OHCA Spring/Summer 2016

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Spring/Summer 2016 The Oregon Caregiver 25
PROFILE
Allen James brings his passion for long
term care and his wide breadth of
experience, including four years in the
Navy, to his leadership role at Gateway
Care and Retirement.
How did you get into long-term care?
I fell into long-term care. Long-term
care chooses you, you don’t necessarily
choose it. I was working in methadone
clinics as a drug and alcohol counselor.
Someone I knew worked in long-term
care, and a position became available and
I became a co-director of social services.
What about before that?
I was a district manager at Aflac, I
was in community mental health, and I
was in the Navy for four years, and you’d
be shocked how all of these different
experiences meld nicely into long-term
care. Especially in social services where
you have to be able to explain all aspects
of a building so that’s very similar to
submarine life. But at the same time,
you have to have heart, you have to have
compassion for this
profession. I love it
and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.
What does innovation in care
mean to you?
Innovation itself is the idea of LEAP,
which is our mantra and is based on
extreme leadership. With LEAP, you
cultivate love, generate energy, inspire
audacity, and it requires proof. Last year
we did our first LEAP awards. We didn’t
offer any monetary award and we required
an essay, but I got over 250 submissions
regarding staffers who displayed love,
energy, audacity, and proof.
At Gateway, people are striving to do the
best they can for each other, and that’s
what you get with LEAP.
Does your military background
play a role in how you approach
innovative practices at your facility?
I pay attention to detail. And I can
come off with some pretty strong intensity
but people know I do it with heart. My
background also helped me constantly be
system-oriented and prioritize. Chain of
command is also important. I sometimes
see myself as a captain of a ship trying to,
slowly, get a ship to turn while juggling a
lot of different hats.
What types of innovative
approaches to patient care
do you practice?
We’ve always been innovative here at
Gateway care because we’ve always had
to think outside of the box.
We don’t do the typical in-services. We use
our orientation for motivation for talking
about the culture, for talking about what
it means to be part of an organization that
cultivates love, which generates energy,
inspires audacity, and requires proof.
I’ve got people that want to be here,
that want to fight for you, and they’ll
go through fire for you. That’s how we
innovate.
How do you see technology
impacting care and service delivery?
We do everything through
technology. Siri is my personal assistant.
We lead with our technology and we
lead with our culture, which has been
revitalized by LEAP.
My goal is to change the profession. Here
we do things differently. We don’t see
people as numbers. We always look to
praise rather than to be punitive. There’s
no blame. We are always looking to
educate and to teach. And the technology
makes this possible. 
Allen James
Executive Director of
Gateway Care and Retirement
LEADER