2026 WHCA/IHCA Fall Conference
- 2026 IHCA/WHCA Joint Fall Conference
- Date: September 14 -16
- Location: Davenport Hotel, Spokane, WA (map)
Contact members@whca.org for more information.
OverviewScheduleFeesHotelsParkingExhibitorsCasino Night
Overview
This special event brings together key experts who can help define and inform your work as a long-term care professional.
Please join us for this exceptional opportunity to connect with colleagues who value, support, and understand the critically important services provided in skilled nursing and assisted living facilities throughout Washington and Idaho.
Connect with peers, leaders, and industry experts in a collegial, energizing setting. Build relationships that strengthen your impact in long-term care.
Learn from expert presenters in dynamic education sessions, designed specifically to help you improve your facility’s operations, navigate regulatory and legal updates, and develop your leadership skills.
Grow as you discover innovative tools, services, and products that support your mission. Our Associate Business partners will help you explore the latest solutions for exceptional care and service.
Don’t miss out on this exceptional opportunity to gather with your fellow long-term care leaders. Reserve your spot today and help shape the story of our community.
General Schedule
- Monday, September 14
- WHCA-PAC Fall Golf Invitational
- Education Sessions begin 1:00 pm
- Welcome Reception
- AB Dine-Around
- Tuesday, September 15
- General Session
- Education Sessions
- IHCA Board Meeting
- Trade Show Luncheon
- Casino Night
- Wednesday, September 16
- Education Sessions
- Conference ends 12:00 pm
Key Activities
Education & Professional Development
Gain valuable insights from the range of education sessions on offer across all three days of the Conference. Check back soon for a more detailed schedule of classes!
WHCA-PAC Fall Golf Invitational
Join Washington’s leading long-term care providers and industry partners for a day of connection, camaraderie and purposeful play at The Creek at Qualchan golf course. Your support for the WHCA-PAC is essential to securing the funding, workforce and regulatory support necessary for accessible, high-quality long-term care.
AB Appreciation Reception
We love our Associate Business partners and all they do to support our skilled nursing and assisted living provider members. Kick off Fall Conference with a warm, welcoming reception that honors our AB members’ contributions to our long-term care community with drinks, appetizers, and networking.
Trade Show Luncheon
Whatever the challenges facing your community, you’ll find innovative solutions at the Fall Conference Trade Show. Our exhibitors are eager to help you make the most of your budget, streamline your operations, and provide the highest quality care to your residents.
Casino Night
Hit the tables and try your luck at the Fall Conference Casino Night! This fun evening activity is the perfect way to relax after a rigorous day of education sessions. Enjoy mingling with your fellow conference attendees, try your hand at a game or two, and see if Lady Luck is on your side!
Schedule
Monday, September 14
| 1pm | Leadership Building Your Dream Team Without Starting From Scratch Jill Valdez (Link Consulting) | Based on Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, this session will take a practical look at the five things that can derail even a team full of good people: lack of trust, avoiding hard conversations, lack of commitment, avoiding accountability, and losing sight of results. You’ll leave with a better understanding of where your team may be stuck and practical ways to start moving them forward without immediately assuming the answer is another job posting. |
| 1pm | Quality/Legal HIPAA, Privacy, and Cybersecurity in Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing Facilities: Practical Guidance for Long-Term Care Providers Angela Gillis (Sorticulture Systems) | This session shows how HIPAA requirements show up in daily work, and how protecting resident data supports quality care, reduces citation and enforcement risk, and strengthens trust with families, staff, and payers. Attendees will receive a checklist they can adapt to their assisted living communities and skilled nursing facilities that links practical safeguards to the underlying HIPAA requirements. They will leave with a clear sense of where their biggest risks are, what regulators expect, and what to prioritize in the next three to six months. |
| 1pm | General Know When to Act: Practical Wound Care in Long-Term Care Carl Tabor (United Wound Healing) | Effective wound care starts with prevention, but knowing how to respond when a wound develops and when additional intervention is needed is equally critical. This session will provide practical guidance for preventing common wounds, recognizing and assessing changes, implementing appropriate management strategies, and identifying the warning signs that indicate a need to escalate care. |
