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“Vitalia, your day care center” and Vitalia Franchise

“Vitalia, your day center” (hereafter referred to as “Vitalia”), www.vitalia.com.es, was a network of day care centers for the elderly. Its 12 centers were located throughout Spain, but most were concentrated in the Madrid area. [2] Its philosophy was based on making the elderly feel at home while receiving the care they needed. Vitalia thus focused not only on the infrastructure but also on adapting the services they offered to each particular case. For example, in contrast to the rigid schedule of other centers, Vitalia offered families flexible hours: the center adapted to each family’s needs, rather than the family’s having to adapt to the center.

Rehabilitation of the elderly took place through a multidisciplinary team (see Exhibit 4). Vitalia has been called “a focused factory for elderly people”—an integrated, holistic system. Through evaluations and activities adapted to every need, the staff reduced users’ deterioration and maintained their independence for as long as possible. Another Vitalia motto was “rehabilitation through activity.” Prevention and early detection was one of Vitalia’s priorities. One of the distinctive features was the widely varied program of activities (see Exhibit 5) such as workshops on memory and psychomotor skills, music therapy, relaxation classes, reading workshops, mental gymnastics, and classes of Yoga, Tai Chi, and play therapy.

The company’s major differentiating aspect was the implementation of the so-called “Hoffmann Method,” [3] which analyzed in-depth the overall situation of each individual and their needs to provide a suitable program of intervention.

Vitalia centers were open from Monday to Friday, 8:30 am to 7:30 pm. Users could come on their own or be picked up from home. Each center provided a morning snack, lunch, and an afternoon snack. Clients paid €900 monthly for a five-day full treatment, but the scheduling flexibility meant that different clients may pay less. For example, a client going three days a week, mornings only, would pay €350.

The centers were 100% privately owned and privately paid for. Vitalia’s management took the strategic decision of following this 100% private path, avoiding contractual attachment to any Public Administration, primarily to retain freedom in deciding whether to accept each patient according to his or her specific pathology. Because the Hoffmann Method has specialized treatment for different ailments, mixing different pathologies at different stages required careful monitoring. Public assistance would have required accepting any client with any pathology, and such a commitment could have disturbed the personalized care credo of the firm.

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