Merry Christmas!

President’s Viewpoints

It’s hard to believe that it’s almost Christmas and that very quickly we’ll be closing out another year. 2009 has been far from boring, and as we look back on this year, we could easily focus on the things that have captured the daily headlines – like our economy or government-run healthcare. While it’s true that these topics are very important and will shape the way we do business in the future, before we jump ahead into a new year with all these challenges, I think it is just as important to look back and consider all the good things from this last year.

So during this Christmas season, as we consider our many gifts and blessings, here’s part of the list that I thank the Lord for each day: I am thankful for my family; I am thankful for my health; I am thankful to have a job and to work for a great employee-owned company; I am thankful and honored to work for 3,000 employee-owners; I am grateful to our residents and their families; I am thankful for the Medical staffs around the State for allowing us to care for their patients in our facilities; and I am thankful to live in a country where we can agree, disagree, and work together to make the best life possible for our families, residents and employees.

As we look forward to the upcoming year, together as the owners of our company, we will need to lean on our Core Values as much as we ever have. While it may feel as if everything around us is changing, our Core Values of Passion, Integrity, Growth, Stewardship and Adaptation stay the same. Specifically, we’ll need to rely on Adaptation to be our guide for 2010. We’ll learn to fine tune our jobs so we can meet the changes that we’re presented with, and we’ll continue to tell our story to our legislators, looking for ways to help meet their budgetary demands without compromising the important work we do. When it’s all done, if we stay focused, we’ll have sorted through and found the things that are really important to us, and we’ll have gotten stronger in the process.

When next Christmas comes and we make a list of our blessings for the year, I believe we’ll be able to look back and find that we are blessed in more unexpected ways than we could have imagined.

May you and your family have a very Merry Christmas and let’s work together to make 2010 a Happy New Year!

Sincerely,

Patrick Boyle

President/CEO