Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / Building Trust and Innovation: How Beau Sorensen Is Transforming Home Healthcare | Nursing Home Series | Senior Care

Transcript

Building Trust and Innovation: How Beau Sorensen Is Transforming Home Healthcare | Nursing Home Series | Senior Care · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast,
0:08
where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from
0:11
their successes and be inspired by how they've overcome
0:14
adversity. My name is Anthony Kotaspodi and
0:17
today's guest is Beau Sorensen, Chief Operating Officer at First
0:21
Choice Home Health and Hospice. Founded in 1995 and based in
0:26
Orem, UT, First Choice provides award-winning home health and
0:31
Hospice care with a commitment to Clinical Excellence and
0:34
outstanding service. Under Bose leadership, the
0:37
company earned a prestigious CMS Five Star rating, significantly
0:42
improved clinical outcomes from the 33rd percentile to the 99th
0:46
percentile, and implemented a fully electronic medical record
0:51
system. Beau has over 25 years of
0:54
experience in Hospice and home care, previously serving as
0:57
Director of Operations and CFO. He has helped Dr. innovative
1:02
initiatives that increase operational efficiency and
1:04
enhance patient care. He also held key leadership
1:09
roles that shaped the organization's successful
1:11
growth. First Choice focuses on
1:14
delivering compassionate care to the communities they serve,
1:17
striving to support patients and families during challenging
1:20
times. Now before we get into all that
1:23
good stuff, today's episode is brought to you by my company,
1:26
Add Back Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and
1:30
unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and
1:33
fiscally optimized for your bottom line.
1:35
One recent client was able to add over $900 per employee per
1:40
year in extra cash flow by implementing one of our
1:43
innovative programs. Results vary for each company
1:46
and some organizations may not be eligible.
1:48
To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at
1:52
Add Back benefitsagency.com. All right, back to our guest
1:56
today, the Chief Operating Officer at First Choice Home
1:59
Health and Hospice, Beau Sorensen.
2:01
I appreciate you making the time to Share your story today.
2:03
Thanks for having me, Anthony. It's great to be here.
2:06
OK, so Beau, what first attracted you to the healthcare
2:09
space? Well, I've always been
2:12
interested in healthcare. I remember when I was a little
2:14
kid that was, you know, I, I said I wanted to be a doctor
2:17
and, and you know, even though it's kids, you tend to weave in
2:21
and out of, of different careers and, and job opportunities.
2:25
I always came back around to medicine and, and when I was in
2:28
college, I, I actually got my first job in home healthcare.
2:32
I thought, you know, this is a great job to pay for college to
2:35
get me through, through what I was doing.
2:38
And then I loved it. And so I said, you know, rather
2:41
than go to school for another 12 years to be a, a plastic
2:45
surgeon, I'm going to actually go into home health and, and get
2:49
into my career and get helping people right away.
2:53
And so you've been with this company for a long time, over 20
2:57
years. How?
2:58
How did the how did the opportunity specifically with
3:01
first choice come about? It it was actually that was my
3:04
college shop. OK, so.
3:08
That's what happened is, is it, it was the the first company
3:12
that I I worked for when I was in college.
3:15
And then I loved it so much that I said, I want this to be my
3:19
career. And I just so happened to stick
3:21
with first choice the entire time and up through different
3:25
levels of of jobs and management and eventually ownership.
3:31
This isn't a story that you hear very often anymore, right?
3:33
Like it's more about like you jump different jobs to sort of
3:37
get your promotions and, you know, kind of work your way up
3:39
the corporate ladder. And and I, I'm going to take
3:43
this with a grain of salt. What you just said you like it
3:45
just so happened that I stayed with the same company.
3:48
So clearly there's more to the story than that.
3:50
Like there's something about this organization in
3:53
specifically that kept you there.
3:56
What is so special about first choice?
3:59
The thing that I, that attracted me to first choice and that I
4:02
loved about first choice is that even though it's it, you know,
4:07
it hasn't always been easy or it hasn't always worked out exactly
4:10
how I expected. There's a couple of of guiding
4:14
tenants that first choice adheres to and and that we've
4:17
adhered to the, the entire 20 some odd years that I've been
4:20
here. And one of those is putting the
4:23
patient first. It's it's making sure that we
4:25
give the patient everything that we can possibly give them now,
4:29
you know, could you always do more?
4:30
Sure. Could you be out of business if
4:32
you did that? Yes, you could.
4:34
So, you know, it's it's making sure that we give the patient
4:38
everything that we need and then making sure that we treat the
4:40
employees fantastically. And and you know, there's,
4:44
there's a lot of things that we try to do for employees.
4:46
You know, in in the past, it was different benefit programs.
4:52
Now it's, it's bringing them together more often because this
4:55
is a very fragmented field. You know, just like with UPS
4:59
drivers and FedEx drivers, our people are out in the field the
5:02
entire time that they're working.
5:04
And so we constantly try to bring them in so that we have a
5:09
team feel and so that everybody knows each other.
5:11
And so that people feel supported because it too often
5:15
people in in home health and Hospice tend to feel like they
5:18
are on an island because of the fact that they never see anybody
5:22
at work and they don't get that support.
5:23
So they really focusing on the patients and focusing on the
5:27
employees and then letting the finances and everything else
5:31
work itself out is is the thing that I really love about First
5:34
Choice. So it's, it's like a people
5:37
first mentality. You, you have, I'm going to call
5:40
it two different clients. You've got, you know, your
5:42
patients and then you've got your employees.
5:44
And you're right, like in the type of work environment that
5:49
your folks are operating in, there's no water cooler, right?
5:53
There's no like conference room or, you know, like Taco Tuesday
5:58
celebrations because right, everybody is out working at, you
6:01
know, the, the patient's home. So what does that look like?
6:04
Like what are some of those opportunities is to actually
6:06
bring people together in person? So some of those those
6:11
opportunities is once a month in, in each of our locations, we
6:15
have a meal where we get together.
6:18
And when I say a meal, it's not just, hey, we're going to bring
6:20
in something from DoorDash or Pizza Hut or whatever it it's,
6:24
it's legitimately, I make the meals.
6:27
So I cook all of the food for 75 people every single month so
6:33
that they feel like we are putting that kind of energy into
6:37
them. And yes, it takes a lot of work
6:39
for me and for my wife, but we want to do it because when we
6:44
see people and, and how they care about that and how much
6:46
they appreciate it that they get a, a good home cooked meal once
6:50
a month from somebody who, you know, clearly is spending a lot
6:54
of time doing that, It really ties them into the organization.
6:58
What was in the last lunch? What did you make?
7:01
The the last lunch that we made was, let's see, we did Turkey
7:07
and mashed potatoes that were garlic mashed potatoes with
7:12
cheese on top of them. And then then we had salad and
7:17
we had this, it's called Dixie salad.
7:20
Is, is the other salad that we had.
7:22
It was kind of, it's apples and cream and pomegranates and
7:26
walnuts and then, you know, and then just drinks and, and some
7:30
desserts. That sounds great, but that's a
7:33
nice special touch. I mean, that has to take you for
7:35
that number of people. It has to take you hours and
7:37
hours to prep that amount of food.
7:39
It does take a decent amount of time.
7:42
We have gotten pretty good at it.
7:43
So sometimes we, you know, but even when we're good at it, it
7:47
still is, you know, it's another full day worth of work on top of
7:52
the typical work that we do. OK, that's a full day of prep.
