DECEMBER 2023 EDITION
IN CONVERSATION: ON AGING GRACEFULLY INTERVIEW BY WES ROBERTS EDITED BY BARBIE HEIT
In Conversation
JEFF COOPER OWNER, BRIGHTSTAR CARE OF NORTH SARASOTA AND BRADENTON COUNTIES Cooper graduated from the University of Kentucky where he studied psychology. A er graduating, he moved back to Michigan and jumped into a career in Real Estate sales. A er years of work in the sales field, he was promoted to Vice President of Sales for a national home builder, which moved him and his family to Sarasota, Florida. With a passion for giving back to others, he carried his success and knowledge as a VP over into the Home Healthcare industry. He and his wife Susan have spent the last 13 years building BrightStar Care into the successful and trusted agency that it is today. Jeff holds himself and his team to a higher standard of care, which allows BrightStar Care’s clients to live their best life through their dedicated and experienced caregivers. Jeff and his wife have been residents of Sarasota since 2007 and feel privileged to be able to run a business that gives back to their community. Jeff enjoys spending time with his wife and three children, playing golf, spending weekends boating and of course watching football.
TELL US ABOUT BRIGHTSTAR CARE AND YOUR ROLE. JEFF COOPER BrightStar Care is a private duty home health agency, and we service individuals in the community ranging from birth through end of life. Our work includes everything from companion care through personal care, through skilled nursing. Primarily that means we are taking care of those individuals who want to age in place and people who would prefer to stay at home as opposed to going into an independent or assisted living community. We will work closely with adult children or significant others. Companion care means we are going in and doing crossword puzzles, hanging
out with somebody and watching The Golden Girls or something like that. So we’re hanging out being a companion, ensuring that they’re getting a proper diet, and we’ll accompany them to breakfast, lunch or dinner. The personal care side of things is where we’ll assist people with activities of daily life, such as bathing, toileting, dressing, meal prep, things like that. Then once you go to skilled nursing, that’s where you get into med management and medication administration. So we’re actually giving people their meds because they’re not capable of taking them themselves at that point. We do infusions, OT, PT, speech therapy. Whatever somebody’s needs are,
we can go into their home or if they are in a community, we can still come in even though they have their own staff there. So those are the three different buckets of services that we provide. DO YOU ALSO TAKE CARE OF YOUNGER PEOPLE OR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES? We do. It’s not as frequent though as it is with your older generation. I think a part of that is a lot of those individuals who might have special needs are already part of certain programs, whether it be within the county or the state. They’ve got care that’s been provided, and it might sometimes be under Medicaid, but when it comes to
private duty, somebody’s paying for these services out of their pocket. There is also supplemental care through different programs, they’ll tend to go that way. WHEN WE TALK ABOUT AGING AND THE INEVITABLE LOSS OF CAPACITIES THAT WE ALL FEEL AS WE GET OLDER, PEOPLE DON’T REALLY WANT TO CONFRONT THAT. IS THAT A CHALLENGE WITH THE CLIENTS OR THEIR FAMILIES? We have people that will call us, and they’ve done a tremendous amount of planning and calling and have had conversations with their parents or their significant other, and they realize it might be time.
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Then there’s those that don’t and they call us spur of the moment and say, “Oh my gosh, I live out of state and mom just fell and broke her hip. We don’t know what to do.” And that’s where we’re there to counsel. Sometimes it doesn’t necessarily lead to business for us. We might take them to Medicare agencies or what have you. But that’s where we can really start counseling them and basically let them know that they’re not out there alone. We get it daily, especially with adult children living out of state. That tends to be a real source of worry and concern because they don’t live here, and in a lot of cases they might have their own job and they can’t leave to come and take care of mom and dad. That’s where we really try to give them the peace of mind in knowing that they can stay there. We communicate with them about the care, any issues that might be happening, doctor’s appointments, we can help manage the meds a little bit so that they’re getting proper medication. We can manage their diet, so they make sure that they’re getting properly nourished. That tends to give, in most cases, adult children who live out of state a lot of peace of mind. So we kind of see it both ways where people are calling in panic and then we see some who have planned very well and know exactly what they want to do. DID THE PANDEMIC AND THE LOCKDOWN PERIOD CHANGE HOW PEOPLE THINK ABOUT YOUR INDUSTRY OR THE NEEDS OF THEIR AGING FAMILY MEMBERS? The biggest concern was putting somebody in with mom or dad–does that make them more susceptible to getting COVID? When we were going into people’s homes, we had a lot of individuals who were very concerned, so we had to make sure that we were gearing up properly
with gowns and masks and gloves and taking all the proper precautions to make sure not only that we weren’t getting anybody sick when we entered their home, but also weren’t taking anything out of that home and going back to our own children who are going to school perhaps. PRE COVID, THERE WERE A LOT OF PEOPLE WHO WERE LONELY TO BEGIN WITH AND I’M WONDERING IF YOU’VE NOTICED THAT THE LOCKDOWNS MADE THAT WORSE. When you are in an active adult or assisted living community,
