Exploring the Importance of Quality Care With ECH’s Executive Director, Beverly Edwards

Since 1881, Episcopal Church Home has been a place of love and compassion where families in Louisville, KY, feel known and well cared for. Our long history of quality care has allowed us to help generations of older adults have more positive health outcomes and brighter outlooks. 

Still, many have questions about how we’ve achieved this legacy and how it benefits our residents. Here, our Executive Director, Beverly Edwards, answers several of these questions. 

Q: How would you define “quality care”? 

BEVERLY: Quality care means offering healthcare services by highly skilled professionals that residents and their family members trust. Our goal is to help residents live their best life while caring for them in mind, body, and spirit. When residents are able to fully release their concern of how their medical needs will be taken care of and focus on engaging in recreational and social activities of interest, they are confident in the care and services they receive.    

Q: How important is the staff in ECH’s mission to deliver high-quality, person-centered care? 

BEVERLY: Our staff is extremely important in the delivery of high-quality, person-centered care.  Our staff understands that our residents are unique individuals and seek to meet their needs in a manner that is pleasing to them. To fully understand and meet resident’s needs, our staff focus on developing relationships with residents built on high quality, timely and consistent care that residents can count on and trust.   

Q: How does ECH invest in their staff to create a culture of quality? 

BEVERLY: Offering additional training and educational opportunities to hone our staff’s skills and abilities and testing their understanding of what they learned by inspecting what we expect and holding staff accountable helps create a culture of quality. We also strive to sensitize staff to our resident’s position by having staff consider how they would feel if they were a resident receiving care.     

Q: Many staff members have worked at ECH for years, if not decades. What benefit do you think having a team with such a long tenure has for ECH residents? 

BEVERLY: Our longest tenured staff member has served residents within our community for 41 years and has helped to care for generations of residents. While this level of dedication is uncommon in healthcare, long-tenured staff are not uncommon within our community. We all work within our residents’ homes and therefore understand the importance of developing long-lasting and sustainable relationships built on trust. Having long-tenured consistent staff helps our residents feel comfortable and confident in the care and services they’re receiving. It also helps them understand what to expect and allows them to focus on other areas of interest.  

Q: What are other strategies, besides staffing, that ECH uses to maintain a legacy of quality senior care?

BEVERLY: Our values and ways of working are very important to us and we employ them as we care for residents, staff and community guests. Maya Angelou once said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Our goal is to allow each resident to have a pleasant and memorable experience at ECH.  

Q: What difference would you say the quality of care at ECH makes in residents’ lives? 

BEVERLY: Residents and their family members join our community at different stages of their life and are fully aware of their individual needs. However, concerning themselves with whether they will receive quality care and services is generally not the first thing that comes to mind when they are within our care. Their confidence in our ability to meet their needs and our 138-year legacy of offering high-quality care and services to residents allows them to focus on more important matters, like living their best life.

Q: What advice would you give to families who are exploring their senior living options? What features or characteristics should they look for in a community to ensure their loved one receives a high quality of care? 

BEVERLY: I would encourage families who are exploring their senior living options to look beyond the aesthetics of a community for resident engagement by staff at all levels of the organization during the tour. Consider whether staff members are smiling and residents are well-groomed. Pay attention to a community’s life enrichment calendar and consider the frequency and quality of the social and recreational activities provided. Consider having a meal while on campus or at the very least, tour the community during a mealtime. If it works for your schedule, consider dropping in for a tour rather than scheduling a time. This will allow you to experience life within the community at any given moment, instead of a moment that may have been staged for you. 

Q: What do you love most about being the Executive Director at ECH? 

BEVERLY: I developed a love and appreciation for working with seniors at a very young age while helping to care for both my maternal and paternal grandmothers. When families are no longer able to care for their loved ones at home, they look for a loving and trusted community that offers high-quality care and services to residents. I love being Executive Director at ECH because I have the ability to directly impact the quality of care and services our residents receive and to ultimately help put our community member’s minds at ease, knowing that their loved ones are a part of a community that truly cares for their wellbeing.   

Do you have additional questions about the quality of care at ECH? Call us or fill out an information request form to learn more. We’d also love to have you visit for a tour!