Breaking ground

Abramson Senior Care’s first female chair driven to empower seniors

Blue Bell resident Lorraine Drobny knows how it feels to be a devoted family member of a senior in need. After experiencing Abramson Senior Care’s services firsthand with her father, and then subsequently holding several leadership positions on Abramson Senior Care’s Board of Trustees, she is well prepared to serve as Chair of Abramson’s Board. In October 2020, Drobny became the first female to assume this role in the organization’s 155-year history.

Abramson Senior Care is a connected array of services that span the aging process and work together to create a stronger, more seamless senior care experience. Over the past year, as the pandemic has focused our attention on the vulnerability of seniors, the importance of the services that Abramson Senior Care provides has never been more painfully apparent.

Drobny’s story with Abramson Senior Care started over 18 years ago when her father needed care beyond what could be provided by family and doctors alone. Drobny and her sisters chose Abramson to provide the support their dad required. And as their experience unfolded, they came to understand how Abramson Senior Care’s unique brand of care was not only crucial for their dad – it was essential for the well- being of their entire family.

While it was Abramson’s professionalism and quality that drew Drobny and her sisters to Abramson, it was its whole family approach that truly sparked Drobny’s passion for the organization. At the core of the Abramson Senior Care brand is a commitment to serving not just the senior, but the entire family who loves them.

Drobny’s experience with her father began a journey that ultimately led to the leadership role she has today. In 2006, a few years after her dad’s passing, she was asked to join the Board of Trustees and in 2012, she became Vice Chair of the Board. During these years, she and her fellow board members observed a shift taking place in the senior care landscape – a move away from residential care and toward aging in place whenever possible, bringing care directly to seniors wherever they call home.

“Ten years ago, we set out to address the difficult but necessary question – how to serve our mission and our community, Jewish and beyond, for the next 150 years,” said Drobny. “We studied mega trends that have enabled us to address the changing face of senior care head on. With Medicaid increasingly directing seniors away from nursing homes and toward homebased care, and with more seniors expressing a preference for aging in place, Abramson Senior Care is delivering higher quality of life and better outcomes throughout the community.”

Throughout her tenure on the Board, Drobny has served on various task forces regarding the future of Abramson Senior Care. She was instrumental in the organization’s industry analysis and thought leadership that led to the creation of its hospice program in 2008, as well as the development of other home and community-based services over the years. As trends have continued to reflect a growing preference for these services over institutional care, the organization made the decision in October 2020 to sell its Horsham nursing home and focus efforts on serving seniors at home.

From its free 24/7 Call Advisors line which offers guidance and support as families navigate the experience of aging, to Palliative Care, Hospice, and Home Care, to an adult day center in Northeast Philadelphia, short-term rehabilitative care and a Healthy Brain and Memory center in Bryn Mawr, Abramson Senior Care now serves nearly 6,000 families throughout the Philadelphia region.

“We are incredibly fortunate to have Lorraine be a reassuring voice to the community that Abramson Senior Care is here to stay, stronger than ever and focused on providing the very best care and quality of life for the families we serve,” said Carol Irvine, president and CEO of Abramson Senior Care. “This type of confident leadership doesn’t come just from Lorraine’s stellar professional experience. It comes from deep passion born of her personal experience finding someone to entrust with the care of her father and finding herself being cared for in the process.”

Although Drobny is only a few months into her role as chair, she has already helped to position Abramson Senior Care for continued expansion of its mission to provide extraordinary care to seniors and their families, while realigning the way it cares for seniors to help empower them to age in place – with dignity, purpose and choice.

“Lorraine possesses the vision, insights, industry knowledge and connection to the local community that will enable her to keep our organization moving forward as a trusted care provider that will make bold moves to ensure current patient and family needs are consistently being met,” continued Irvine. “Not only is she the first woman for this job, she is the right woman at the right time.”

Drobny’s is Principal at Stumar Investigations. Her past non-profit experiences as a member of Abramson’s board of trustees, a member of the board of trustees and women’s philanthropy of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and past President of Hakol Group for Haddassah, all contribute to her solid foundation to serve the community as a leader with Abramson Senior Care.

Lorraine Drobny