7:55
OK. So I love that example of how
7:58
you guys prep the meal and bring everybody in together.
8:01
Like specific stories like this are really fun to hear.
8:04
Can you think of a specific story where the level of patient
8:09
care like you guys really went above and beyond?
8:13
I think that that would be nice for folks to hear too.
8:15
Yeah, yeah. So we have one patient who he,
8:20
he's been with us for man, I'm trying to think he's, he's
8:24
probably been with us for 15 years.
8:27
And most of our patients come in and out they, you know, they,
8:29
they have a surgery, then they get, they get their out of the
8:34
hospital. We take care of them for 30 to
8:37
60 days and then they move on. But there's some folks that,
8:40
that don't have that opportunity.
8:42
And this, this particular person has been with us for, for 15
8:45
years. He's a quadriplegic and, and,
8:48
and so we have had people going out and, and taking care of him,
8:53
bathing him, giving him all of his personal care that he needs,
8:57
getting a nurse out there regularly and then also doing
9:01
some therapy because, you know, just because he's a
9:03
quadriplegic, you want to try to exercise those muscles.
9:07
And so we have done his care for over 15 years and giving him
9:12
everything that he, he needs on a, on a daily basis.
9:16
So we're, we've got folks in there every single day to take
9:18
care of him. And, and there's been times when
9:21
the insurance company hasn't authorized that.
9:24
And, and so that's a physical challenge for us.
9:27
But we have said, you know what, we're going to continue to take
9:30
care of him, even though the insurance company has said we
9:33
don't think that he has this, this need anymore.
9:36
And we'll try to fight it and, and hopefully make up that money
9:39
on the back end. And sometimes it works,
9:41
sometimes it doesn't. But I, I think that at this
9:44
point we've got a pretty good understanding with them that he
9:46
does need this care. So, so we are getting paid but
9:49
but there's been times when we've gone without to take care
9:52
of him so. I want to go down this road.
9:57
I mean, it seems pretty cruel that an insurance company would
10:00
try to make the argument that a quadriplegic doesn't need the
10:04
care that you're offering. Maybe we'll just sort of leave
10:07
that one there. But and focus more on the good
10:12
because the the good part of this is that this is an example
10:17
of like you guys really leading with the people first mentality,
10:20
right? And it's like, we know this
10:21
person needs care. He's a human being.
10:24
I'm a human being. Like let's get him the care that
10:27
he needs. And we'll worry about the money
10:30
part on the back end, But we'll, we'll work to get our money.
10:33
Maybe we'll get it, maybe we won't.
10:34
But this person can't be without this level of care, right?
10:39
Yeah, Yep, exactly. And and that's the way we've
10:41
always operated. So before we get too much
10:45
further along, because I've got a couple of different places, I
10:48
want to take this interview, maybe explain for us in a little
10:51
bit more detail the the different services that you do
10:53
offer. Yeah, absolutely.
10:55
So I would say that the, the core offerings that we have are
11:00
skilled nursing services. What that is, is that's, that's
11:03
a nurse that'll come in, they'll do wound care.
11:04
So take care of of wounds. And that could be anything from
11:07
something mild like a, a blister that popped to that they can't
11:11
take care of all the way to a full tunneling wound that is is
11:16
gaping and open to the bone. So we can do wounds all along
11:19
that spectrum. It's doing IV therapy, making
11:22
sure that they're getting the medications that they need for
11:25
sepsis or things like that. It's, it's taking care of
11:30
lymphedema. And so that's, you know, if, if
11:33
you have lymph drainage issues and, and you tend to swell up,
11:37
it's taking care of that and getting somebody back down to
11:41
kind of what their, their normal appearances and their, their
11:45
normal body structure is. There's physical therapy that we
11:48
do, which is, is exercising limbs and, and really big muscle
11:52
groups like arms, legs, things like that.
11:55
Then there's occupational therapy and that is fine motor
11:59
movement and being able to manipulate different tools like
12:02
forks and pens and pencils so that people can eat, so they can
12:06
function with, with some of the small detail work that you do
12:10
that you take for granted. We also give social work
12:13
services. So helping people find different
12:16
community opportunities that they that they can have because
12:20
you know, as much as we would want to take care of everything,
12:23
unfortunately we can't just take care of everything.
12:27
And so, and even when we're gone, we want to make sure that
12:31
people are taken care of after we are out of there.
12:33
And so we'll bring in social work to give them those
12:35
community options so that they know where to go once we're out
12:39
of the out of the picture. And then there's home health aid
12:41
services, and that is taking care of all of the different
12:46
needs that somebody has that aren't medical.
12:48
So that's taking care of their bathing, getting them out of bed
12:52
in the morning, helping them eat it.
12:54
It can even be walking them here and there where in between those
12:58
physical therapy appointments. So they have the strength to
13:02
hopefully get off of our services.
13:03
There's also speech therapy where we help people be able to
13:07
speak again or swallow and so that they don't choke and and
13:10
get them back to where they need to be from kind of a mouth and
13:15
throat perspective. So this is a combination of both
13:18
skilled and unskilled services. Are the services always being
13:22
provided in home or do you have relationships with, I don't
13:26
know, different hospitals or nursing homes where you go there
13:28
as well? Typically it is in in facility
13:33
or excuse me, in homes or in assisted living facilities.
13:36
And so it is in a, an area where it's not super what they, they
13:42
don't have that now on our Hospice side and because I
13:45
haven't even gone into that one yet, but on our Hospice side, we
13:48
do do services in hospitals and in skilled nursing facilities
13:52
because those are able to, to be done concurrently.
13:55
The home health has to be kind of a separate carve out from
13:59
that's separate from those rehab facilities and things like that.
14:02
And what geographies do you operate in?
14:04
We currently operate in Northern Utah, OK.
14:10
But explain for me what it means to be a CMS five star agency.
14:15
So that is what a five star agency is, is CMS has a pretty
14:22
hefty amount of data that they collect.
14:25
And So what they do is, is every single time that we go into a
14:28
patient, our initial visit, we collect this data and then every
14:32
60 days we collect the data again.
14:35
Or when somebody discharges, we collect this data.
14:37
And so as you as we gather this information, we then transmit it
14:42
to Medicare. And, and So what that is, is
14:44
Medicare says, here's all this information and then they rate
14:48
everybody against each other. And, and some of those measures
14:51
are process measures. It's like, did you check the
14:55
patient's pneumonia vaccine? It's did you are, were you in
15:00
there within 24 hours? It's things like that.
15:02
Sometimes it is, it's, it's outcomes data.
15:05
So did the patient get better at taking medications or did the
15:09
patient improve at going to the bathroom during your time there?
15:14
And so they gather all those measures together, add
15:18
hospitalizations on top of that, and then they come out with what
15:21
they call a five star system. And so you can be anywhere from
15:25
one star to five stars on that rating scale.
15:29
And and you know, if you're a one star, if you're a two star,
15:32
that doesn't mean that you're bad.
15:34
What it means is it means that everybody else is is progressing
15:37
beyond you. A three is, is pretty much the
15:40
average agency and that's where people want to be.
15:44
But then when you get into four and five stars, obviously your
15:47
outcomes are better. And So what that means is that
15:50
means that that people are getting better, people are being
15:52
healed, healed, more agencies are doing all the little things
15:56
that need to be done in order to get that care where it needs to
15:59
be. And so that's kind of what that
16:01
five star rating means. And so is this sort of tied to
16:07
the performance improvements that we mentioned in the intro
16:10
going from the 33rd percentile to the 99th?
