http://www.bmartin.cc/dissent/documents/health/genesis_care.

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Genesis business philosophy:- Genesis Health Ventures based its
business strategy on gaining market control and then supplying a cheap
eldercare and post-acute service to managed care companies. At the same
time it believed that it could provide a different and better form of
"eldercare" at less cost. These objectives ere mutually e!clusive and the
measures of success ere economic. That Genesis business e!ecutives had
little knoledge of hat actually happened in nursing homes as they
pursued their objectives is clear from their public statements.
A flawed philosophy:- "are is provided directly and primarily by nurses.
They are the major cost. There have never been enough nurses to provide
the sort of perfect care e ould all like. Technology plays only a minor part.
The only ay to effectively cut costs is to cut nurses and this means cutting
care.
#mpressively confident e!ecutives in their $% boardrooms had decided that
care as provided inefficiently and that the same care could be provided
ith feer nurses by improving efficiency.
This belief as most e!plicitly e!pressed by Andre Turner &chairman %un
Healthcare' in his revealing ""utting the fat" intervie in ())*. Genesis+
chairman, -ichael .alker e!pressed e!actly the same sentiments but less
forcefully.
Genesis Health Ventures pursued its corporate vision ith a single
mindedness, hich caused it to behave in an irrational ay, and ignore any
information that it did not like. .hen confronted it attacked its critics.
Blowing the whistle:- The histle as blon by the %ervice /mployees
#nternational $nion. This group has consistently opposed the e!cesses of
corporations and fought a bitter battle on behalf of their nursing members
and the patients they serve. They ere the first to go public about %un
Healthcare and have been consistently objective and accurate in their
assessments.
The %/#$ challenged Genesis by researching the care it provided and setting
it against Genesis business policies. They demonstrated Genesis+ failure to
provide good eldercare and then shoed ho both Genesis failure to provide
care as ell as its ultimate financial collapse as a direct conse0uence of its
business philosophy and practices, both unchallengeable "givens" in the
marketplace.
The %/#$ has ritten three revies of Genesis conduct "A House of "ards",
"1ad 2eal", and " 3olling The 2ice". They describe Genesis business
practices and its record of care. # have placed most of the e!tracts from
these reports hich describe Genesis history and its business policies in
Genesis -arket 4age.
5n this page # deal primarily ith the problems in care identified by the
%/#$. # e!amine each report by first 0uoting key or revealing e!tracts. This
is folloed by a brief description of the report ith some comments.