The Ensign Group Successfully Graduates Troubled Nursing Home from CMS Special Focus Facili...( MISSION VIEJO Calif. Feb. 19 /- T...),Health

MISSION VIEJO, Calif., Feb. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Ensign Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: ENSG), the parent company of the Ensign(TM) group of skilled nursing, rehabilitative care services and assisted living companies, announced that its Waverly Park skilled nursing facility in Tucson, Arizona has successfully graduated from the Special Focus Facility Program established by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ("CMS").

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An Ensign team recently completed the challenging clinical turnaround at Waverly Park, a 200-bed skilled nursing facility that was placed on Special Focus status by CMS in 2005 based largely on events that occurred prior to Ensign's acquisition of the facility. The facility passed its final inspection in November 2007, and recently received official notice from CMS that it had graduated from the Special Focus Facility program.

Theresa Linnane, a 14-year veteran of the Arizona Department of Health, where she worked as a Survey Program Team Leader, and now an Ensign Administrator and Executive Director of Waverly Park, explained the process. "We had to start from scratch with this facility. It had no systems, a negative reputation and had been in bankruptcy. We first rebuilt its clinical systems and its reputation for quality, and we are currently rebuilding its financial foundation -- all one step at a time," she said.

Ensign has long pursued "turnaround" opportunities like Waverly Park, and continues to seek similar opportunities for its growing portfolio of long-term care facilities.

"We founded this company to bring a new level of
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