16:13
It is, yeah. And and a lot of that, one of
16:17
the things that we've found is that most of our clinicians were
16:22
getting the outcomes that we wanted them to get.
16:25
They were, the patients were improving, they were healing,
16:28
but they weren't documenting them well.
16:30
And that's, you know, one of the things that that is great with
16:33
clinicians is they care so much and, and that's where they focus
16:37
all their energy. But on the flip side, because
16:40
that's where they put their care, that's where they put
16:42
their attention. They tend to leave that
16:45
documentation piece and say, well, you know, I'll get to that
16:48
eventually. And when you get to that,
16:51
eventually you don't get the results that you need because
16:54
you're just not remembering the right things and you're not
16:56
focused on everybody else. You know, you're focused on a
17:00
single stakeholder, which is your patient.
17:02
You're not focused on the other stakeholders, which is the
17:05
people in the office and the people at the payers, because
17:09
the payers are also, you know, you talked at the beginning
17:11
about how we have multiple sets of clients.
17:15
We have our our, our patients and we have our staff.
17:18
We also have the insurance companies that we look at as
17:20
clients too. And even though it's a little
17:23
bit different relationship, we're there to serve our the
17:26
insurance companies as much as we are to serve our patients and
17:29
our staff. So the biggest sort of lever
17:32
that you pulled to affect that that significant change was to
17:37
improve the documentation. Yeah, it was.
17:39
It was to get them where they needed to be on the
17:41
documentation side. What else?
17:44
Set the documentation aside. What was one other big lever
17:47
that you pulled that helped to boost those numbers?
17:50
One that we we found was hospitalizations and that was
17:53
that was something that really was a significant challenge
17:55
because we noticed that the people were going to the
17:58
hospital too much. Yes, they were improving when
18:00
they were improving, but they were going back to the hospital
18:03
and and you know, as we talked about stakeholders, that's one
18:06
of those things where that cost an insurance company money.
18:08
And when that insurance company is Medicare, that means it cost
18:11
the taxpayer money. So how can we get them out of
18:13
the hospital? And So what we did is we did a a
18:17
hard target search of every single hospitalization and we
18:20
said, OK, not just why were they were they hospitalized?
18:23
Why were they hospitalized? And so we drilled into the data,
18:26
looked at everything that we could and found what the root
18:30
causes for those hospitalizations were.
18:32
And then we took steps to mitigate those.
18:34
And one of the most significant ones that we found was people
18:37
who are getting sepsis from Utis and, and you wouldn't think that
18:41
a urinary tract infection would be something to really be going
18:45
to the hospital for. But for most of our patients,
18:48
those can turn very quickly into some kind of sepsis and then
18:53
that leads to hospitalizations and, and other adverse outcomes.
18:55
And so we put into into play different tests and said, you
19:00
guys, you are all empowered to, if you notice anything wrong,
19:05
you can just go ahead and do a simple dip test it it will tell
19:09
you if you need to be more concerned or less concerned
19:12
about this. So then we can get them the
19:14
medications that they need right away.
19:16
So then they don't go to the hospital.
19:18
And and that was 25% of our hospitalizations was that one
19:22
little thing and we wiped that from 25% to 0.
19:26
Oh my gosh, yeah. Just the the big change was
19:31
telling your staff, hey, if you notice anything, if you're at
19:34
least a little bit suspicious, you said a dip test.
19:37
So I don't know. Is there like a yeah this?
19:39
Paper, yeah, Pee in a cup. And then you just put a little
19:42
dipstick in and the stick will say, is there concern?
19:46
Is there bacteria in the urine or is there not bacteria in the
19:49
urine? And this is a relatively
19:51
inexpensive little dipstick that.
19:53
You cost a buck and 1/2. And from that you were able to
19:57
take, you were able to take what was 25% of your hospitalizations
20:01
down to now it's 0%. Yeah.
20:05
And how did you, you said you did some sort of a deep dive on
20:09
the data, some sort of a targeted search, Say more about
20:12
that? Yeah.
20:13
So what we did is is we went into our EMR and and I have.
20:18
EMR is. Oh, electronic medical record.
20:21
Yeah, I, I, I say a lot of terms that I think everybody's got to
20:25
know this, but I, I realize I'm the one that knows this so.
20:29
And everybody in your field. But for those listening who who
20:31
don't, Yep, go ahead. Exactly.
20:33
Yeah. So, so we went to our medical
20:35
record and what I did is I know SQL, which is a programming
20:40
language really, really well. And that was the format that our
20:43
database was in. And so I said, I'm going to go
20:46
across our entire business unit and run a report that grabs all
20:50
of these different hospitalizations so we can
20:53
identify the people instead of having individuals find, hunt
20:57
and find each one. Because when you're serving 1500
21:00
patients a year, going through an entire chart is a lot of
21:03
work. And so then we did that to
21:06
identify the people and then we did, we went into that further
21:09
and did some more SQL queries to determine what it was.
21:13
That was the hospitalization through a lot of it was just
21:17
searches for, for text threads and, and you know, some of those
21:22
like that got us most of the way there, but that didn't get us
21:25
all the way there. And so anybody that we found
21:27
that we couldn't just automatically pull that
21:29
information for, we went in and, and had somebody review the
21:33
chart. And so it was a combination of,
21:35
of some programming as well as some, some legwork or or I guess
21:39
clicking work to to get to the point that we found all of that.
21:44
Is this level of tech utilization unusual for a group
21:50
your size? I would say that certainly at
21:53
the time that we did it, it was definitely unusual Agents,
21:58
people are catching up in our industry, but I would still say
22:00
that we are, relative to others, technologically advanced in our
22:05
field. Can you say more about that?
22:08
What is it that you guys are doing that's maybe a bit ahead
22:10
of the curve? Yeah.
22:11
One of the things that that we're really focused on right
22:14
now is artificial intelligence and using AI in a lot of
22:18
different aspects, not just for patient care, which is where
22:22
kind of a lot of the energy is right now, but also in every
22:25
other aspect of our business. So can we use AI in our
22:29
marketing? Can we use it in our finance?
22:31
Can we use it in our, in our quality assurance and, and
22:33
looking over our data, where can we use AI to augment what we're
22:38
doing so that we can ultimately see more people and with the
22:43
same staff that we have to support our field staff?
22:47
I'd be interested to take a little bit of a deeper dive on
22:50
this because, you know, recording this at the early
22:54
February 2025 on top of everybody's mind and what are
22:59
the sort of practical applications of this kind of
23:01
tech? Maybe let's talk 1st about
23:03
patient care. What?
23:05
What does that look like tied with AI?
23:08
So right now the, the AI that we're looking at in on the
23:11
patient care side is, is a couple of different things. 1 is
23:14
a what we're calling a copilot. And what that is, is, you know,
23:19
as I was talking a little bit earlier about our clinicians
23:21
feeling like they're on an island or, or clinicians in our
23:23
field feeling like they're on an island.
23:25
And, and some of that is they don't necessarily have somebody
23:29
there to tell them, oh, hey, have you looked at this?