| 2:15pm | Leadership When Your Team Becomes Your Community Amy Rainford | Wages in long-term care rarely match the demands of the work, and that reality drives a lot of turnover. But the people who stay usually stay for reasons that have nothing to do with a paycheck. This session gets into how administrators can lean into that: building a workplace where staff feel recognized, trusted, and treated as the professionals they are. It draws on real facilities around the country that have held onto their people by getting the culture right. |
| 2:15pm | Quality/Legal The 12 Photos That Predict Your Next Survey, Staffing Crisis, or Census Dip Michael Garrett (Arete Architecture) | Learn how your building’s physical environment influences resident safety, staff efficiency, and financial performance. Through an interactive review of common long-term care spaces, participants will identify hidden sources of “space friction” that contribute to staff burnout, resident risk, and operational challenges. |
| 2:15pm | General After the Emergency Part 1: Turning Lessons Learned into Stronger Preparedness Brian Feist BIO HS, Amber Rogers BIO HS, Meredith Koob BIO (Midwest QIN-QIO) | Learn how to turn exercises, emergency responses, and after-action reviews into meaningful improvements to your Emergency Operations Program. Participants will explore practical strategies for identifying gaps, strengthening policies and procedures, and applying lessons learned to future preparedness efforts. Discover how a strong after-action process can support continuous improvement and build greater organizational readiness. |
| 3:30pm | Leadership Why Good People Keep Having the Same Problems: Finding the Operational Issues Behind Team Frustration Jill Valdez (Link Consulting) | In this session, we’ll look at how leaders can stop chasing individual problems and start finding the operational issues that keep creating them. Using real-world examples from senior care, we’ll explore the connection between people, processes, communication, and accountability, and why fixing the wrong thing can leave leaders frustrated and teams feeling blamed. |
| 3:30pm | Quality/Legal Difficult Conversations, Better Outcomes: Conflict Resolution in Long-Term Care Rebecca Evans (My Consulting Resources) | This presentation will equip attendees with practical, proven conflict resolution strategies tailored to the unique challenges and diverse populations found throughout the continuum of long-term care. Participants will explore the most common sources of conflict across nursing facilities, assisted living communities, and memory care settings, learn core resolution principles including active listening, empathy, and de-escalation, and walk away with a simple yet powerful step-by-step framework. |
| 3:30pm | General After the Emergency Part 2: Recovery, Reopening, and Building Resilience Brian Feist BIO HS, Amber Rogers BIO HS, Meredith Koob BIO (Midwest QIN-QIO) | Explore the critical steps involved in recovery, reopening, and repopulating a facility following an evacuation or emergency. Participants will discuss restoring operations, ensuring resident safety, supporting staff recovery, recognizing signs of trauma and stress, and communicating with residents, families, and community partners. Leave with practical strategies to strengthen resilience and support a safe, effective return to operations. |
Tuesday, September 15
| 8:30am | KEYNOTE SESSION: Leaders – You Are the Key to Resolving the Chaos Molly Mackey (LEAdeRNship Institute) | This session covers the Trough of Chaos Model of Change, helping leaders understand why people struggle during transitions and how to create an environment where trust, communication, and psychological safety help teams move from uncertainty to confidence. Participants will leave with practical strategies to reduce resistance, strengthen resilience, and become the steady leadership their teams need most. |
| 9:45am | Leadership DO BETTER: And Other Words of Wisdom from an Old Nurse Vicki McNealley (WHCA) | Throughout her nursing career, Vicki McNealley has collected nine memorable phrases that are simple yet powerful pieces of wisdom. Each carries a story and a lesson that has shaped the way she leads, serves, and lives. Participants will leave inspired to recognize the wisdom that surrounds them every day, and perhaps discover a few words they’ll carry with them for years to come. |
| 9:45am | Quality/Legal From Vision to Practice: How Leadership Shapes Infection Prevention Success in Long-Term Care Shannon Cupka (Comagine Health) | Infection prevention in long-term care is more critical than ever, yet it remains one of the most frequently cited deficiencies. As residents enter care with increasingly complex medical needs, higher acuity, and emerging infectious risks, leaders and infection preventionists must be ready to respond with confidence. This session will address what it takes to support a strong IPC program, strengthen a culture of safety, and protect residents, staff, and visitors. |
| 9:45am | General The New Workforce Blueprint: Reinventing Recruitment and Hiring Gina Johnston (LeaderStat) | Today’s workforce has changed—and outdated hiring and retention strategies are no longer effective. In this session, participants will explore how to modernize recruitment, streamline hiring processes, and create meaningful first impressions that drive engagement and retention. With a focus on culture, speed, and the employee experience, this presentation provides practical, actionable strategies to help senior living leaders attract top talent, reduce early turnover, and build a more stable, committed workforce. |
