The Future Leaders Awards program is brought to you in partnership with Homecare Homebase. The program is designed to recognize up-and-coming industry members who are shaping the next decade of home health, hospice care, senior housing, skilled nursing, and behavioral health. To see this year’s Future Leaders, visit https://futureleaders.agingmedia.com/.
Erik Wilson, president and co-owner of Optimal Home Care and Hospice, has been named a 2024 Future Leader by Home Health Care News.
To become a Future Leader, an individual is nominated by their peers. The candidate must be a high-performing employee who is 40 years old or younger, a passionate worker who knows how to put vision into action, and an advocate for seniors, and the committed professionals who ensure their wellbeing.
Wilson sat down with Home Health Care News to talk about home health care quality indicators, and why they should change to advance the industry forward.
What drew you to this industry?
I started my nursing career as an ER nurse in the metro Detroit area. I enjoyed the ER very much, but something was missing — that one-to-one nurse, patient connection.
One year into my career as an ER nurse, I started working for a small home health agency per-diem that another colleague referred me to and quickly found my passion. I had learned there was so much more that could be done to keep patients home and out of the emergency department, and so much opportunity for patient/family education and need. My interest and passion for care in the home continued to grow, and I knew this is what I had to transition to as my new career path.
What’s your biggest lesson learned since starting to work in this industry?
This is easy: take great care of patients and employees and the rest will follow.
If you could change one thing with an eye toward the future of home health or home care, what would it be?
Diversify publicly reported quality improvement indicators that better target populations with chronic comorbid conditions and mental health conditions — much of VBP and Star Quality Indicators are focused on “therapy rehab” potential and not so much on maintenance, risk, visits provided.
It is not uncommon in home health that you see a patient through a “decline” stage and by discharge they have established a new baseline, such as dementia with behaviors, not necessarily hospice appropriate. Chronic conditions where the goal is to maintain and remain out of the hospital have little representation in the public domain, aside from hospitalization indicators.
What do you foresee as being different about the home health or home care industry looking ahead to 2025?
As far as home health itself, nothing groundbreaking that stands out.
Special Medicare programs continue to be popular, and agencies will learn how to share in that risk creating a more competitive market. As the years have progressed, the biggest thing is the growth of MA plan uptake and associated home health payment decreases. Along with MA plan growth and decreased payments comes agency burden with the need to add overhead staff to cover prior authorizations, or other special needs required by MA plans.
If you could give advice to yourself looking back to your first day in the industry, what would it be and why?
Have the ability to manage change effectively.
To learn more about the Future Leaders program, visit https://futureleaders.agingmedia.com/.