23:32
Have you looked at that? You know, sure, they could call
23:36
into the office, they have a director of nursing that they
23:38
can give them that assistance. But when you're in a hospital or
23:42
when you're in a skilled nursing facility, you have your
23:44
colleagues around you to give you that, that help and you can
23:46
bounce ideas off of them. The clinical copilot is an
23:50
option that gives them somebody, somebody, an AI to bounce that
23:55
off. And so they're able to say, hey,
23:57
I've got these symptoms. This is what's going on with
24:00
with a patient. Can you give me some ideas on
24:03
what might be happening? And then the AI will spit out,
24:07
here's what I think are some suggestions, Here's some things
24:10
that you can try so that then they feel like they have that
24:14
extra knowledge base that they don't have in their brain
24:18
augmenting what they're doing. What's feeding that AI on the
24:22
back end? Is it, you know, like an, is it
24:25
open AI? Is it some some of your own data
24:29
that you've collected over the years?
24:31
So, yeah, yeah, we have a. So there's one of the things
24:34
that that is a challenge with this is, is there's a lot called
24:36
HIPAA, which is health privacy basically.
24:39
And so it is a HIPAA compliant data set that that I think that
24:45
the vendor that we're talking with, they do use open AI on as
24:50
part of their back end, but it's augmented within clinical data
24:53
that's fed into it as well. So it's a combination of of
24:57
commercial data sets that are are sandboxed in a in a HIPAA
25:00
way and then augmented with clinical data that feeds it that
25:05
allows it to continually get smarter.
25:08
How are you guys using it in finance?
25:12
Right now the the way that we're using it in finance is is to
25:16
scan and and put information in from accounts payable vendors
25:20
and things like that without human intervention.
25:22
So it's feeding out a lot of fields that used to have to be
25:25
manually filled. And so all of that is being
25:28
done. It's just scanning the invoice
25:30
and then putting it into the system.
25:33
Is there the potential? I don't know.
25:35
How are your employees filling out the the care records or is
25:42
it like a manual process and then that's sort of scanned in?
25:45
And can that be used with AI or are they typing it already into
25:48
a sub form? So right now they're typing it
25:51
into a system. We don't have anybody who's
25:53
who's doing any paper records. It's all electronic now.
25:56
And and so that is is an area where we're going to start using
26:01
artificial intelligence. We haven't got there quite yet
26:03
because we're working with vendors to actually build this,
26:06
but get it so that then we can use AI to see what's going on in
26:12
those charts to identify issues and see what we need to do with
26:15
patients more quickly. We're right now we're primarily
26:19
relying on individual reporting. The artificial intelligence
26:23
would then give us upfront information and start paying
26:26
people to say, hey, you need to take a look at this.
26:28
Hey, this, this patient may be more appropriate for a different
26:32
care setting. This patient you may need to do
26:34
some more visits on or, or this patient may be ready for
26:38
discharge and, and you haven't noticed that yet.
26:40
So just kind of augmenting that clinical person who's in there
26:44
and, and giving us the ideas more quickly so that we can get
26:48
that patient the care that they need.
26:49
Or alternatively, you know, talking back about our insurance
26:53
partners, make sure that they aren't paying for care that they
26:55
don't need to pay to pay for. This is fascinating and this is
26:58
a system that you guys are building.
27:00
There's nothing sort of off the shelf that does what you need.
27:03
There is nothing off the shelf right now.
27:06
And and so, yeah, that's, that's why we're doing it this way.
27:09
That's that's amazing. How far off do you think it is
27:12
for being ready for prime time use?
27:15
We one piece of it I think is So what we're doing is we're trying
27:19
to cobble together multiple vendors to do this one piece.
27:24
We're supposed to get a demo here in about a month of, of the
27:27
first piece of this. And that's, that's the one that
27:30
sends them to different care settings.
27:32
The, the next piece after that, which is are you, are you doing
27:36
the appropriate level of care? Do you need to do more or less?
27:39
That's probably another I I would hope less than six months
27:43
out, but it might be a little longer than that.
27:45
Oh, love to have you back on after you guys have put it
27:49
through its paces a bit and see how it's going.
27:51
So I think that that could be a game changer for a lot of folks.
27:55
Yeah, absolutely. Potentially a possibility for
27:57
you guys to to license that tech that you've built and I'm sure
28:01
that your head's already there as well.
28:03
Yep. So tell me how you guys are
28:06
using it in marketing then? Is it just to kind of come up
28:09
with different copy and AD ideas?
28:11
The exactly, yeah, it's the one of the things that we found is
28:15
at least for our, for our marketers and for the, the
28:17
people who do that, that ideation process is one of the
28:20
most challenging aspects of, you know, thinking of what it is
28:25
that I want to, to have be this ad campaign or what it is that I
28:29
want to take out to, to different partners.
28:31
This gives them a lot of ideas and starts that brainstorming
28:35
process a lot quicker. So as a result, they they, they
28:41
are dramatically cutting down their time and they're able to
28:43
get out there and actually do the work as opposed to sit in an
28:47
office and brainstorm for all of that time instead.
28:51
What Bo, have you found is maybe the most successful growth
28:56
strategy for you guys? Is it, you know, running
28:58
Facebook ads? Is it partnerships with
29:00
different facilities, Something else?
29:03
It, it, I would say partnerships with, with facilities and, and
29:06
primarily with hospitals and with assisted living facilities.
29:10
One of the things that, that we found in our industry is that
29:14
you can put out a lot of ads. You can, you know, you can put
29:17
up billboards, you can do it on Facebook or, or Google ads or
29:20
whatever. And in a lot of industries that
29:23
works great. But because of the way that we
29:25
have to work, because we have relationships with doctors, the
29:28
doctors have to always give a referral and, and sign orders
29:32
on, on patients. We can't just go out and start
29:34
seeing people as a result of that.
29:37
That one-on-one connection is, is the real way that we have
29:41
been able to drive growth is getting people in front of other
29:44
people, talking with them about our services and creating a
29:48
relationship so that then they feel comfortable to refer back
29:51
to us. I, I wish that we could scale
29:54
with ads and, and, and Facebook. That would make life a lot
29:57
easier. But unfortunately it's that one
30:00
to one, which which means that we don't scale as quickly, but
30:02
it does mean that it's it's a sustainable growth.
30:08
What does the future look like? Where are the growth
30:11
opportunities for you guys? Is this larger geography?
30:14
Is this expanded services? Is this just getting the word
30:18
out with you know better within the geography that you're
30:21
already operating in? It's a combination of all three.
30:24
We are looking at, at new geographies both in state and
30:28
out of state. And then we're also looking at
30:29
new service lines and, and getting into, you know, right
30:32
now most of our care is, is focused on, I would say more
30:35
geriatric patients. Now we do have folks who are are
30:40
my age and who are younger than my age who are aren't on
30:43
services, but moving from that also into pediatric care and
30:47
taking care of of kids as well as adults.
30:51
In home settings still. Yeah, absolutely.
30:57
What's 1 book resource podcast course that has been helpful for
31:03
you that you'd recommend to others?
31:05
The my favorite book on on making your company better, in
31:11
my opinion, is speed of trust and I it's by Steven, Mr. Covey,
31:15
and I love it because it talks about how trust is the
31:18
foundation of everything that you do.
31:21
And we found that to really be true here.
31:23
That's, that's one of the reasons why we do so many things
31:27
with our, with our field staff and why I cook for people and,
31:31
and why we do all the things that we do is because we're
31:33
trying to build that trust, because that trust is a
31:36
foundation that then we can build so many other things on.
31:39
And if you don't have trust, then what you have is you have
31:42
processes that grinds to a halt. You have people that are
31:46
infighting because they don't, they don't trust each other and
31:49
they think that somebody's trying to get them.
31:51
But when you have that trust, all of that melts away and
31:55
you're able to move forward much quicker and, and move things at
31:58
a rapid pace. And so you're able to innovate,
32:00
you're able to bring new things into the company.
