By Rick Banas of BMA Management, Ltd.
At BMA Management, our focus is on compassionately providing a dignified lifestyle in a caring environment and on providing residents of our senior living, assisted living and memory care communities with love, compassion and dignity.
Each year, we honor employees who, through their work each day, enhance the quality of life for residents in special ways.
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| (Left to Right) Rod Burkett · President & CEO of BMA Denise Toro · Heritage Woods of Chicago Jo Ellen Bleavins · SN VP & COO of BMA |
We recently honored Denise Toro of Heritage Woods of Chicago with our First Place Shining Star award. The affordable assisted living community, which is located at Fulton and California on the west side of Chicago, serves low-income seniors who need some help to maintain their independence.
Denise joined the staff at Heritage Woods as a receptionist four years ago.
While her title may be “receptionist,” her duties far exceed the balancing act of juggling the telephone, intercom system, pull cords, doorbells, residents, guests, vendors and visitors signing in and out.
Denise maintains the pulse of the community, quickly identifying needs and addressing them or bringing them to the attention of management.
Whether it’s performing manicures for activities, participating in a marketing blitz, helping to paint and turn over apartments or cover extra shifts, she personally does whatever is needed to meet the needs of the community.
Denise is often called “the little mother” by our management team. She ensures that every visitor, employee and resident need is addressed.
When a visitor needs a resource, she will find it. Whether it is a city bus driver needing to use our restroom, someone who has lost their way or a caller looking for a different type of resource, she will provide an answer or find someone who can.
If an employee has a headache, she is the first to offer a pain reliever. She brings homemade meals to share with other employees. When employees endure hardships due to health, finances, fires or other disasters, she provides personal assistance and alerts management, so that others can assist.
While Denise is committed to all of her customers, she is most dedicated to her residents. If a resident needs gloves, she personally provides them. She is currently collecting coats for our residents most in need. Residents bring her their mail for advice on how to process it. Denise knows who needs to go to the store and reminds them to sign up for our trips.
There are countless stories of the personalized attention she provides to residents. For one resident who has an impairment, she checks the receipt to make sure the resident received the correct change. Another resident is a deaf mute who cannot read, write, or sign. He consistently seeks out Denise, who innately understands him, and she communicates for him by writing letters on his behalf to his family, making telephone calls and voicing his requests.
Denise has a long track record of generating “touching lives” stories. A few years ago, she helped a resident attend his mother’s funeral by coordinating transportation and purchasing a suit for him to wear. She assisted a senior who called Heritage Woods in a panic that she had no food and needed help; Denise insisted the administrator accompany her to the woman’s home that evening to assist her. The woman moved into Heritage Woods. Later, when she needed to move to a nursing home, Denise’s commitment continued as she filled the role of surrogate daughter and made sure the resident was transferred to a good nursing home.
Her dedication is unwavering and her commitment and love to the residents of Heritage Woods knows no end. As staff members proclaim, Heritage Woods of Chicago is more than a community; it is a family supported by their “little mother” – Denise Toro.
All affordable assisted living communities managed by BMA Management, Ltd. are certified and surveyed by the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services. All assisted living communities are licensed and surveyed by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
“BMA Management, Ltd. is the leading provider of assisted living in Illinois
and one of the 20 largest providers of assisted living in the United States.”
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