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ARE THERE ANECDOTES OR EXAMPLES YOU HAVE OF OLDER CUSTOMERS THAT MAYBE WERE FAILING AND THEN BEGAN TO FLOURISH WITH ADDITIONAL ATTENTION AND ENGAGEMENT? Where we’ve seen that we can really help out are with those that have had a setback after a surgery or a broken hip, knee replacements, things like that where they’re not as mobile or they need somebody to come in and help them for a couple of weeks. We also make sure that they’re compliant with whatever discharge orders they have, taking meds, wound care,
“Let’s say we have a husband and wife and one of them tends to be the primary caregiver. If you have individuals who maybe are in their 80s and one is taking care of the another in their illness, we tend to find that the primary caregiver will start to decline faster bcause they’re wearing themselves out. So with us giving them some respite where we’ll come in, even if it’s to them get back out, recharge their batteries, go play golf with the guys or the girls, it really helps that primary caregiver.” they provide activities and there’s socialization if you’re going down to have meals in a dining room. But even pre COVID, mom and dad may be sitting in their room alone most of the day, which is unfortunate, but it’s just the nature of the world that we live in and this isn’t a knock on communities. They do a great job, but they don’t have one-on-one care with people in their apartments all day, every day. That’s where a lot of individuals will reach out to us and say, “I just want somebody to come in with my mom and dad for a couple hours a day.” Sometimes we’re there all day and not through the night. Sometimes we go in through the night just to ensure, if mom or dad might be a fall risk, we’re there at least when it’s dark and to assist with restroom use. Again, we are there just giving peace of mind.
changing out bandages. We can have nurses go in and change out bandages and make sure things don’t get infected because those are typically things that’ll put somebody back in the hospital. So those are where we see most of our success stories. When it comes to those that are aging in place, whether it be in a community or at home, I think every day is truly a success story in that we’re giving people the best possible days that they could have. Because if you’re just sitting alone, whether it’s in your home or a community and you’re all by yourself, that’s a pretty lonesome place to be. Also, let’s say we have a husband and wife and one of them tends to be the primary caregiver. If you have individuals who maybe are in their 80s and one is taking care of another in their illness, we tend to find that the primary caregiver
will start to decline faster because they’re wearing themselves out taking care of their husband or their wife. So with us giving them some respite where we’ll come in, even if it’s to let them get back out, recharge their batteries, go play golf with the guys or the girls type of a thing, do the heavy lifting, it really helps that primary caregiver and allows them to stay together in the home. Because once we take Mr. or Mrs. from their home and they transition to a community, well now you’ve got two people that are alone. So when we can keep people together, I think that is a huge success and tends to give them the best possible days that they can have together. We’ve been doing this almost 13 years now, and truly every day is a success story from that perspective. I look at it also from the perspective that I consider all my employees to be customers as well, and we employ a lot of people and allow them to take care of their families and try to make it feel like a team. So that’s a success story too that I always love to look at. I will never forget about my staff and those caregivers. They’re special people that go out there and do that work. HOW DO YOU WORK WITH PEOPLE ON DETERMINING WHAT STAGE OF CARE THEY’RE IN? ARE YOU ABLE TO INTERFACE WITH ORGANIZATIONS LIKE HOSPICE? We’re representing the family. Hospice is called in for whatever level of care they’re coming in to provide. If that person gets well enough again then hospice might step out of the picture and we’re still there doing what we were doing. There also might be cases where hospice goes in with somebody who’s declining, they call us and say, “Hey, the family would like somebody to sit with mom or dad through the evening, or through the night. Can you guys provide somebody?” And we will. Again,
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it sometimes just comes down to comforting the client, but also giving the family peace of mind, knowing somebody’s there. HOW DO THE EXPENSES AND COSTS WORK? IS THERE ANY INSURANCE THAT COVERS THIS SORT OF CARE OR IS IT ALL OUT OF POCKET? It’s mostly out of pocket. Some individuals years ago signed up with longterm care insurance. We would then contact that company, find out what their benefits are because the packages can be a little bit different, so many hours a week, so many days a week, et cetera. They’ll have elimination periods where they might have to do 90 days where they’re actually physically paying us, representing to the insurance company that yes, they do need this care. Then we have to make sure that we’re typically providing three of the major activities of daily life. So the toileting, the transferring, bathing, food preparation, things like that. Once we’ve shown that and our elimination period is over, then we still are billing the client, but we are sending the paperwork into the insurance and the client gets reimbursed for those services. IS THERE SOMETHING AN ADULT CHILD SHOULD BE WATCHING FOR TO KNOW WHEN YOUR SERVICES ARE NEEDED? I IMAGINE IT CAN BECOME EXPENSIVE AND THAT MIGHT CONCERN A LOT OF FAMILIES. I think no matter how you slice it, as we age, if we all live long enough, we’re going to have to probably have some level of care, whether it’s through family, through an agency like myself or through a community. So if it’s the family that’s just dealing with it, there’s a cost. It might not be a monetary cost or maybe it is, maybe people are having to take days off work to take care of mom or dad, and then the brother comes in the evening and the