32:02
And people aren't afraid that, well, you know, what does this
32:05
mean for me? Or you're trying to get me or
32:06
you're trying to, to harm me. No, we're, we're trying to help
32:09
you. And and that that trust
32:12
underpins everything that we do with our company.
32:14
Can you give a specific example of how you foster that trust?
32:18
Yeah, I, I mean, one way that we've, we've foster that trust
32:21
is by being really transparent with our staff.
32:23
If there are they, they know exactly where they stand with us
32:29
at all times. And, and that can be a challenge
32:32
sometimes because, you know, it's, it's hard to tell people,
32:36
hey, here's here's where you're failing.
32:37
Here's where we need you to improve.
32:40
But we some of the ways that we've done that is by
32:42
introducing scorecards and making sure that that they can
32:44
pull those and that they know the data behind it.
32:46
So that it's not a surprise to them when when they go to an
32:50
annual review and find out, well, here's here's what your
32:53
your raise is and here's why your raise is, is what it is.
32:57
You didn't get a full raise. And the reason why is because if
33:00
you look at your scorecard, then this is where you were and that
33:03
scorecard comes right back around to all of those *
33:07
measures. So are they are their patients
33:09
improving in those different areas or are their patients
33:12
actually not? Are they getting their
33:13
documentation in on time and and all of that is information that
33:17
they know and that they know directly how they can affect?
33:23
So for those folks that are listening, that are trying to
33:27
make their mark, what advice would you have for folks that
33:30
you know want to advance their career in this field?
33:33
I would say that advancing your career in this field, it it's
33:38
certainly a challenging field. It's it's not one that is for
33:41
the the faint of heart. It's super rewarding, but it's
33:45
also one where you don't have high margins.
33:47
So it's not something where you can just go and say, I'm I'm
33:50
going to be able to make this product and, and sell it for
33:54
twice the price and, and make a lot of money.
33:57
You have to love what you do. And if you don't love it, you're
34:00
not going to make a mark. If you do love it, then get
34:03
involved in the community. It's not just going to be you
34:06
and the company that you're at. Get involved with other
34:08
companies in the community and, and form partnerships.
34:11
You don't have to cross refer necessarily, but you, the more
34:14
relationships that you have, the better you are.
34:17
And that's one of the things that I found in my career has
34:19
been the most helpful is the relationships that I've built,
34:22
not just in Utah, but around the country in home health and
34:25
Hospice. And, and through those
34:26
relationships, I've been able to open up areas that I never
34:30
thought possible. Even though we are just a small
34:33
agency in, in Utah, I, I, I have friends around the country
34:38
through what I've been able to do that have helped the industry
34:42
around the world, around the country.
34:44
What do you do to form those community relationships?
34:47
Are you, I don't know, going to festivals and fairs?
34:50
You setting up a tent? What?
34:51
What does this look like for? You yeah, a lot of it is.
34:54
So I go to we have annual conferences just like a lot of
34:58
industries do. And and so it started out with
35:02
me going to those conferences, getting education, learning and
35:06
then from there starting to connect with people that I I
35:09
found interesting and that I thought this is somebody who has
35:12
great ideas. And then once I make that
35:14
connection and, and form that, that tight knit again, trust
35:20
with that person, then they connect me with other people.
35:23
And pretty soon those connections turned into a lot of
35:26
connections. And then those connections led
35:29
to me getting positions with our, our National Association on
35:35
the Advisory Board and things like that, where I was able to
35:37
then give back to the community. And, and that's one of the, the
35:41
key pieces is it's not just getting from these folks and,
35:44
and it's giving to them. It's saying, OK, here's how I
35:47
can add value. And the way that I can add value
35:49
is through ideas. It's through giving information
35:52
out and being generous with what I'm doing it so that it's not
35:55
just me hoarding information, but it's me getting that out to
35:59
everybody else so that they can also improve.
36:00
Because ultimately we are a public good, like our, our
36:04
industry is something that really, really matters to the
36:08
country. It's, it's cost effective.
36:10
It is something that is, is really, really needed for so
36:13
many people out there. And so the way that I can help
36:17
everybody is by getting ideas out there, helping people to get
36:22
where they need to be. And, and when I get an e-mail
36:24
from somebody that is, is one of my connections and they say,
36:26
hey, Bo, can you help me out with something then I always say
36:29
yes. And and having Yes 1st as my
36:33
mentality as opposed to no first has gone a long way.
36:37
It's so fascinating that, you know, I asked the question about
36:39
community in in your head went to community of other service
36:43
providers. And I think that's so important
36:45
and can be such a, a strong support network, right?
36:49
Because here you are, you know, now you're an owner, you're, you
36:53
know, you're running the business there.
36:56
Obviously, you've got other folks in your leadership team,
36:58
but how great is it to be able to have the support and for you
37:01
to be able to support other people who are trying to provide
37:05
the same kinds of care and services that you are?
37:08
I mean, nobody else knows the kinds of struggles and specific
37:12
challenges that you deal with better than other folks who are
37:14
in your same position. Absolutely.
37:17
Yeah, it's, it's, it's so true. And, and that support that we
37:21
have with each other is, is something that really, it makes
37:25
some of the challenging times feel a lot less challenging
37:27
because you know, you've got somebody that has your back.
37:30
Yeah, Beau, what's a serious challenge that you've overcome
37:35
in your life? Maybe it's something personal or
37:38
professional, maybe a combination of the two.
37:41
What was that like? How did you get through it and
37:43
what were some lessons that you learned?
37:45
Yeah. One of the, I would say the
37:47
biggest challenge that I, I have got through is a few years back
37:52
we had at the time there were 3 owners of our company and I,
37:56
there was me, there was one other that I, I work really
37:59
closely with and that we've been friends for, for 20 some odd
38:02
years. And we had an additional owner
38:04
and we got into a lawsuit and it, it was because the, the one
38:11
owner wanted to go One Direction.
38:13
We said we're OK with that, but we want to go a different
38:15
direction. She actually tried to take the
38:18
whole company from us and, and, and I mean, and so it was a big
38:23
lawsuit. It was it, it, it took about
38:26
three years to resolve, all said and done.
38:28
But during that three years, there were a lot of a lot of
38:33
challenges, a lot of long nights as we talked with lawyers, as we
38:39
worked to make sure that the company was still successful
38:41
and, and that it was able to support the staff.
38:44
Because you know, you, you can't just stop operations and say,
38:48
OK, I'm going to focus on a lawsuit now.
38:50
You have to make sure that you're still seeing those
38:53
patients and that you're still taking care of the staff.
38:54
And that through all of that and, and all that chaos that
38:58
that brings, that they feel like there is still a company here.
39:03
There is still a support network that I have and that that's not
39:07
going to go away. And, and so there was a lot of,
39:10
of talking with staff and, and reassuring them and saying we're
39:13
still here, we're going to be here.
39:15
We, this is not going to be a problem for you.
39:18
So don't worry about it. And we didn't end up losing
39:21
weight. We lost two staff members during
39:23
that time frame. We were afraid that we were
39:26
going to lose about 30% of them initially.
39:28
So, so losing only two felt really, really good.
39:33
But the, the, the thing that I found from that is really when
39:37
you, when you get into a lawsuit, that's not something
39:39
where you typically like the person on the other end, you,
39:43
that's something where you, you tend to really, you know, things
39:47
like hate can come into it. And that was something that I
39:50
worked very, very hard to say. I do not want this to be me
39:55
because that hate and that that anger that you have towards
39:58
somebody can seep into all other areas of your life and it can
40:02
transform you in very negative ways.
