As I helped Dad navigate his morning routine — bed to walker to bathroom to walker to the table in the extended kitchen he built with his own hands — the bathroom, admittedly an odd place for deep meaning to present itself, spoke to me. Modern cabinets and fixtures faded from my view as 50s-era linoleum and sinks reappeared and the shadowy figure of a very familiar-looking little boy appeared, perched on an antique training seat atop the toilet.

Shaking off the vision, I removed a soiled pair of the “special pants” we had to force on Dad last year and replaced them with clean ones. As I guided his halting footsteps toward the commode, the boy said, “He used to do the exact same thing for you in this very room.”

The realization transcended mere memories of the days when Dad was big and I was small. It was more important than that. Here I was, caring for my frail, incontinent father, not just in any bathroom but in sacred space, the same room where he had cared for me, given me baths, bandaged my knees and taught me to shave.

Dad does not often speak today and, this time, it was just as well. If he noticed the redness that was surely visible in my eyes, the redness that returns as I write this, he did not mention it.

Dad’s legs barely hold him up today, partly from age, partly from living 68 years with some kind of primitive cement-based compound that was inserted in his right shin in 1943 to replace a 4-inch piece of bone that had been shattered by a sniper’s tracer bullet. According to a hometown news report at the time, he had apparently run screaming and waving his arms down a Belgian hillside to draw the sniper from his nest, where the sniper was holding a company of G.I.s at bay. The small band of brothers did finally take the town; one small, forgotten component of the Allies’ victory at the Battle of the Bulge. “My buddy got the guy who shot me,” was the legend I grew up with.

His actual brothers once pointed out to me a three-story Pennsylvania house where they had lived, three-to-a-bed, during the Great Depression, apparently anxious to ensure I knew my heritage fell somewhere between courageous and nuts. “Your father used to do handstands on the top of that chimney,” they claimed. It was not fraternal joking; the story turned out to be true.

These are the kinds of memories that make tolerable the work of the family caregiver, a person continually aware, “This is a human being who, though approaching the end, was once young and self-sufficient, a breadwinner and parent, who coached Little League and met his life partner at a square dance, who was capable only a couple years ago of cradling his great-grandchild in his arms.”

Certainly, family caregivers work hard and grow weary, sometimes short-tempered. Yes, they often compromise their own health by putting someone else’s health needs first. Of course, they save the Medicare Trust Fund millions, perhaps billions, of dollars every year. I have written about these things with an air of “this is newsworthy” but, it turns out, they are secondary to the family caregiver experience.

What is primary is that ever-present awareness, “This shrinking body and slowing mind are not the full story of who this person is.” It would be a great gift if they could put across the full story to people who meet him at age 90 for the first time, people such as home health nurses, therapists and aides.

Family caregivers do not see a 90-pound 90-year-old, they see the soldier, the square dancer, the Little League coach. Whether dressing him or cleaning him or reminding him of his grandchildren’s names, there is no moment when the feats and legends of his youth are not vividly present, living not only in what is left of him but in the people who inhabited the house he built and made sacred by more than 60 years of memory-making.

Every time I walk him from the bathroom to the kitchen, I steal a look over my shoulder at the seemingly ordinary suburban bathroom. A little boy smiles up from his comic book at me and says, “Take good care of him. He’s my Daddy.”

Tim Rowan
December 7, 2011

An avid jogger, Siegel plans to hit the ground running
on February 15 when he will be asked to focus on immediately enhancing the company’s existing information systems. According to an official company news release, he will start with adoption of state-of-the-art technology platforms designed to improve efficiency and quality of services and operations throughout the Addus enterprise. Addus has over 12,000 employees that provide services through more than 120 locations across 16 states to over 23,000 consumers. The company has also branched into Medicare home care services.

Mark Heaney, President and Chief Executive Officer of Addus HomeCare, stated, “Michael’s extensive industry experience will be invaluable to Addus as our technology infrastructure remains a critical component in enabling us to deliver industry-leading care to our more than 23,000 patients.  Throughout his 30-year career, Michael has demonstrated an ability to creatively and effectively leverage new technologies to improve communication, customer service, and the overall management of the clinical, operational and financial elements of large, geographically dispersed health care organizations. We look forward to benefiting from Michael’s vision and technological acumen as Addus extends its position as an innovator across all aspects of home care.”

While CIO at Maxim Healthcare Services from 1997 to 2007, Siegel managed a growing IS department while the company expanded from fewer than 100 to more than 400 branch offices. In the process, he put a relatively unknown private duty software vendor on the map by partnering both programming staffs to complete development of a product that enjoys much wider adoption today than it would have gained without the nod from its much larger customer.

It is this kind of bold, creative leadership that Addus hopes will take it from its current presence in 16 states to the next level. Prior to Maxim Healthcare Services, Siegel served as Chief Information Officer at Memorial Health (formerly Memorial Medical Center), one of the largest regional health organizations in the Southeast United States. During his tenure at Simione Consultants he was assigned as lead consultant to one of the organization’s largest clients and one of the nation’s largest Medicare home health providers.

At Memorial, he oversaw implementation of a wide variety of new software solutions throughout the medical center, including a wireless point-of-care system in the acute care facilities and major new system to support the operations of Memorial’s 125 branch home health division.

“Adding an individual of Michael’s caliber and proven industry expertise is a tremendous boon for Addus,” remarked Frank Leonard, Chief Financial Officer. “His deep understanding of the home care market coupled with his passion for technology will be instrumental as Addus continues its drive to maximize efficiency and improve patient treatment across our entire enterprise.”

Siegel will also bring to Addus experience gained from senior IT positions with other large providers and a former industry-leading software vendor, including Home Intensive Care, InfoMed, (now CareCentric) and Interim Services (formerly Personnel Pool of America).  Additionally, Mr. Siegel has been a featured guest speaker and panelist at several National Association for Homecare and Hospice annual meetings and is a member of the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society and the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives.

About Addus

Addus is a provider of social and medical services in the home, including personal care and assistance with activities of daily living, skilled nursing and rehabilitative therapies, and adult day care. Addus’ consumers are individuals with special needs who are at risk of hospitalization or institutionalization, such as the elderly, chronically ill and disabled. Addus’ payor clients include federal, state and local governmental agencies, the Veterans Health Administration, commercial insurers and private individuals.

Cambridge, OH – Nancy Diller-Shively, Chairman of the Board and Founder of Cambridge Home Health Care, announced this week that James P. Newbrough has been named president of Cambridge Home Health Care, effective January 25. Cambridge operates 35 home care branches in Ohio and Pennsylvania from its Cambridge, Ohio headquarters.

Newbrough brings 17 years of home health care experience to Cambridge. He has served in a variety of positions including CEO for the Visiting Nurse Association of the Treasure Coast in Vero Beach, Florida; president of HomeReach, OhioHealth’s home care company; Vice President with Visiting Nurse Service & Affiliates in Akron, Ohio; and administrator for Bon Secours Home Health Services in the Florida market.

Diller-Shively founded Cambridge Home Health Care in 1994. The company has grown from two locations in Ohio to thirty-five locations in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and serves over 3,000 Medicare, Medicaid, Waiver, VA, insurance and private pay patients weekly. Services include skilled nursing, therapies (physical, speech and occupational), personal care and homemaking.