The Ensign Group Successfully Graduates Troubled Nursing Home from CMS Special Focus Facility Program

MISSION VIEJO, Calif., Feb. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Ensign
Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: ENSG), the parent company of the Ensign(TM) group of
skilled nursing, rehabilitative care services and assisted living
companies, announced that its Waverly Park skilled nursing facility in
Tucson, Arizona has successfully graduated from the Special Focus Facility
Program established by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
("CMS").

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An Ensign team recently completed the challenging clinical turnaround
at Waverly Park, a 200-bed skilled nursing facility that was placed on
Special Focus status by CMS in 2005 based largely on events that occurred
prior to Ensign's acquisition of the facility. The facility passed its
final inspection in November 2007, and recently received official notice
from CMS that it had graduated from the Special Focus Facility program.

Theresa Linnane, a 14-year veteran of the Arizona Department of Health,
where she worked as a Survey Program Team Leader, and now an Ensign
Administrator and Executive Director of Waverly Park, explained the
process. "We had to start from scratch with this facility. It had no
systems, a negative reputation and had been in bankruptcy. We first rebuilt
its clinical systems and its reputation for quality, and we are currently
rebuilding its financial foundation -- all one step at a time," she said.

Ensign has long pursued "turnaround" opportunities like Waverly Park,
and continues to seek similar opportunities for its growing portfolio of
long-term care facilities.

"We founded this company to bring a new level of quality to long-term
care, and we have built our business largely by turning around struggling
nursing facilities similar to Waverly and other facilities on CMS' Special
Focus Facility list," said Ensign President and CEO Christopher
Christensen.

"Troubled facilities that others had given up on have been our bread
and butter," he added, explaining that Ensign's turnaround program targets
poorly-operated and undervalued acquisitions, and then attempts to
transform them to produce outstanding clinical and financial improvements
over time.

Ensign now has two additional facilities that have been named to the
Special Focus Facility list. CMS and state regulators selected the two
based on their last three years of regulatory history, even though Ensign
acquired them much more recently. One of the facilities, Mt. Ogden Rehab &
Care Center in Ogden, Utah, has already been surveyed once by state
regulators since Ensign took it over. The facility passed that survey;
however it still fell within CMS' Special Focus criteria based on several
serious incidents that occurred prior to Ensign's arrival, including the
drowning of a patient.

"Although problems that were created over long periods of time
obviously do not get fixed overnight, we are proud of the sweeping and
meaningful changes we've made at Waverly Park and Mt. Ogden, and we are
continuing these efforts across all of our turnaround projects," said
Christensen.

Noting that not all of Ensign's facilities were troubled at the time of
acquisition, Christensen added that, in addition to improving care, Ensign
has historically been able to create tremendous value by pursuing this
opportunistic business model over the majority of its portfolio. He pointed
to Ensign's industry-leading EBITDAR margins and return on assets as
indicators of the program's success.

He also noted that Ensign had been tapped by the California Department
of Health Services in 2001 to rescue three troubled facilities that the
State had taken over because they were in "immediate jeopardy" status,
meaning that patients were in imminent danger of harm. "We want to become
the answer for CMS and state regulators in every state where we operate
when they encounter especially troubled facilities," said Christensen.

About The Ensign Group, Inc.

The Ensign Group, Inc.'s operating subsidiaries provide a broad
spectrum of skilled nursing and assisted living services, physical,
occupational and speech therapies, and other rehabilitative and healthcare
services for both long-term residents and short-stay rehabilitation
patients, at 61 separate operating locations in California, Arizona, Texas,
Washington, Utah and Idaho. More information about Ensign is available at
http://www.ensigngroup.net.





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Via: Healthcare