New owners take over at TRCC

Thermopolis Rehabilitation and Care Center (TRCC) recently announced a change in ownership for the facility from Apple Rehab to EmpRes Healthcare.

Bill Miller, chief operations officer for EmpRes, an employee owned company, was in Thermopolis on Wednesday touring the facility with center manager Toby Homi.

Miller said the company has 60 facilities across the northwest, from Oregon and Washington to California, Montana, Idaho, Nevada and now, with the acquisition of TRCC, five facilities in Wyoming.

The company is 100 percent employee owned. Miller said each employee earns stock in the company as they work and no one else owns stock in the company other than employees.

EmpRes got their foot in the door in Wyoming when a company in Rock Springs simply walked away from their facility. Knowing the residents and the employees had nowhere to go, Miller said they did the right thing and stepped in.

Before long, facilities in Riverton, Rawlins and Cheyenne, which were all under one landlord, became opportunities.

Word had spread they had done so well with the Rock Springs facility that others were offering them ownership of their facilities as well.

While they do not own the buildings in the other towns, Apple Rehab contacted them and offered the TRCC building as well as the management of the operation.

Miller said there will be a transition period, 30 to 120 days, while they do some minor retraining and changing over of systems within the building.

The thing Homi and his staff are most looking forward to is a complete upgrade to their IT system, including the ability to connect directly to the hospital at a moment's notice.

Homi said this is what he has always dreamed of for TRCC.

"I used to talk with Brenda (Fisher) about winning the lottery and doing exactly what EmpRes is planning to do," he said.

Dava Bleak, Social Services Director, said, "We've been through a lot of transitions. The stability of this parent company will let us do some great things."