| 11:00am | Leadership What Do You Mean My Service Plan Isn’t Resident Centered?! Christy Jacobo (Prestige Senior Living) | This session provides an overview of resident-centered care and the key compliance requirements for Washington Assisted Living communities. Participants will learn how assessments, care planning, documentation, resident rights, and responding to significant changes support quality care, regulatory compliance, and positive resident outcomes. This session emphasizes practical strategies for delivering safe, person-centered care while maintaining survey readiness. |
| 11:00am | Quality/Legal CMS Risk Based Surveys – What you need to know! (SNF Only) Elena Madrid (WHCA) | CMS plans to implement the nationwide Risk-Based Survey (RBS) on September 8, 2026. Currently, about 12% of all nursing facilities nationwide will qualify for the new RBS survey process. In this session, we will learn the criteria facilities need to meet to qualify, discuss how this survey process will be implemented in our state, and steps to take to assist your facility in the RBS process. |
| 11:00am | General Art of Investigation Cynthia McDaniel (Elderwise/NurseLearn) | This session will equip providers with the knowledge and practical skills needed to conduct effective incident investigations. Participants will learn how to move beyond surface-level facts to identify root causes, gather objective information, and document findings clearly and defensibly. This presentation emphasizes a systematic and resident-centered approach to investigations that supports regulatory compliance, reduces repeat incidents, and promotes a culture of risk mitigation and accountability. |
| 12 noon | Tradeshow Luncheon | |
| 1:45pm | Leadership Clinical Leadership: The 6th Star of Quality Chukk Nielson (Avamere) | 5-star ratings reflect outcomes, but they do not capture the leadership that creates them. This session invites nurse leaders, administrators, and owners to reimagine their role and see leadership not as a set of tasks but as a transformative influence – the 6th Star of Quality. When leadership leads with intention, every metric, every survey, every outcome becomes a reflection of the care and culture at the center of the organization. |
| 1:45pm | Quality/Legal Every Rate Tells a Story: Idaho, Washington & Medicare Reimbursement Update Amy Seils (Cascadia Services) | Every picture tells a story, and in reimbursement, the picture is constantly changing. This session will examine the new Idaho and Washington Medicaid rates effective July 1, 2026, highlighting the key drivers behind recent rate changes and what they mean for provider operations and financial performance. By the end of the session, attendees will understand not only what the reimbursement picture looks like today, but also future opportunities, risks, and strategies for success. |
| 1:45pm | General Service Learning for Impact: Leveraging Academic Partnerships to Scale Healthcare Communications Rebecca Cooney (WSU) | This session reveals a high-impact, sustainable strategy for bridging that gap: structuring effective, in-curriculum service learning partnerships with community college and university communication, marketing, and public relations programs. Participants will learn how to set clear project goals, define workflows, and gain a semester’s worth of applied labor focused on high-priority initiatives, ensuring your organization maximizes its communication capacity with minimal strain on existing staff. |
| 2-4pm | WHCA Board Meeting, | |
| 3:00pm | Leadership Picture This: Practical AI Tools Every Long-Term Care Leader Can Use Sara Bayer (Haystack Robitics) | AI is no longer just a future trend. It is a practical tool that can help long-term care professionals save time, improve communication, create stronger training materials, and streamline everyday tasks. This interactive session will share real-world AI applications specifically relevant to skilled nursing and assisted living, along with practical tips and tricks you can use. |
| 3:00pm | Quality/Legal Facility Tours: Advocacy on the Ground Aidan Swayne (WHCA) | Facility tours are an essential part of advocacy and a wonderful way to engage your communities as a voice for the future of long-term care. They provide substantial opportunities for educating lawmakers in Washington and Idaho. Learn how to prepare, plan, and execute a facility tour with a district legislator, dignitary, or other government personnel. We will overview the structure of a facility tour, build talking points, and walk through how our organizations target specific legislators in key areas to drive messages of change and sustainability. |
