SAN MARCOS, CA, UNITED STATES, November 13, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — A 2021 qualitative study published in the National Library of Medicine’s PMC database found that spirituality was one of the least understood needs among patients nearing the end of life, and that most health professionals received little training in how to address it. The study’s authors conclude that attending to a dying patient’s spiritual needs gives real meaning to the work of nursing staff and supports whole-person care, allowing death to be met with dignity rather than treated as a purely clinical event. Ali Naghibi, founder of Sapphire Pacific Residential Care, has built a company around this idea, one six-person home at a time.
Sapphire Pacific Residential Care operates small, licensed residential homes across Orange County and North San Diego County. Each home houses only six residents, a deliberate limit that Naghibi says changes everything about how care actually feels.
“It all comes down to the ratio,” Naghibi explains. “We need one caregiver for every three residents. When a resident requires one-on-one care, we do that, too. Compare that to a bigger facility, where it’s one caregiver for 10 to 15 residents, and even more.”
Naghibi did not start in senior care. He holds a degree in biomedical engineering and spent his early career training surgeons on emerging operating room technology. When the Affordable Care Act (ACA) reshaped hospital budgets in the early 2010s, hospitals had less money for new equipment, and the emerging biotech industry contracted along with it. So, Naghibi began looking for a new direction to build on his health care background.
The final push came from home. Two years before he made the switch, Naghibi’s father needed care, and the family found only two flawed options: a skilled nursing facility or a home with one or two hired caregivers. Neither felt right. Sapphire Pacific’s model, homes of six residents with a small, consistent care giving team, was built to be the option Naghibi wished had been available for his dad.
The end-of-life challenges with his father helped define how Naghibi thinks about the end of life itself, a subject he approaches with a spiritual seriousness that is rare in the industry. Having studied the human body from medical, science, and engineering perspectives, Naghibi is convinced that the spiritual perspective is actually the most accurate and best explains end of life phenomena. He speaks openly about honoring a resident’s final spiritual transition rather than treating it solely as a medical event, and prepares families for that moment with patience instead of alarm. Spirituality is, by his account, the most meaningful and rewarding part of the work.
Sapphire Pacific’s growth strategy is unusual for the industry: insurance first. Naghibi’s San Diego location accepts insurance exclusively, and only rarely accepts private pay. Long-term care insurance and Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid program, now cover costs that once ran several thousand dollars a month out of pocket for families. “I want to be the first facility that any insurance company contracts with,” Naghibi shares. The company’s website devotes an entire section to walking families through their insurance options.
Design choices reinforce Naghibi’s philosophy. Sapphire Pacific homes are remodeled with granite kitchens and updated bathrooms. Naghibi has banned wall-to-wall carpet outright, calling it one of his strictest rules for keeping the homes clean and free of the odors common in larger facilities. Doors to the backyard stay open in most of the company’s Southern California locations, a habit Naghibi says the team leaned on even harder after the COVID-19 pandemic reinforced the value of fresh air indoors.
Hiring staff follows the same instinct of experience over credentials. Naghibi allows his site managers to lead recruiting, then reviews their final calls. He has moved away from hiring certified nursing assistants, who he says excel with residents but often resist cooking and cleaning duties that are core to the job in a small home. He tends to favor caregivers with decades of homemaking experience, betting that lived experience translates directly into better daily care.
Families are welcome 24/7. Several of Sapphire Pacific’s homes hold Medi-Cal contracts that prohibit restricted visiting hours, and Naghibi has made an open-door policy a company-wide standard regardless of contract requirements. “We’re not going to close the door and lock you in or lock your family out, ever,” he says. “You can come in any time and see what’s going on.”
Twenty years from now, Naghibi says, he wants families to look back and say they would not only send their other relatives to Sapphire Pacific without hesitation, but that they would want to spend their end of life there. It is a modest way to describe a business built on a difficult truth: that growing old, and eventually dying, deserves a setting that feels like home, staffed by people who honor the spiritual side of death.
About Sapphire Pacific Residential Care
Sapphire Pacific Residential Care operates small, licensed residential care homes throughout Orange County and North San Diego County, including Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Carlsbad, Encinitas and Oceanside. Each residence serves a maximum of six residents in a home-like setting with private and shared bedroom options, on-site amenities and a low caregiver-to-resident ratio. The company works directly with long-term care insurance and Medi-Cal to expand access to quality residential care.
Close Up Radio recently featured Ali Naghibi, founder of Sapphire Pacific Residential Care, in an interview with Jim Masters on Wednesday November 11th at 1pm Eastern
Listen to the Podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/close-up-radio-spotlights-holistic-end-of-life-care/id1785721253?i=1000801395475
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-close-up-radio-242020413/episode/close-up-radio-spotlights-holistic-end-of-life-care-leader-ali-naghibi-of-sapphire-pacific-residential-care-349856392/
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3elAznt1U6IZMKvxpGd2KA
For more information about Ali Naghibi, founder of Sapphire Pacific Residential Care, please visit https://sapphirepacific.org/
Lou Ceparano
Close Up Television & Radio
+1 631-850-3314
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