Broad Reach Healthcare Happenings
Remaining healthy in the health care industry
To become successful while remaining locally owned, diversified and solid into year 40 is no small feat for any business. To do so in the health care industry is that much more challenging.
So when Bill Bogdanovich gathered many of his 350 employees, alumni invited too, for an anniversary celebration at the Broad Reach Health Care campus in Chatham in late August — a band fronted by Certified Nursing Assistant Fabio Rossi urging co-workers to dance, Food Service Director Amber Hempstead laying out a big spread, Activities Manager Melissa Silver slurping a raw oyster for the first time in her life, Bogdanovich submitting to a dunk tank — the relaxed scene offered only a hint of underlying accomplishments.
“We’re a safeguard, we’re a family, and ultimately we’re a solution for a lot of people,” said Jason Lavallee, and he should know: His grandmother Ann was the first director of nursing 40 years ago. Father Tom joined in 1991 as a social worker, became director of admissions, then a licensed nursing home administrator. Jason began as an intern, also ascending to licensed administrator.
Even people who rely on Broad Reach don’t understand its diversity and capacity:
- Liberty Commons, opened in 1986, is a 132-bed nursing home including people who need short-term post-hospital care, and long-term residents.
- Outpatient rehab, for example physical therapy after a knee replacement, began in 1995. Visits, a multiple of patients, number 30,000 a year.
- Assisted living at the Victorian began in 1997, 40 apartments for independent living with safety net support to help manage medications and other daily challenges, offering meals in a communal setting.
- Hospice arrived in 2004, 95-100 patients a day comforted by nurses traveling from Provincetown to Mashpee.
Total revenue has reached $35 million a year.
Bill Bogdanovich did not create Liberty Commons, though he was on the ground floor 40 years ago. As a high school kid in Westfield he had worked in a nursing home owned by another Bill, Bill Dobson, “washing dishes, all kind of jobs, for three years or so,” he recalls, continuing as a commuting student at Westfield State before Bentley College.
When Dobson opened Chatham, Bogdanovich (by then working at a home care agency in Boston) stopped down for a visit; Dobson convinced him to stick around. The younger Bill helped navigate hard initial bumps as process and reputation stabilized. The business grew.
As Bill D. became more a silent partner, by November 2012 Bill B. succeeded as owner.
Health care is one of the most regulated industries in the world. To satisfy demanding bureaucracy while maintaining compassionate relationships is very challenging every shift, every day, involving every family often advocating for every resident. This in part explains why the industry is heavy on corporate ownership; managing multiple sites with rigorous government and insurance rules, regs, and paperwork can become more efficient, profit margins can multiply.
That Bogdanovich has chosen to diversify rather than sell is most unusual.
“There is no other facility on the Cape that has this combination of services,” he says. Of the few that diversified, “no one else is Cape-based and locally owned.” Very few comparable models exist state-wide as well.
Independence and local control in no way guarantee highest standards. In this case, however, that holds:
When Newsweek and Statista again published “America’s Best Nursing Homes” for 2026, an industry yardstick based on performance data, recommendations from professionals, and resident satisfaction, Liberty Commons ranked #2 in Massachusetts, the only Cape Cod nursing home included.
Staffing is a huge challenge, exacerbated by Cape Cod’s outrageous housing costs. Bogdanovich has gotten creative of necessity; he was one of the first large Cape employers to guarantee a minimum wage of $20 an hour, and offers valuable career advancement:
On-site Certified Nursing Assistant courses get people accredited at no cost with full pay during course work. Licensed Practical Nursing courses, the next rung up, also are fully covered. In return, people commit to working at Broad Reach for a year or more.
Coordination and communication are crucial.
“Think of how hard it would be for the Rockettes if they didn’t work at that,” Bogdanovich smiles. “Even if they were all individually good at their craft, they’d be kicking each other all the time.”
One measure of success is low turnover:
“Almost half of our staff has been here for five years or more, and about 25 percent have had their 10-year anniversaries.” Bill believes that more important than wages, “career path opportunities really strengthen the fabric of who we are and what we’re about.”
And so 40 years — a Biblical number to denote much time passing — has elapsed. Now Broad Reach has taken another major step:
In partnership with Cape Cod Healthcare, the Cape’s largest health care provider, Broad Reach is taking over and managing JML Care Center, a nursing home identical in bed-size to Liberty Commons, located in far-flung Falmouth.