| 3:00pm | General Social Media Best Practices in Health Communication Rebecca Cooney | The art of effective social media marketing requires that an organization be adept at creating targeted content that speaks to right person, in the right way, at the right time. In this session we will walk through a series of steps for building a social media strategy framework, talk specifically about digital campaign planning and implementation including guidelines for sharing your message across multiple channels, and then close with information about metrics planning and optimization for sustainable outcomes. |
| 4:15pm | Leadership Beyond Burnout: The Missing Strategy for Retaining Long-Term Care Leaders – Building Whole-Person Wellness Cecilia Owsley, MSN, RN, RCA, CYT (Nightingale), Dr. Jolynn Hunt, PhD (IO Consulting) | In this engaging session, long-term care leaders will explore a whole-person approach to preventing and addressing burnout, while reflecting on their own well-being and the culture they create for others. Participants will move beyond quick fixes to consider what truly helps people feel supported, connected, resilient, and able to thrive. They’ll leave with practical, realistic, evidence-based strategies they can use to strengthen their own well-being and foster healthier, more sustainable teams. |
| 4:15pm | Quality/Legal Beyond the Fall: Building Safer Pathways in Long-Term Care – Practical Strategies for Prevention, Mitigation, and Response Across the Care Team Sing Palat BIO HA, Amy Jones, April Meckel (Optum) | Falls are one of the leading causes of injury, hospitalization, and functional decline in older adults living in long-term care, skilled nursing facilities, and assisted living communities. This session will approach falls not only as a clinical and regulatory challenge, but also as a human experience—shaping dignity, independence, and quality of life for residents and families. Participants will gain an evidence-based, interdisciplinary framework for fall prevention, mitigation, and response, with practical strategies that bring together nursing, rehabilitation, pharmacy, social work, and administrative teams. |
| 4:15pm | General From Discharge to Home: Creating Better Outcomes Through Seamless Care Transitions Jeff Mason (Serengeti Care) | Every successful discharge depends on what happens after a patient leaves the facility. This presentation will focus on reducing readmissions, improving patient outcomes, and strengthening collaboration between hospitals, skilled nursing, assisted living, and home care providers. Participants will learn practical approaches to closing gaps in communication and creating a true continuum of care. |
Wednesday, September 16
| 8:00am | 8:00am Quality/Legal Ask the Attorneys | This interactive session gives you direct access to legal experts who understand the unique challenges facing skilled nursing and assisted living providers. Focusing on regulatory compliance, resident rights, and emerging legal topics affecting assisted living and skilled nursing facilities, no topic is off limits. Submit your questions in advance (cards provided at each table) or ask them live during the session and walk away with practical guidance you can apply immediately. |
| 8:00am | Clinical Beyond the Dementia Behaviors – What Actually Works: International Evidence From thousands of Care Organizations from Asia, America and Europe João Pärtel Araújo | This session covers techniques that actually reduce neuropsychiatric symptoms such as care resistance and aggression, and their consequences. Leaders will see real before/after data from multi-country implementations, understand why “read the resident’s needs” has unwillingly disempowered staff instead of helping them, and be introduced to the shift the whole day is built on: from subjective, unmeasurable care philosophy to skills-based, observable, teachable techniques. |
| 9:15am | Quality/Legal Ask the HR Experts Lynette Hatscher (Shared HR Services) Wendi Modarelli (HRT Northwest) | Join a panel of experienced human resources professionals as they answer your most pressing HR questions affecting long-term care providers. Whether you’re navigating hiring and retention, employee relations, leave management, performance issues, investigations, documentation, wage and hour concerns, or workplace culture, this interactive session is your opportunity to receive practical, real-world advice. Submit your questions ahead of time (cards provided at each table) or ask them live and benefit from the discussion with your peers. |
| 9:15am | Clinical Beyond the Dementia Behaviors – The Skill, Not the Sentiment: Making Great Care Observable João Pärtel Araújo | This session takes what the best teams in dementia care in the world actually do and breaks it down into a procedure specific enough that a leader can stand in a doorway, see whether it’s happening, and give it a score. Leaders will walk away with a concrete, walk-the-floor checklist of observable markers they can use the next day. |
| 10:30am | Quality/Legal Ask the Insurance Experts Deanna Winchester (Propel) | Join a panel of insurance and risk management professionals as they answer your questions about liability, property and casualty coverage, cyber liability, claims management, loss prevention, and emerging risks impacting long-term care providers. Whether you’re looking to better understand your policies or reduce your organization’s exposure, this interactive session offers practical insights and expert guidance. Submit your questions (cards provided at each table) in advance or ask them live during the session. |