40:04
And so that was, that was the thing that I said up front is I
40:08
can't be somebody that hates this, this business partner,
40:12
she's making bad decisions. I don't agree with them.
40:16
They're hurting the company, but I can't hate and I didn't.
40:21
And, and, and so things ended up working out.
40:26
We bought her out. She, she got her money and went
40:30
her way. We have the company.
40:32
We went our way. And and I think that through
40:36
having that mindset of I, what is the end that I want?
40:39
And the end that I want is I want to be a good person still.
40:43
I don't want to be somebody who, who other people would look at
40:47
and say, oh, he's just out for him.
40:49
He's or, or, or he, he's a real negative person.
40:52
I wanted to still be the person that I was before the lawsuit,
40:56
after the lawsuit and I, and I feel like with that, I was able
40:59
to to move through that in a way when a lot of people aren't able
41:03
to. I mean, it's really admirable
41:05
that a big part of your goal was not to be consumed by hate
41:09
because you're right. And that kind of a situation,
41:13
you and your other partner, you feel very passionately, very
41:16
strongly about the direction that you want to take the
41:17
business. And it's OK to have
41:20
disagreements, but to have a lawsuit filed against you, this
41:22
is, you know, just a world of stress that comes down upon you.
41:27
It's one thing to say, hey, I'm going to choose not to hate.
41:31
It's another thing for that to actually be the felt sensation
41:36
inside of your body. Like what were you actually
41:39
doing to help mitigate, reduce, ignore the the hateful feelings
41:45
that are very natural to have pop up.
41:47
Yeah, you know, some of the things that I did and I, I pray
41:51
for and, and, and I, I said I wanted her to have what was best
41:57
for her as well. And, and, and, you know, there
42:01
were opportunities to send her to, to jail actually because of,
42:05
of contempt rulings. And the judge said, what do you
42:08
want to do? And I'll do whatever you want.
42:11
And we said, you know, we could do this.
42:14
We don't want to do this because that right there is just, it's
42:18
malicious and it's arbitrary and capricious.
42:21
And instead of that, we want our attorneys fees paid because it
42:24
cost us money to fight this, this contempt hearing.
42:29
And that's all we want. Just just give her that.
42:32
And so it was always being generous with her and trying to
42:36
make sure that she came out with a, with a win in an area where
42:40
it was very hard for both parties to win.
42:43
And, you know, in the end, was it a win on both sides?
42:46
I, I think so she got money. We got the company that we
42:52
wanted and, and we were able to go the direction we wanted.
42:54
And so, you know, seeking a a win win for her, even though
42:59
that was decidedly not her perspective is, is I think
43:03
another way that we we did that as well.
43:06
Was there anybody who was sort of coaching this mindset to
43:10
mentality for you during this time period?
43:12
Because what you're describing, it's how I hope I would react in
43:17
a similar situation. But man, I like having one of my
43:21
business partners file a lawsuit against me and then, you know,
43:24
these contempt hearings and like, I could just see myself
43:27
getting pretty worked up about this.
43:31
You know, I, I certainly had had some help.
43:33
I mean, my wife was was very helpful and, and so so there was
43:38
that. There was, again, I mean,
43:41
through prayer that that really helped me to, to change my
43:45
feelings and, and talking it out with, with God got me to process
43:52
the things that I needed to process.
43:54
And then I, I knew that I had such a great support network
43:56
through all the people that I've talked with over the years.
43:59
And I was able to, you know, certainly not share everything
44:01
with them, But, you know, there were people that I knew that
44:04
were lawyers and there were people that I knew who, who were
44:07
in home health and Hospice. And I was able to say, Hey,
44:09
here's this challenge. Can you help me work through
44:13
this? And so knowing that I had all
44:14
that support also helped to get me to say, you know, this is OK
44:19
and and I can get through this. You know, Beau, my experience,
44:24
sometimes what we consider to be our biggest mistakes end up
44:29
becoming our greatest teachers down the road as we kind of look
44:32
at them in the rear view mirror. Can you think of an early career
44:35
moment that seemed like a set back at the time but actually
44:38
propelled you forward? Yeah, I think that one of the
44:44
big setbacks that I had, there was a time when I, this, this
44:51
was probably back in, oh, I 2007, 2008.
44:55
And I, I thought I was doing great.
44:57
I thought everything was, was going smoothly.
45:00
And then I, I had a series of conversations with people where
45:07
they told me you're not nearly as good as you think you are.
45:11
And, and so I said, well, that's not what I want to be.
45:14
I want to, I want to be better than that.
45:17
And so I, I had a coach who I worked with and, and he sent out
45:23
a survey to everybody at the company.
45:26
He said, let's just see what everybody thinks of you.
45:29
And in that survey, you know, it was, you're ranked one to five.
45:33
And my overall score was, was like a 2.8.
45:38
So I looked at that and I said, that's not good enough for me to
45:42
ever move beyond just a worker. I nobody's going to trust me.
45:47
People think that I'm, I'm cold or that they, they don't, they
45:50
don't want to work with me because they think I'm critical
45:53
of them. And so through all of that, he
45:58
and I worked together on a plan to improve.
46:01
And so, you know, he worked on my strengths and he said, OK,
46:04
here's where people say that you're strong, this, this, this,
46:07
and this. Here's where people say you're
46:08
weak, this, this, this and this. And we're going to focus on your
46:11
strengths because by putting up your strengths, it's like the
46:15
the pulse on a tent. And you can increase the room in
46:18
your tent by increasing your strengths, just like if you do
46:22
increasing your weaknesses or, or improving your weaknesses.
46:25
The difference is, is that it's a lot easier to improve your
46:27
strengths than your weaknesses because that's why they're your
46:30
strengths. And so we worked first on my
46:32
strengths to improve those. And then we started working on
46:36
my weaknesses when my strengths were higher.
46:38
And we did continual surveys with people and people probably
46:42
got sick of getting surveys from me.
46:44
But at the same time, those surveys were extremely valuable
46:47
and they told me if I was going on the right direction or on the
46:49
wrong direction. And you know that that 2.8 that
46:54
I had in my overall score in terms of like working with you,
46:58
are you a good leader, that kind of thing.
47:00
It moved up to a 4.3 over the course of about three years.
47:06
And so it's an interesting strategy to focus first on those
47:09
strengths, little counter intuitive, you would think, OK,
47:12
here are my strengths, here's what I'm already doing.
47:14
Well, so let's go focus on the other stuff first.
47:16
But the idea was get you some momentum, right?
47:20
Like here's things that you already are kind of naturally
47:23
good at. Let's let's prop those up a
47:25
little bit more so that you kind of buy into the the whole
47:29
process of it. And then let's go and focus on
47:32
those things that we've identified are weaknesses.
47:34
And, you know, hats off to you because that's not easy to do.
47:38
It's one thing to say, Hey, I'm already really great in these
47:41
four things. Let's just, you know, fine tune
47:44
the dials and, you know, help me accelerate there.
47:46
But then just to to admit to yourself that, hey, here's some
47:50
stuff that maybe I kind of suck at, you know, that hurts.
47:55
Yeah, yeah. It, it, it was not fun to to
48:00
say, hey, I'm no good at in these areas and, and I need to
48:05
get better. And, and it took some discipline
48:08
and it, and it took his feedback and his holding me accountable
48:13
to read the things that I needed to read, to do the things that I
48:16
needed to do in order to get me to that level that I, I needed
48:20
to be at, to move from just working as a, as a line worker
48:25
into management that then propelled me into executive
48:27
management and ultimately ownership.
