Business Spotlight: Big Hearts

Many business owners face hurdles in their first few years of operation, but few encounter the challenges John and Bethany Ray did when they left the world of corporate health care to start Haven Home Health LLC out of their Ozark home in 2011.

For the newly established outpatient rehabilitation clinic, financial growing pangs came with the territory. As CEO of Haven Home Health and Therapy, John estimates the company posted $8,000 in revenue the first quarter in business. The addition of home health care to the company’s occupational, physical and speech therapies the next year prompted revenue growth.

Then in early 2014 during a routine checkup, the Ray’s 3-year-old daughter Sydney was diagnosed with leukemia. Eight hours later, the family was in an ambulance heading to St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

“It threw a wrench in our business, because we were going gung-ho and we thought this was going to be a screeching halt,” says Bethany.

They are happy to report Sydney is doing well today, but during the three months John was in Ozark and Bethany was in Memphis, the future of Haven was unknown.

“It kind of changes everything because you’re thinking what difference does anything make if we don’t make this work?” John says.

The Rays credit the company’s 60 employees with helping both their family and the business through a difficult time and with generating $1.6 million in revenue last year. John says the company is on track for $2.5 million in 2015, and pending hospice care accreditation, could double its employee base by the end of 2016.

“They’re the ones who give us a good reputation by taking care of our people,” Bethany says of Haven’s staff, adding the company’s biggest challenge has been limiting growth to focus on maintaining quality of care.

“We’ve probably turned away, over the past six months, about 400 patients,” John adds. “It’s hard to turn away patients because sometimes a referral source might not call back, which scares us, but it’s just something we have to do in order to maintain.”

Haven also offers specialized services, such as vacuum-assisted wound closure, and intravenous and lymphedema therapies.

Staff members serve around 120 home health patients, another 20 to 25 who visit the company’s Ozark headquarters and outpatient clinic, plus others at 10 assisted and independent living facilities and retirement communities. The company also manages Ozark Riverview Manor, The Cambridge in Springfield and Webco Manor in Marshfield.

Dr. Randall Halley, a medical director at four skilled nursing facilities, including Ozark Riverview Manor, estimates he has referred to Haven 30-40 patients through his practice in Nixa and over 30 others from other facilities since 2011.

“They don’t over-utilize health care resources inappropriately,” Halley says. “If they think somebody can benefit by making a recommendation to them, they are honest about that.”

According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 8 percent of the company’s home health patients were admitted to a hospital – half the average for the nation and the state of Missouri.

Still, John thinks it’s an area where Haven can always improve.

“When you talk to him, you can tell he cares about people, about the residents and their care,” Webco Manor administrator Whitney Miller says of working with John. “I’m not even talking about therapy, I’m talking about health care in general – you don’t see that very often anymore.”

There is a standing rule at Haven requiring management personnel, including licensed physical therapist John and speech pathologist Bethany, to handle part of the company caseload.

“We can’t tell our staff to do something that we’re not willing to do ourselves,” John says. “I think they respect us for that and feel camaraderie with us that we know what we’re talking about.”

John says his biggest challenge is remaining independent in an industry where larger companies are actively acquiring. He feels more competition sets a high standard of quality for health care providers.

“I think there’s enough to go around for everybody,” he says. “I want that competition to be there when I need those services because I need those people fighting for that business. That’s the great thing about capitalism.”[[In-content Ad]]