| 10:30am | Clinical Beyond the Dementia Behaviors – Why It Doesn’t Stick: Building Skills That Survive the Shift João Pärtel Araújo | This session reveals how to make staff training actually work, why one-time training fails according to implementation science, and why your organization isn’t the exception. Leaders will understand how to build micro-learning and peer-to-peer skill coaching, what AI-supported skill reinforcement looks like in practice, and a practical model for moving staff from knowing what they should do to actually doing it, consistently, even under pressure. |
Fees
Provider Member (WHCA or IHCA) Rates
| Individual – Full Conference | $399 per person | Includes access to education sessions on all days, Trade Show, and all included meals and evening activities. |
| Individual – Tuesday Only | $199 per person | Includes access to education sessions and meals on Tuesday only, as well as the Trade Show. |
| Individual – Monday or Wednesday Only | $129 per person | Includes access to education sessions and meals on chosen day only. |
| Group Rate – Full Conference | Buy 3, get 1 free! Group rates are only available to provider members in good standing and for the full conference. All registrants in your group must be from the same facility. Contact thaopham@whca.org to register your team with this discount. |
Non-Member Provider Rates
| Individual – Full Convention | $798 per person | Includes access to education sessions on all days, Trade Show, and all included meals and evening activities. |
| Individual – Tuesday Only | $398 per person | Includes access to education sessions and meals on Tuesday only, as well as the Trade Show. |
| Individual – Monday or Wednesday Only | $258 per person | Includes access to education sessions and meals on chosen day only. |
How to register
Provider Member (WHCA or IHCA) Rates
- Step 1 – Reset password. Click here and click on reset your password. Enter your email address (must be IHCA administrator).
- Step 2 – Check your e-mail and re-set the password.
- Step 3 – Log in here and find Fall Conference and register your facility members.
Only IHCA Administrators are added to the WHCA database.
Non Member Rates
If you are not a member, create an account here and register.
Hotels
Historic Davenport Hotel
10 S. Post St, Spokane, WA
Spokane’s grandest and most iconic destination, the Historic Davenport Hotel boasts a uniquely lavish experience. Brilliantly reinvented for the 21st century, immerse your stay in the glamour of 100 years of history, glimmering with renewed luster.
Book your room with our special group rate by August 15, 2026 >
Group Room Rates: $185+
Davenport Tower
111 S. Post Street, Spokane WA
Conveniently located just across the street from the Fall Conference venue, the Davenport Tower has a bold, contemporary style that will make your stay in Spokane memorable. With an onsite restaurant and bar, indoor pool, fitness center, and a safari-inspired decor to feed your love of travel, the Tower has everything you need to recharge after a day of education and networking.
Parking
Self-parking at The Historic Davenport Hotel is available in our garage on the southwest corner of First Avenue and Post with fee. Valet Parking is also available with fee.
Exhibitors
Associate Business Members – Business Partners (WHCA or IHCA)
Associate Business members are invited to attend the 2026 WHCA+IHCA Fall Conference to network with provider members, make connections at the trade show, and demonstrate their commitment to the long-term care community through sponsorship. Please note: registration to attend the Fall Conference for networking is limited to those who have purchased any of the following:
- Trade Show Exhibit Tables –Limited Remaining!
- 2026 AB Membership Packages
- Premium Event Sponsorships – Limited Remaining!
AB members who qualify will be able to purchase additional individual registrations for $269 each. These registrations include access to networking activities such as the Welcome Reception and Fun Night, as well as included meals. If you have purchased a qualifying package or sponsorship and would like to add additional networking registrations for your team members, please contact members@whca.org.
How to register
Associate Business Members – Business Partners (WHCA or IHCA) Rates
- Step 1 – Reset password. Click here and enter your email address (must be IHCA administrator).
- Step 2 – Check your e-mail and re-set the password.
- Step 3 – Log in here and find Fall Conference and register your facility members.
Only IHCA Administrators are added to the WHCA database.
Non Member Rates
If you are not a member, create an account here and register.
If you have problems, please email Angelaewing@whca.org.
Casino Night
Tuesday, September 15
6:30 pm – 9:30 pm
Come roll the dice, try your luck, and play your best hand at the WHCA + IHCA Fall Conference Casino Night! This exciting evening is included in your event registration. Enjoy tasty refreshments and delectable drinks as you hit the tables with old friends, new connections, and favorite colleagues. More information coming soon!
