Health care group expands to fill gap left by Wilshire — with a key leader at the helm
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- Alan Iftiniuk ends retirement to become CEO of Rose Care Group in SLO County.
- Rose Care adds Aevum Home Health and Aevum Hospice to fill Wilshire's care gap.
- Expanded services aim to streamline care and reduce hospital readmission rates.
After the sudden closure of Wilshire Health and Community Services, a local care group will broaden its services under new leadership to fill the senior care gap in San Luis Obispo County left in the nonprofit’s absence — and the group’s new CEO is a familiar face.
Former Dignity Health French Hospital Medical Center CEO Alan Iftiniuk has returned from retirement to head up the Rose Care Group, expanding services to include its sister companies Aevum Home Health and Aevum Hospice, the group announced in a news release.
“I’m coming out of retirement reenergized and pretty excited,” Iftiniuk told The Tribune.
Rose Care Group has been in business on the Central Coast for 15 years, operating seven assisted living communities in San Luis Obispo and Arroyo Grande. The group also offers medical and hospice care.
The combined services intends to address the care gap created by Wilshire’s collapse, Iftiniuk said. The home health and hospice care nonprofit had operated in SLO County for over 40 years before it suddenly shut its doors in June and said it would file for bankruptcy.
Iftiniuk said expanding Rose Care Group’s umbrella beyond its boutique senior living facilities was a natural evolution, but it became a necessity when Wilshire closed.
“The next step was clearly to go into providing additional services — home care and then hospice — and that became particularly acute when Wilshire made the announcement that they were going to close down shop,” he said. “It provided a real big gap.”
Rose Care Group will now be the only provider in SLO County that offers all of those services, Iftiniuk said.
“We’re going to be the first organization that will be able to provide a total continuum, which should be able to help our physicians and of course our hospitals, but most importantly the families and the patients themselves,” he said.
Rose Care Group to fill healthcare gap left by Wilshire
Now with Aevum home health and hospice, Rose Care Group will offer skilled nursing, a concierge senior physician practice called WellBridge and potentially other services like transitional care for patients moving between the hospital and home.
The expanded services mean families will no longer have to navigate multiple providers during these transitions, ensuring safer hospital discharges and reducing patient readmission rates by keeping seniors within one integrated system, the news release said.
“I joined Rose Care because I thought that our philosophies were aligned relative to providing compassionate care and making sure that the needs of the patients always came first,” Iftiniuk told The Tribune.
With more than 50 years of healthcare leadership, including two decades on the Central Coast at French Hospital from 2004 to 2023, Iftiniuk’s appointment came as a welcome opportunity for Rose Care Group.
“Alan’s track record of building trusted healthcare institutions and his deep commitment to this community make him the perfect leader for Rose Care Group as we move into the future,” Arpad Soo, founder and principal owner of the group, said in the news release. “His values of compassion, safety, and quality care align seamlessly with our mission, and his leadership will guide our expansion of Aevum Home Health and Aevum Hospice to meet the growing needs of seniors and families across the Central Coast.”
