Growing Demand for Person-Centered Care
In an earlier blog we shared ‘what is person-centered care’ pointing to the fact that seniors want to be seen for who they are – not their diagnosis, their condition, or their limitations. And most older people want to live, not simply exist. While the American Geriatrics Society outlined the essential elements of person-centered care for older adults, Lifespark believes we need to take it even further and use a whole person approach.
It’s this approach that has helped Lifespark earn the Fast 50 designation for the fifth time in the last 13 years by focusing on 
caring for seniors in a more holistic way, going beyond what traditional home care companies do to truly change outcomes and achieve what the health care industry strives for ‘Triple Aim’ – improve the individual experience, improve the health of our population and reduce the cost of healthcare.
Right here in the Twin Cities, Lifespark’s momentum continues to grow. On the heels of earning the Inc. 5000 designation for one of the fastest growing companies across the United States, on a local level, Lifespark has earned the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal’s Fast 50 designation placing them 46 among 50 other Minnesota companies.
Joel Theisen, RN, CEO of Lifespark, acknowledges that the biggest challenge in managing a fast-growing company is transferring our culture and knowledge to new team members. “We have hired non-stop this last year and thoughtfully on-boarding, training, growing and leading all our new talent is a challenge,” explained Joel. “The diligence and awareness we have for this issue is critical to continue to stay out front and nationally lead the delivery of whole person senior care.”
Part of the growth includes the expansion of home health to its whole person service offering. “Last year we started a new business, hired over 150 incredibly talented new staff, positioned ourselves for national scale and sparked thousands of lives within our company, as well as sparking all the wonderful clients and families we had the grateful privilege to serve,” said Joel.
Looking ahead the number one priority for Joel and Tom Schmitt, Lifespark President’s will be slowing down and becoming very clear about strategic partnerships with payors and health systems both locally and nationally. “Our model is to partner with organizations who have like-minded cultures and re-set how we deliver value to seniors from a person-centric model,” said Joel. “Lifespark is in a fun and energizing position to really make a difference for all our customers. We have an extremely talented team that ’bleeds purple‘ with their passion for our mission and ability to build momentum, and a market that wants to shift to accountable value-based funding… we are excited!”