48:30
What's 1 weakness that you had to work on and what was maybe
48:34
the biggest difference maker for you in that work?
48:37
I would say biggest weakness is it was being overly critical of
48:42
people and in, in, in some areas, in some industries that
48:46
may be totally OK, but at least in our industry in Utah,
48:50
definitely that's not the, the path that you want to take.
48:54
You want to be nurturing, you want to be helpful and you want
48:57
to be open. And I was none of those things.
49:00
And, and so he said the first thing that you need to do in
49:04
order to do that is to he, he called it leadership by
49:07
wandering around. And what that means is you get
49:10
up out of your seat and you go talk to people.
49:12
And it doesn't mean that you're going and you're talking work
49:15
necessarily. You're going and you're building
49:16
relationships because those relationships that you have with
49:19
people will get them to then want to be with you and to want
49:23
to work with you. And, and so that right there was
49:26
I, I would say the single most impactful thing that I did to
49:28
improve those scores, because as I got to know folks better, then
49:33
we naturally became friends. We naturally started working to
49:35
Better Together and we naturally built that trust.
49:39
So what does that actually look like?
49:40
So you you get up from your desk there, you, you walk outside and
49:43
you're like, hi, Jill. You know, how was your weekend?
49:47
Sort of as simple as that. It, it can be as simple as that.
49:50
Yeah. And, and, and then the going
49:52
beyond that and, and starting to get to know their families and,
49:55
and what they, they cared about. And, and just really focusing on
50:00
them and saying, OK, I'm going to find out more about them.
50:03
And, and you know, I, I love to get stuff done.
50:07
And so because I love to get stuff done, then a lot of times
50:11
I just focus on something and I don't actually get up and talk
50:14
to people because I'm like, I've got time and I don't, I don't
50:17
have time to talk to people. But that's the opposite of what
50:21
I need to do. It's saying, you know what, I'm
50:24
going to get up. This is me getting things done
50:27
is getting up. And I had to schedule time.
50:29
I said, OK, here is the time when I'm going to get up and I'm
50:33
going to go talk to people and I will be doing it for at least
50:37
1/2 an hour. And so I did that at least twice
50:39
a day. So an hour of my life, it was
50:42
getting up and talking to people and it wasn't always the same
50:44
people. It was going to the folks in our
50:46
finance department and talking with them.
50:48
It was going to our our quality assurance people and talking
50:51
with them, going to our marketing people and talking
50:53
with them. So that I was building those
50:55
relationships with everybody in the company, not just one group
50:58
of people. Were they a little taken aback
51:00
when it when you first started doing it?
51:02
What's Bo doing here? I, I think that they were a
51:06
little surprised, but I think it was a pleasant surprise.
51:09
It was like, Hey, I, I haven't seen you out of your office
51:11
except when you get up to go do something and then you
51:14
immediately go back because you're doing something and, and
51:17
so getting to know me as well and, and, and being open and
51:21
vulnerable with them. And you know when they say, Hey,
51:23
what's what's going on with your family?
51:25
Tell me more about that. Me then answering that and and
51:30
and and having myself be open in addition to just asking them
51:34
about themselves really made a difference.
51:37
So there are a lot of other people listening to the story
51:40
right now, and they're like, yeah, Bo, you describe me like
51:42
I'm very task oriented, like I'm at work to get work done.
51:46
And they're listening to your story.
51:48
And they're saying, OK, but Bo, did that actually help you get
51:52
more done? And that may be part of the
51:54
wrong question, but it's what people are wondering.
51:56
So what would you say to that? I, I would say that it didn't
52:02
necessarily help me get more done.
52:04
I in the sense that I didn't do more work myself.
52:07
What it did help is it did help me in my career.
52:10
It helped me to be able to become more of, of who I needed
52:15
to be as a person. And it helped me become more of
52:18
who I needed to be as a leader. And so in that regard, it
52:22
definitely helped me to get more done because I was able to
52:25
progress. If I was always just focused on
52:27
the task, I would be a great task guy from here to eternity.
52:32
And and I and I do a wonderful job in a lot of task related
52:35
fields. But where I wanted to go, which
52:38
is, you know, ultimately me getting work done that I wanted
52:41
to get done, which was to get into management, get into
52:42
leadership. I had to do this in order to
52:45
make that happen. Bo are there any daily practices
52:49
that you find helpful, keep you on track, keep you centered?
52:53
Yeah, some of the things that I do is, is I try to focus on
52:58
things that uplift me and and those things that uplift me.
53:01
It can be spiritual things like reading the Bible or it can be
53:07
things like reading inspirational stories or
53:10
conversations or talks, reading books that that help build me.
53:13
So, you know, things like the speed of trust, like good to
53:16
great, like First things first, the leadership challenge.
53:20
All of those books that, that help me to grow and improve are
53:25
and, and setting aside some time to do that is one of those
53:29
practices that really matters. And, and so I try to make sure
53:32
that that I take, you know, at least 20 to 30 minutes a day to
53:37
do that. Another one is getting exercise.
53:40
And, you know, it's easy to say, well, I'm going to, I'm just
53:45
going to get to work and I'm going to work and then I'm done
53:48
and I don't have any energy to do anything else but getting
53:50
exercise throughout the day. And sometimes that is taking
53:53
some time during lunch to go out and take a little walk, or
53:57
sometimes that is doing exercise before work.
54:00
Sometimes it's doing it after work, but just making sure that
54:02
I set aside time to focus on my physical needs as well as all of
54:07
the other needs that I have. What's the best decision you
54:11
ever made for your business? The best decision that I ever
54:15
made for my business, I, I, I would say it would be to fight
54:19
that lawsuit. I mean, one option that we had
54:22
was to, to give up and to just say, OK, we're not going to do
54:26
this. You can have it.
54:28
And, and that is, I would say my first inclination because I'm
54:31
not somebody who naturally likes what negative energy.
54:37
And I knew that it would bring a lot of that into my life, But I
54:41
also knew that this was the thing that I needed to do.
54:44
And and so I went forward and did it and have no regrets.
54:50
And I would think that's the best thing that I, I have done
54:54
for my business in in that regard because I don't know that
54:56
we would be here if we hadn't done that.
54:59
I'm sure that it had to have been points along the way, even
55:01
after you made that decision where you're probably
55:03
questioning it like, OK, this is even harder than I thought it
55:07
was going to be, maybe we should back out.
55:10
Yeah, that, that was after year one and then after year 2.
55:14
And then as we moved into the midpoint of year three, I had no
55:18
idea that it was going to take that long.
55:20
And, and it was a significant challenge through that entire
55:23
area. Not, you know, not that we were
55:25
filing things every day, but you know what you said, there's,
55:28
there's that negative energy that is constantly hanging over
55:31
you where it's you don't know what's going to happen.
55:33
You don't know if the judge is going to say something.
55:35
You don't know if there's going to be a filing that that's going
55:38
to just knock you off kilter. And, and so, yeah, it was, it
55:42
was significant stress through that, that three-year period.
55:45
But in the end it was it was the right move and and I feel
55:50
grateful that we we went forward with it.
