Summary

In 1991, a young physician named Bill Thomas in New Berlin, New York, was 31 years old and had just taken a job as medical director of Chase Memorial Nursing Home. There were 80 severely disabled elderly residents in the home. He had been an emergency room physician so it was a whole new world for him. The nursing home at Chase depressed him; he wanted to fix it. At first he thought that improved physical treatment would be the fix but he was confusing treatment with care – which his what the elderly residents needed. He decided to bring “life” into nursing homes which included pets, plants and many visits from children.

Although the administrator and staff members were totally against Thomas' ideas, he eventually wore them down through his salesmanship skills. Knowing that the application would have many skeptics, Thomas and his team traveled to the...