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“I love the veterans that we take care of because many of the freedoms that I enjoy with my family are because of them and the sacrifices that they made. We work closely with the VA up in Bay Pines. We’ll go in and we’ll take care of them a few hours a week and just give them some companionship and in some cases, some personal care if needed.” daughter comes in the next morning. But there’s a cost associated even if it’s not monetary. They’re sacrificing their health, their time and their life balance with their own children. So there might be sacrifices there. When you come to an agency like mine there’s those costs that are associated with the care that we’re providing. And if somebody then progresses and chooses not to use an agency for in-home care, there’s a cost associated with those facilities. So once we’ve all kind of gotten to that point, you have to make a decision one way or another. What kind of cost are we looking at? And then certain facilities will have different pricing that some might say, “Hey, this facility is the top notch one in town, but they cost X, and then here’s the middle of the road and then here’s your entry level.” And then they have packages within those facilities. And how much service do you want while your loved one is here? WHAT ARE THE BIG CHANGES IN THE INDUSTRY? HOW HAS IT EVOLVED IN RECENT YEARS AND WHAT DO YOU SEE IN THE FUTURE? Well, the industry hasn’t changed a ton or drastically. It got a little strange there during COVID just because nobody knew what to do. Everybody was very concerned. Who do we let in? Who do we not let in? How do we keep COVID out of our community or out of our homes? So that was a change from what we had experienced for the first eight years that we were in business. Afterwards, the landscape changed for caregivers and nurses. I think some just took early retirement, got out
of the field. There’s a shortage of caregivers and nurses right now. So a lot of us are vying for the same people, which makes it a little more challenging. And then what makes it even more challenging is the rate at which baby boomers are turning 65. There’s 10,000 people that turn 65 every single day, and that’s expected to go on for the next 10 to 15 years. I think it’s something like 20% of the population by 2050 will be 65 or better. So not everybody at 65 needs care, but that’s huge, when you’ve got 20% of the United States that’s going to be needing probably some level of care. WHAT KEEPS THE PASSION THERE FOR YOU TO CONTINUE TAKING CARE OF PEOPLE? I just honestly think it’s our nature. We’re in the business every day. My wife went on and got her master’s in social work. She worked in psych wards in the hospital in her past life. She has worked with troubled children when we were living in Indiana and when we found this opportunity, she first and foremost was very drawn to it because it’s right up her alley. I too think of myself as a very caring person. She’s got a psychology degree. I’ve got a psychology degree. I’ve always been into just people and trying to help them out. And this is one of the best jobs or professions that we could ever have in terms of not only helping people that have the immediate need, but also giving the adult children that peace of mind. And as I’ve aged and been in this business, I’m recognizing that now more and more with my own parents–we are now facing these types of decisions with them.
So it is hugely rewarding to help people and give them the best possible life. I don’t want to single out veterans, but they’re near and dear to my heart. I love the veterans that we take care of because many of the freedoms that I enjoy with my family are because of them and the sacrifices that they made. We work closely with the VA up in Bay Pines, and they’re local here in our area. We’ll go in and take care of them a few hours a week and just give them some companionship and in some cases, some personal care if needed. So often the veterans don’t even understand what is available to them for the services that they provided our country. So it’s nice when we can say, “Hey, do you know you’ve got 12 hours a week where we can come in and help you and just make sure you don’t have food in your refrigerator that’s spoiled, and we can do things like that.” And it’s just really, really rewarding to help people. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY SETS YOU APART FROM OTHER BUSINESSES IN THIS ARENA? There are other good agencies out there that do what we do and do a good job of it. But I think what our unique selling position is that we are just uber focused on exceeding our customer’s expectations. We are very passionate about it and we’re in it every single day. Whereas in some companies, the owners aren’t involved. It doesn’t mean a bad company, but it just makes them different. We’ve got that down home feel where we’re actually in there and meeting with people, making sure that our staff’s doing what’s needed and addressing issues if they arise. I think that’s what makes us a little unique. SRQ
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