Shawn Sullivan, executive director of the Kansas Masonic Home in Wichita, will become the new head of the Kansas Department on Aging. Other cabinet officials also were named Friday by Governor-elect Sam Brownback.
Sullivan has 18 years experience working in retirement communties and is the only nursing home chief to have received the PEAK award at three different facilities. The PEAK award is given to nursing homes and retirement communities that excel in providing residents “home-like” living environments. The Kansas Masonic Home, Lyons Good Samaritan Center and Newton Presbyterian Manor each received the award during Sullivan’s tenures at the facilities.
Each of the three homes is a nonprofit facility.
Sullivan has been a member of the Kansas Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, an association representing the interests of the state’s nonprofit nursing homes.
Transition officials said that under Sullivan’s leadership, the Kansas Masonic Home benefitted from, “physical upgrades, technology investment and a service focused approach.”
Residents at the home now enjoy wellness services, art exhibits, concierge services and greatly expanded dining options, including chef prepared meals and room service, according the transition office’s official announcement.
“It is an honor to serve Kansas seniors under Governor-Elect Brownback. The seniors we serve have made our state and our country the great place to live it is today,” Sullivan said a prepared statement. “I have learned much from them during the course of my career and look forward to serving them at the Kansas Department Aging as we work to promote the services they need, when they need them, in a place they call home.”
In recent years, Kansas Masonic Home has been cited for poor care.
Last month, Kansas Advocates for Better Care included Kansas Masonic Home in its annual listing of nuring homes that had been cited for 10 or more deficiencies during each of their last three annual inspections. Seventy-seven homes were on the list.
Fifteen of the 77 were nonprofit facilities, 62 were for-profit.
“The fact that Mr. Sullivan references operating nursing facilities that have received PEAK awards hopefully reflects a passion for and interest in responding to the needs and desires of persons using long-term care,” KABC Executive Director Mitzi McFatrich wrote in an email to KHI News Service. “KABC looks forward to working with him to achieve and ensure improved quality in long-term care facilities and services and that will benefit Kansas elders and persons with disabilities.”
Cindy Luxem, executive director at the Kansas Health Care Association, said that within the industry, Sullivan is known for improving troubled homes.
“He’s been very successful,” Luxem said. “He’s been able to go in and breathe new life into them. We look forward to working with him. He’ll bring a good perspective, having been a provider and part of the provider network.”
Brownback also announced Friday that former House Speaker Robin Jennison, a Healy Republican, will become secretary of the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, succeeding Mike Hayden, a former Republican governor and House speaker.
Browback also named Curtis Whitten as the commissioner for the Juvenile Justice Authority.
Whitten is chief executive of VendTech Enterprise, a security firm, and is a former criminal investigator. He is a member of the Kansas African American Affairs Commission and the Governors Task Force on Racial Profiling.
The appointments require confirmation by the Kansas Senate.