Our organization was formed in 1999 with the goal of establishing a new level of quality care within the skilled nursing industry. The name "Ensign" is synonymous with a "flag" or a "standard," and refers to our goal of setting the standard by which all others are measured. We believe that through our efforts and leadership, we can set a new standard in the long-term care industry.

A lot has changed since 1999. Expansion occurred due to strategy of acquiring under-performing skilled nursing facilities and then transforming them into market leaders in clinical quality, staff competency, employee loyalty and financial performance.

Today, subsidiaries of The Ensign Group now provide

•Skilled nursing and rehabilitative care services through the operation of over 100 skilled nursing facilities located in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin.

•Home health and hospice services through the operation of agencies located in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington.

•Urgent health care in the Seattle, Washington area. Walk-in clinics offer daily access to immediate treatment for minor injuries and illnesses, including x-ray and lab services, all from convenient neighborhood locations with no appointments.

•Mobile diagnostic services, including digital x-ray, ultrasound, electrocardiograms, ankle-brachial index, and phlebotomy services to people in their homes or at long-term care facilities.

Structure

Our organizational structure is what some call "bottom-up", but we prefer to call it "flat." Decision making lies with local leadership, not corporate offices. This means that leaders and staff are generally free to discern and address the unique needs and priorities of health care professionals, customers and other stakeholders in the local community or market, and then work to create a superior service offering and reputation for that particular community or market. We believe our success is largely dependent upon the ability of these local leaders to build and maintain strong relationships with key stakeholders from the local community, based upon a solid foundation of reliably superior care.

Each of our operations is led by highly dedicated individuals who are responsible for key operational decisions. Leaders and staff are trained and motivated to pursue superior clinical outcomes, high patient and family satisfaction, operating efficiencies and financial performance at their operations. It is solely through their dedication that an operation becomes the "provider of choice" in its community.

Another unique facet of our organizational structure is the cluster model. Market leaders share real-time operating data and otherwise benchmark clinical and operational performance with their peers in order to improve clinical care, maximize patient satisfaction and augment operational efficiencies. These clusters share best practices, challenge one another and hold each other accountable to their operational commitments.

Local operations are organized into portfolio companies. Each portfolio company has its own president who is an experienced and proven leader typically selected from the ranks of field CEOs. Our presidents serve as an operational resource to local leaders within their own portfolio company. They have primary responsibility for recruiting qualified talent, finding potential acquisition targets, and identifying other internal and external growth opportunities. Our presidents typically have a clinical partner dedicated to operational clinical quality and success. The portfolio companies also provide subject matter experts in areas such as clinical, therapy, MDS and accounting for operations that need additional help in these areas.

We do not maintain a corporate headquarters; rather, we operate a Service Center which exists solely to serve and support the efforts of each operation. Our Service Center is comprised of a dedicated team of professionals that provide centralized accounting, construction, compliance, human resources, health information management, information technology, legal, payroll, risk management and other key services, so that local leaders can focus on delivering quality care, maintaining employee satisfaction and running an efficient operation. This approach allows each operation to function with the strength and synergies of a large organizations, but without the disadvantages of a top-down corporate hierarchy. Source: this is an extract from the company’s own website.