Category: Change On Blog (Professional)

Working in skilled home health is not for everyone, but for many of the nurses who’ve joined Lifespark Home Health after years of hospital and clinic nursing, it’s a great fit, said Kelly Stocke, RN, Lifespark Home Health Clinical Educator. What motivates a seasoned nurse to explore a career in home health varies from person […]

“I tell my clients all the time what a huge gift it is for me to have an entire hour to talk with them,” said Wendy Laine, MD, who joined Lifespark after 20 years as an emergency medicine physician. Nearly every day, these conversations uncover a long-standing concern, question, or need which the client never […]

Central to Lifespark’s mission to help people age magnificently is helping them stay healthy at home. For individuals with heart failure, the stakes are particularly high. According to the National Institutes of Health, heart failure in the United States accounts for roughly 700,000 inpatient admissions and is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. It’s […]

Dr. Bill Thomas (a.k.a., “Dr. Bill”), nationally renowned geriatrician, author, and Lifespark Independence Officer, has a lot to say on the subject of sleep, starting with the sober observation that Americans, independent of age or region, have poor sleep hygiene. “As a nation, we’re not getting enough healthy, restful sleep, and the problem gets worse […]

“Hospitals can be dangerous for older people,” said Dr. Bill Thomas (a.k.a., “Dr. Bill”), nationally renowned geriatrician, author, and Lifespark Independence Officer. “This is why Lifespark is laser-focused on helping seniors avoid unplanned and unnecessary hospitalizations.” In fact, new data from Minnesota hospitals show that one in six days of inpatient care was deemed unnecessary. […]

Even before completing his doctorate in physical therapy, David Orman, DPT, knew he wanted to work in home health. “In outpatient settings, you tend to get bogged down treating one body part, like you’re the shoulder guy, or you’re the spine guy, whereas in home health, you see such a variety of clients and conditions. The work never becomes a monotonous […]

For older adults, applications for physical therapy go far beyond knee replacements and weak rotator cuffs to include everything from breathing problems to neurological injury, such as stroke or dementia, and with all a desire for fall prevention. In her role as Physical Therapist – Case Manager with Lifespark Home Health, Julie Varno evaluates newly […]

The vision for Lifespark’s model of complete senior health has always included geriatric pharmacology expertise, but as Dr. Nick Schneeman, MD, Chief Medical Officer explained, the company first wanted to focus on the foundational elements of that model—the Life Manager role as the trusted, single point of contact, and the in-home medical expert trained in […]

Nurses are in high demand. Everywhere. Yet, in the industry today there’s not enough staying power to keep them rooted where they are. Gone are the days of nurses staying with a company for years, investing in the culture and growth, and being part of the change for those they serve. In a world of […]

When we think about a geriatric consult there’s an assumption that it’s already part of what primary care delivers when you work with seniors. It’s not —traditional primary care is missing the geriatrics part. The play on this question — Geriatric Consult Anyone? — was meant to create intrigue. The reality is no one asks […]