Emeritus Senior Living Receives 2010 Best of the Best Award

The Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA) has awarded Emeritus Senior Living (NYSE: ESC), headquartered in Seattle, Washington, its prestigious 2010 Best of the Best Award, a national recognition reserved for the nation’s most innovative and effective business practices in the senior living industry. 2010 winners will be profiled in the May/June issue of ALFA’s flagship magazine, Assisted Living Executive.

“These innovations recognize companies that have put their imaginations to work to continually improve and streamline operations, enhance resident care and services, train and retain quality employees, and much more,” says ALFA President and CEO Richard P. Grimes. “Plus, the industry-wide benefit of the Best of the Best Awards is the program’s ability to multiply excellence as these and other companies in senior living adopt these best practices as their own.”

Emeritus Senior Living was recognized for three separate innovation programs, each of which will be recognized within Assisted Living Executive magazine and during the Awards Program at the 2010 ALFA Conference & Expo:

• Emeritus’ Senior In-Home Visit Program is a complimentary service to connect seniors in the local communities where Emeritus operates with the vital health, social, and support services they need to maintain their quality of life at home. Born out of Emeritus’ philosophy of social responsibility, the Home Visit Program entails sending a range of employees, including care aides, marketers, housekeepers, and maintenance employees, to homes of at-risk seniors to check on their safety and welfare. “We know the program enhances our exposure in the local community,” says Jayne Sallerson, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, “but the bottom line is there are so many resources out there and a lot of families don’t know how to access them. We’re the people that help educate the families.”
• Emeritus’ Northeast Division Dining Contest challenged the division’s 60 communities to earn points for completing a series of tasks designed to enhance the fine dining experience for residents. Points could be earned for demonstrating quality dining services, improving employee education and recognition, getting resident feedback, and collaborating with activity and memory care departments on creative, resident-centered food-related activities. In all, more than 1,000 employees received training at 165 in-services; about 90 percent of the dining departments collaborated with other departments on food-based activities; 70 percent of communities made a visible improvement in the dining environment; and 30 communities used food as a “hook” to draw media attention to their community. Three winning teams won cash to buy something for their dining program.
• Emeritus’ “E&Me” intranet is a new employee website designed to achieve greater consistency in communication and systems among its 316 communities in the wake of the Emeritus-Summerville merger. E&Me includes many impressive features: it puts a face on each department, allowing senior management to connect with communities; allows two-way communication for news and announcements; and provides instant access to all manuals and documentation. The site was developed in-house to be extremely user-friendly, particularly for community-based users. So far, website traffic is up 50 percent compared to the old system.

“We are very pleased to be recognized by ALFA for these three programs, and in particular are very proud of the recognition we received for our Home Visits program,” commented Granger Cobb, President and Co-CEO of Emeritus Senior Living. “Our Home Visits program allows us to put our qualified resources to use by reaching out to help seniors and their families in our local communities. I am very proud that so many of our locations have adopted this program and are making a difference in their communities.”

For details about each winning strategy, see the cover story of Assisted Living Executive’s May/June 2010 issue. The ALFA 2010 Best of the Best Award winners will also be recognized at the ALFA 2010 Conference & Expo, May 25-27, in Phoenix.

Additionally, Emeritus team members will be sharing their expertise at the ALFA Conference. Jayne Sallerson, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing, will be participating in a forum titled, Shaping the Future, a discussion on what 2013 will look like for the assisted living industry. Chris Hyatt, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for Emeritus, will be speaking as part of a panel titled, Emerging From the Recession, where he will share lessons learned from the economic downturn.

About Emeritus Senior Living

Emeritus Corporation is a national provider of assisted living and Alzheimer's and related dementia care services to seniors. Emeritus is one of the largest and most experienced operators of freestanding assisted living communities located throughout the United States. These communities provide a residential housing alternative for senior citizens who need assistance with the activities of daily living, with an emphasis on personal care services, which provides support to the residents in the aging process. Emeritus currently operates 316 communities in 36 states representing capacity for approximately 27,500 units and approximately 32,800 residents. Our common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol ESC, and our home page can be found on the Internet at www.emeritus.com.

About the Assisted Living Federation of America

Founded in 1990, the Assisted Living Federation of America (ALFA) is the only national association exclusively dedicated to professionally operated senior living communities. ALFA’s member-driven programs promote business and operational excellence through national conferences, research, publications, and executive networks. ALFA works to influence public policy by advocating for informed choice, quality care, and accessibility for all Americans seeking assistance with long-term care. Visit www.alfa.org for more information.

About Assisted Living Executive magazine

ALFA’s flagship publication, Assisted Living Executive reaches more than 20,000 c-level and senior executives. Published six times per year, the magazine focuses on best practices and strategic solutions that advance operational excellence for senior living companies. Assisted Living Executive is an ALFA membership benefit and also available by subscription. Go to www.alfa.org/ALE for details. Visit the magazine’s digital edition at www.alfapublications.org.

Forward Looking Statements

"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: A number of the matters and subject areas discussed in this report that are not historical or current facts deal with potential future circumstances, operations, and prospects. The discussion of such matters and subject areas is qualified by the inherent risks and uncertainties surrounding future expectations generally, and also may materially differ from our actual future experience as a result of such factors as: the effects of competition and economic conditions on the occupancy levels in our communities; our ability under current market conditions to maintain and increase our resident charges in accordance with our rate enhancement programs without adversely affecting occupancy levels; increases in interest costs as a result of re-financings; our ability to control community operation expenses, including insurance and utility costs, without adversely affecting the level of occupancy and the level of resident charges; our ability to generate cash flow sufficient to service our debt and other fixed payment requirements; our ability to find sources of financing and capital on satisfactory terms to meet our cash requirements to the extent that they are not met by operation; and uncertainties related to professional liability claims. We have attempted to identify, in context, certain of the factors that we currently believe may cause actual future experience and results to differ from our current expectations regarding the relevant matter or subject area. These and other risks and uncertainties are detailed in our reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including "Item 1A. Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008.

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