At the age of 59, Jim Thompson has a passion for retirement homes that comes from a unique perspective cultivated partly by his own choices and partly by circumstance. No, he doesn't live in one. He has parlayed a career in the Navy into one as an engineer specializing in healthcare and retirement homes, a two-stage career path that has taken him all over the country.

As director of facility services at the Forest at Duke, an upscale continuing care retirement community in Durham, North Carolina, Thompson supports many aspects of senior housing, living, and healthcare. "The one thing I really enjoy about these CCRCs is the fact that my parents died back in 1984 and 1986, and as I keep telling the residents here, I've got 400 surrogate moms and dads. It's just a wonderful environment," he reveals.

Actually, Thompson's job goes beyond managing operational requirements, as he also serves as the owner's representative on construction projects. "I oversee maintenance, housekeeping, laundry, security, grounds, safety, and new construction when it's on track," he explains. Some of it may sound mundane, but he says it involves more engineering than you might think. "Engineering, no matter what you do, is always related to something, even if you're talking dining. It's been a good solid background."

Having grown up in Chicago, Thompson got his B.S. in civil engineering from the University of Illinois, where he also attained a commission in the U.S. Navy through ROTC. He stayed with the Navy after college. "That started my travels. I hadn't been anyplace other than Illinois until that time," he recalls. His first tour of duty had him stationed in San Diego. Then came "everywhere from Pensacola to Charleston to Newport -- all over the country."

At one stop, after about 12 years in the Navy, Thompson served as commanding officer of a reserve center in Hartford, Connecticut. While there, he received VA assistance to attend college for master's work. He went to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute-Hartford part time in the evenings and received an M.S. in management.

In the Navy, Thompson specialized first in operations and weapons, but most of his career came in engineering. He was chief engineer on the Edson, a destroyer out of Newport, Rhode Island, and later the main engines officer on the Lexington, a WW-II vintage aircraft carrier. The last two years, he oversaw reserve manpower for New England. Navy engineering involved working on ship power plants, including those for propulsion and auxiliary systems such as evaporators for water distillation. "In civilian terms, electrical, plumbing, and mechanical aspects of the ship's operation," as he puts it. Along the way, he became a certified plant engineer. He spent 21 years in the Navy, retiring in 1991.

Then Thompson's second career began. He worked several stints with ServiceMaster Contract Management Services. The first eight months there, he bounced around New England helping in the engineering area at various hospitals. His first real assignment with ServiceMaster came at Delaware State Hospital in Wilmington, Delaware. He served as director of facilities at this 370-bed, 200-acre state-operated mental health institution that was started around 1890, describing it as a "very interesting tour. The facility was a challenge."

Thompson says the next tour propelled him into what he does now. He became director of support services at Brethren Village Retirement Community, an 800-bed CRCC in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. There he managed a staff of 75 and handled support activities in all facets of grounds, maintenance, construction, laundry, housekeeping, and security, and he oversaw several major construction and renovation projects.

At Brethren Village, "I really loved the environment because it was a challenge both from the personal aspect of working with the residents who were very special as well as keeping that operational engineering expertise moving," Thompson says. "It wasn't quite as high pressure as, say, a hospital, but it certainly had its challenges."

His passion for retirement homes continued to grow. "You can bring your own personal touch to an environment like this because, in my case, I don't have parents, and consequently, the residents are surrogates, so I really want to go the extra mile for them as if they were my own folks. That's what got me into this long-term care environment opposed to acute care," Thompson reveals.

While at Brethren Village, Thompson says he decided to get a master's in healthcare administration because he saw himself fully immersed in the healthcare field. He got it from Joseph University in nearby Philadelphia. "It certainly was the ticket for future growth."

His final stop with ServiceMaster took Thompson to NorthStar Healthcare System in Raleigh, North Carolina. As director of operations, he was responsible for all aspects of the support services for five independently-operated skilled nursing facilities.

Thompson says of the facilities, "They were definitely a challenge. They were older nursing homes, and I had some very young managers working for me in each one. So it was a challenge not only making sure the place ran economically as well as efficiently, but also training those managers as a mentor as well. That was kind of neat because I've always enjoyed training and education."

After he got married in 1977, Thompson's wife moved around with him, first with the Navy and then with ServiceMaster. She complained they moved more often with ServiceMaster than they did with the Navy. The five nursing homes in Raleigh "were becoming a drag," Thompson recalls, so he decided to change jobs. One Saturday, he went through the yellow pages looking for CCRCs and called a few to ask their population. From that he extrapolated a salary he could expect. "Then I did something that rarely ever happens and rarely comes through. I wrote some cold letters to five or six of these facilities. Sure enough, the Forest at Duke's executive director contacted me. My predecessor had just left, and they were looking for a replacement." He interviewed, landed the job, and started there in 1998.

Forest at Duke opened in 1992, and today it numbers 400 residents. It has a community center, 160 apartments, 80 cottage homes, and a reputation as a leader in activities. "We have things going constantly," Thompson boasts.

Also known as a progressive care facility, a CCRC offers independent living, assisted living, and nursing home capabilities, and residents can choose the level of care they need and transfer between them as their condition warrants. Forest at Duke is not unique in that there are thousands of CCRCs around the country.

After he got to Forest at Duke, Thompson knew his career was on the right track. I said "I really, really like this, and let's go one step further and get my nursing home administrator's license," he relates. "It's another ticket for career growth." He compares it to a P.E. license.

In looking back, Thompson sees the impact he has had. "I think safety is one area that we've improved tremendously, just the general facility for the residents. Besides keeping it up and current and in good physical condition, I think we've also made some improvements to make life easier for both residents and staff, whether it be putting a handrail in a women's bathroom, which we did this year." They also put curb cuts in to minimize having to negotiate curbs. "Improving the physical plant upon an already good plant is probably one of the things I'm most proud of."

That also includes overseeing construction of a unique $25 million, 63,000-square-foot assisted living addition to the Forest's health and wellness center and extensive renovations to its community center and other common spaces.

As the owner's representative on construction projects, Thompson serves as what he calls a "clerk-of-the-works" and has meetings with the contractor and architect to make sure things stay within budget and move along smoothly, timely, and correctly.

Lately, Thompson has worked at enabling Forest at Duke to become the first healthcare facility in the nation designated a federal OSHA Voluntary Protection Program safety recipient. Companies who receive this demonstrate that they go beyond minimum OSHA requirements. It exempts them from OSHA inspections and lowers their workers compensation insurance rate. Thompson says they have gone two years without a work injury. He says they're also working on the Energy Star program and hope to have it in place in two years.

With all this experience under his belt, Thompson says for the next step in his career, he plans to become a consultant on retirement facilities. He'll probably phase into that with his own retirement. Maybe then he'll get to enjoy the fruits of his passion first hand.

Progressive Engineer
Editor: Tom Gibson
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570-568-8444 * tom@progressiveengineer.com
©2006 Progressive Engineer