mission of Majestic Residences is to create an environment where our residents can live with Ageless Possibilities. Unfortunately, many healthcare professionals aren’t immune to “ageism” and often will assume that an elderly person is someone with limitations. While we know that our residents aren’t going to run marathons, our goal is to help them live as independently as possible and never make assumptions about what they can and cannot do.
In what ways do the company’s specific services help the senior population in resolving their care needs? How are these different from other forms of care that they receive or do not receive in general?
Many seniors end up moving into larger assisted living communities simply because these larger facilities have more branding power! Most people don’t even know that smaller homes are out there. Families choose a big company because they recognize the name, which can sometimes have terrible outcomes for their loved ones due to mismatching their care needs with the facility’s capability. Each resident’s needs vary, and some are more customized types of care than the facility can provide. There are many examples of how this can play out for the resident negatively.
Big Box facilities offer amenities that may seem great to the family member who is doing the touring but may not be accessible to the resident. For example, how beneficial is a beautiful dining room area if it’s thousands of feet away from the resident’s apartment? Additionally, many seniors need more supervision than what can be provided at a larger facility. This typically results in the resident being restricted to staying in their rooms alone most days. The image often portrayed in the marketing materials of these large facilities where all residents are equally involved in activities is not the reality of what happens.
Our smaller homes can be more individually tailored for each resident’s personal care needs. For example, our homes are usually staffed with one caregiver per 5 or 6 residents, while the larger assisted living facilities could have one caregiver for 15 to 20 residents. With our higher staff-to-resident ratio, we get to give our residents more of the one-on-one attention they need and deserve.
What technological support does the company find to be essential in conducting senior care operations?
Majestic Residences’ homes are the most technologically advanced in the nation. Each home has Electronic Health Records, software to support meal preparation, employee records and more. We are the only care homes in the nation that utilize a new radio-wave technology that detects when an adult brief is wet. It alerts the caregivers and then records how long it took the caregivers to change it. This technology decreases the risks of skin breakdown and infections while also supporting self-dignity for our residents.
What endeavors is the company currently pursuing to improve its care measures for senior clients?
We are currently in the final phases of creating a portfolio of other senior-related franchise systems. Each system in this portfolio will offer services that will complement the others. Our goal is to build a network of brands whose missions and values align with ours to increase seniors’ quality of life throughout the various stages of aging and care needs.
How do you envision scaling your organization’s services and operations in 2023 and beyond?
2023 will be a big year for Majestic Residences. We are already seeing great things from our newest franchisees, who have purchased existing RAL operations and converted them into Majestic Residences branded homes. We have also seen an increase in existing RAL owners coming to our brand because they need more support & see the power of our cohesive branding.
What are some of the testimonials or recognition that accurately highlight your company’s position in the market?
We were added to the prestigious SeniorHousingNews.com’s “Five Senior Providers To Watch” list.
We also will be appearing on Kevin Harrington’s (original Shark Tank member) new show, “American Entrepreneur.”