55:53
Anything in particular you wish more people knew about the
55:55
industry that you work in, Bill? One thing that I, I wish people
56:00
knew more is that it was, it was I, I say here and that it was
56:07
it, it really the way that I look at our industry is we
56:10
should be the center of care. And that doesn't mean that that
56:13
we should take away from hospitals and from doctors and
56:15
facilities and all of that. They all do great work.
56:19
But The thing is, is that people want to get in their homes and
56:23
they want that place of comfort and that place where they, they
56:27
feel like this is my home base and we come into your home base
56:31
rather than you going into our home base.
56:33
And, and by doing that, the outcomes are better and
56:37
ultimately people enjoy it more. And so by, by knowing that
56:42
that's there and by knowing that, that this is an option
56:45
and, and, and saying, you know, when you exit the hospital, can
56:48
I get home health? Or alternatively, when you're
56:52
ready to die? And I, and I know that death is
56:54
something that we don't love as a, as a society, but looking at
56:59
that, you know, as I've done Hospice for 20 years, I've come
57:03
to say, you know, when I have a six month terminal diagnosis, I
57:06
know exactly where I'm going and I'm going straight on the
57:09
Hospice because I will have a better quality of life than
57:12
trying to fight a terminal disease.
57:15
And ultimately that quality of life is what matters.
57:18
It's not the quantity of life that matters.
57:20
I would rather spend that time with my family knowing that we
57:25
are squeezing every drop out of life than in a hospital saying,
57:30
you know what, we're going to try to fight this and it's just
57:33
not going to work. But hey, I've got another month.
57:36
Well, but it's another month of you being in a facility and your
57:40
family just coming to see you every day.
57:41
So I, I, I, I would like for us to also change the way as a
57:46
society that we, that we think about death and think about the
57:49
quality of our life, not just the quantity of it.
57:52
Yeah, that's so poignant. My grandmother passed away
57:55
several years ago, and, you know, she was getting nearer to
57:58
the end of her life. She really was set on staying in
58:02
her home, even though, you know, those times where she needed to
58:04
go to a care facility to, you know, rehab something.
58:08
She always had a great time because she's a very social
58:10
person, and she loved being around and talking to people and
58:13
telling and hearing stories. But, you know, there was just
58:16
something about home. It had been her, her place
58:19
forever and, and, and she she wanted to be there.
58:22
And so, you know, we were able to reach out and, you know,
58:25
employ the services of an organization like yours that
58:28
could come in and, you know, kind of help her with those
58:30
things. And so I was able to see first
58:32
hand. Yeah, exactly.
58:34
You want to be home because that's that's where the heart is
58:37
and that's where you're most comfortable.
58:39
Absolutely. Bo, I've just got one more
58:42
question for you. But before I ask it, I want to
58:43
do 2 things. First of all, for everyone
58:45
listening today, I know that you love this show because Bo has
58:48
been an amazing guest. So please hit the follow or
58:51
subscribe button on your favorite podcast app so you
58:53
continue to get more great shows like this.
58:55
I'm also going to let you know the best way to get in touch
58:58
with Bo and there's two ways. We'll include links in the show
59:01
notes. But for those people who are
59:02
listening, you can go to his LinkedIn profile and Bo is
59:05
spoiled is spelled BEAU Bo. And then Sorensen is ORENSEN and
59:13
you can also e-mail him at B Sorenson, so BSORENSEN at FC
59:21
hhh.com. All right.
59:24
So last question for you, Beau, as you look to the future, what
59:29
changes are you most excited about that are coming in this
59:32
industry? The, the change that I am most
59:36
excited about I, I'm, I'm really, really excited about
59:39
what artificial intelligence is, is going to do.
59:42
I mean, right, we're on the, on the bleeding edge right now in
59:44
our industry. I know when you look at other
59:47
industries, you might say, oh, they're behind and, and I would
59:49
agree with you, but it's going to be able to do so much for our
59:54
patients. And, and you know, one of the
59:57
things that has really been a transformation during the, the
1:00:00
pandemic is bringing in telemedicine as well.
1:00:03
And, and being able to take care of people and monitor them when
1:00:06
we're not in the home. Because that's the single
1:00:08
biggest concern is, yes, we're in the home, but we're only in
1:00:11
the home a little bit every day or or a little bit a couple
1:00:15
times a week, depending on who that patient is with telehealth.
1:00:18
You can be in there 24/7, 365 and then when you layer
1:00:23
artificial intelligence on top of that, we can have a more
1:00:26
personalized version of medicine where we are monitoring
1:00:30
somebody. And and you know, I look at my
1:00:31
Apple Watch that I'm wearing and, and how that monitors my
1:00:35
vital sides. And as they add additional
1:00:38
sensors to that and it will suddenly say, OK, here is
1:00:41
where's where Bose health is. And if I've got somebody or an
1:00:45
AI monitoring that health and then saying, you know what, we
1:00:49
need to actually intervene because Beau is, is getting to a
1:00:52
point where he might have to go to a facility or where he's
1:00:55
getting his, his vitals are dropping or something is
1:00:57
happening with him. So then somebody from home
1:01:00
health comes into my house, takes care of me and, and
1:01:03
augments all of that and then goes back out and it's able to
1:01:07
keep us healthier for longer. I I think that that's going to
1:01:12
be transformational for our entire health system.
1:01:14
We look at the cost that we have and, and you know, our
1:01:17
healthcare system is, is a $2 trillion industry, which is so
1:01:21
much money. And all of that money is going
1:01:24
to, most of it is to acute care, it's to people being in the
1:01:27
hospital because of something that happened.
1:01:29
And how much of that can we prevent by taking care of things
1:01:33
upfront with artificial intelligence, with home health
1:01:36
and Hospice augmenting that? And then when necessary, you
1:01:39
know, when people get in accidents, when people have
1:01:41
actual acute things, then going to the hospital.
1:01:44
And, and I I see our whole health system being more
1:01:47
holistic as we wrap artificial intelligence into everything
1:01:51
that we do. Are you currently offering some
1:01:54
level of telehealth services through what you do?
1:01:57
We, we do have some, we, we're partnering with a company that
1:02:01
that actually does that and we're really, really
1:02:03
aggressively moving forward with that telehealth.
1:02:06
The, the AI to monitor is not quite there yet.
1:02:10
So that, that's the thing that I think is, is really going to be
1:02:13
impactful. So there's still people who are
1:02:15
taking a look at it and, you know, if somebody pops outside
1:02:18
of a, a metric, then then they do that, then, you know, they'll
1:02:22
call us or whatever. But it's also not integrated in
1:02:24
with an Apple Watch yet or with some wearables.
1:02:26
And so you still have to get on a machine or you still have to,
1:02:29
you know, put on the blood pressure cuff, something like
1:02:31
that in order to get those readings.
1:02:33
So it's not real time data yet, but I see that being where we
1:02:37
get in the future. OK, so when you say telehealth,
1:02:39
this isn't somebody you know like scheduling a a Zoom call
1:02:42
with their. Correct.
1:02:43
Yeah, sorry. We, we've used telehealth for
1:02:45
remote like remote patient monitoring is really what what
1:02:49
it's called now, but it was called telehealth back in the in
1:02:52
the late 2000s. And, and so that's still the
1:02:55
term that I use for it. That's, that's fascinating.
1:02:58
Well, Bo, I want to be the first one to thank you for sharing
1:03:00
both your time and your story with us today.
1:03:02
I really appreciate it. Yeah, you're welcome.
1:03:04
Happy to do it. Folks, that's a wrap on another
1:03:07
episode of the Inspired Stories podcast.
1:03:09
Thanks for learning with us today.