Rosen Hotels & Resorts, owned and operated by Florida’s largest independent hotelier Harris Rosen, announced Thursday its COVID-19 Response Plan.
Experts from the company’s nationally recognized RosenCare healthcare program partnered with a specially-appointed task force and created a comprehensive plan that applies specifically to the company’s eight Orlando hotels. The COVID-19 Response Plan incorporates all of the successful learnings of RosenCare to elevate the company’s already superior level of hygiene and cleanliness to ensure the safety and wellbeing of its hotel guests and associates.
Known as a maverick within the worldwide hospitality industry, Rosen created RosenCare in 1991 as his own self-funded associate healthcare program in response to rising healthcare insurance premiums for employers. The program includes the 12,000 sq. ft. on-site Rosen Medical Center, with a 60-member staff including full-time doctors and nurses and various ancillary specialists to service the more than 6,000 associates and dependents on the plan.
“Our reputation as a hotel company has been built on providing unparalleled, individualized service,” said Rosen. “The wellbeing of our guests and associates continues to remain our highest priority.
“Times like these demand we operate above and beyond to exceed guest expectations,” continues Rosen. “As such, we have put a seasoned team in place who have developed an immediate plan of action to respond to all of the changes we are currently facing and who can swiftly respond to any future changes we may face. Having our own medical center with a team of doctors already intimately involved in our company and with our associates has proven to be an incredible asset to more quickly and effectively develop this program.”
The Rosen task force includes Dr. Ronald Ryan, the 7-year medical director of the Rosen Medical Center, as advisor. Lead by Jonathan Rivera, director of safety services, the team of experts also includes Rosen Hotels’ Risk Management, Rosen Brand Standards and leaders from departments at each of the company’s hotels who have pooled their knowledge to develop a detailed, committed plan of action that focuses on each area of the hotel. New procedures will be implemented at all eight properties and feature enhanced processes such as the cleaning of guest-centric public and “back-of-the-house” private areas with quick-acting hydrogen peroxide-based disinfectants considered effective by the CDC. Additional new hotel processes include, but are not limited to:
• Adjusting to ensure social distancing between associates and guests and to limit cross-contact of common items. This includes putting in place space capacity limits, furniture rearrangements, queuing floor decals and other procedures to promote social distancing among guests.
• Posting the CDC’s guidelines on hand washing, covering coughs and sneezes as reminders to guests and associates, while increasing the number of hand sanitizer dispensers that are available and easily accessible throughout the hotels.
• Placing clear protective barriers at the front desk to separate guests and front desk associates.
• Using hospital-grade disinfectants designed to kill viruses when thoroughly sanitizing each guestroom with electrostatic sprayers and to ensure touch points and commonly handled items throughout the hotels and guestrooms are more frequently disinfected throughout the day.
• Bed and bath linens are cleaned at the company-owned, computer-controlled and monitored on-site laundry facility in water temperatures hot enough to kill viruses. The laundering process also uses steam which further disinfects linens; while virus-eliminating detergents are used. Carts transporting linens from the company’s laundry facility to each hotel are sanitized with fast-acting disinfectants.
• Screening associates to include temperature checks before each shift. All ill associates will be instructed to remain at home. Associates also have been trained and are frequently reminded on how to assess for symptoms and how to notify management for assistance and guidance.
• Key management will be continuously apprised on the latest developments. Rosen associates, who play an integral part in the efforts, will be regularly briefed on the need for proper and consistent hygiene practices.
“RosenCare’s success has been achieved through an intense focus on prevention,” said Rosen. “Prevention also will be our focus as we elevate our hygiene standards at our eight Orlando hotels in response to the new pandemic. We have always maintained an impeccable level of cleanliness on behalf of our valued guests. However, now with our medical team’s involvement, we will ensure the highest levels of disinfection related to today’s new standards are unquestionably maintained.”
Having an established medical team was key to the company’s ability to quickly respond during the initial stages of the pandemic and secure testing capabilities early on for its associates. Through relationships with local certified labs, the team was able to purchase Covid 19 PCR tests with rapid results given within 24 hours. As such, the company was able to begin screening and testing its associates, obtaining results significantly faster and more cost-effectively than most testing facilities. Rosen Hotels & Resorts eight Orlando area hotels remained open until mid-April, when all but the 1334-room Rosen Centre were closed.
The hotelier’s unique commitment to health and wellness through RosenCare has saved the company more than $400 million since its inception, funds which are continuously funneled back to enhance the plan, as well as are used to fund Rosen’s numerous philanthropic initiatives such as the Tangelo Park and Parramore college scholarship programs. The plan has been nationally recognized as a leader in providing low-cost premiums with the highest level of benefits and programs for its associates.
For Harris Rosen’s video message regarding COVID-19, please visit https://bit.ly/2SxXjYM.
The History of RosenCare
Since 1991, Rosen Hotels & Resorts in Orlando has offered a unique healthcare insurance system that provides associates and their families with personalized care, focused on preventing illness, low
premiums, co-insurance, no deductibles, minimal co-payments for office visits, free or low co-pay prescriptions and readily available appointments. This revolutionary program was the vision of Harris Rosen, President & COO, Rosen Hotels & Resorts, who saw early on that self-insuring his associates would not only cut his company’s costs on healthcare but also would provide his then 524 -- now approximately 6,000 associates and dependents at eight hotels -- with superior service and care. Rosen’s experience in self-insuring his company led to the development of ProvInsure, an independent insurance agency that assists other companies with developing similar healthcare programs.
The RosenCare plan features on-the-clock visits to primary care doctors and a variety of specialists at the onsite, company-owned and operated Rosen Medical Center, A Place for Healing and Wellness. The facility is approximately 12,000 square feet and opened in 2012, taking the place of the previous 3,500-square-foot medical center that was located within the hotel. The program features minimal co-pays for office visits and prescriptions and a focus on prevention and wellness/exercise programs.
Although Rosen has never measured the soft cost savings such as increased productivity, reduced absenteeism and improved presenteeism, no doubt the savings are significant. These cost savings are truly astounding considering the diversity of the Rosen workforce and the large number of hourly associates who have emigrated from other countries, many who have never received regular healthcare, and some who have never seen a doctor.
Members of numerous national corporations, as well as the United States House of Representatives, have toured the medical center to learn more about the program, with one congressman stating during a tour that he believes the program “…Could save the nation one trillion dollars annually.” The program was honored in 2018 by the World Health Care Congress in Washington, D.C. with three distinguished awards: Diamond Awards for Harris Rosen in Lifetime Achievement in Health Benefits Innovation and Public Leadership and a Large Employers Silver Award for Rosen Hotels & Resorts. Harris Rosen was honored in April 2017 as a Public Health Hero by the Florida Department of Health in Orange County. The Orlando Business Journal has recognized Rosen as a "Healthcare Hero," while the company has been consistently awarded the “Healthiest Company” by the publication. For more information about RosenCare, visit RosenCare.com.
For more about Rosen Hotels & Resorts, please visit RosenHotels.com.
