October 22, 2025 • 24 mins
What if the biggest lever for better elder care isn’t a new tool, but a different kind of leader? We sit down with Riley Moore—whose journey spans skilled nursing, assisted living, memory care, and now family medicine at Lakeview—to unpack how pay, culture, and everyday choices shape outcomes for seniors and the teams who serve them. Riley makes a clear, grounded case: when leaders show up on the floor, take the toughest call light, and coach with empathy, turnover drops and care quality rises.
We explore the quiet mechanics that determine recovery after a major event—how risk profiles, insurance, and reimbursement connect to which skilled nursing facilities patients can access and how well they’re staffed. Riley also shares a real-time shock to the system: traditional Medicare’s sudden rollback of telemedicine coverage, announced with virtually no notice. For older adults who relied on telehealth for medication management and chronic care check-ins, that change forced difficult in-person visits and strained clinics scrambling to rebook. It’s a vivid example of how policy decisions cascade to the bedside and the front desk at the same time.
Beyond policy, this is a masterclass in practical leadership. Riley tells the story of a high-performing but abrasive med tech who became a culture builder after direct, respectful coaching and support. We talk through dismantling the destructive pecking order between nurses, med techs, and CNAs; investing in fair pay to stabilize teams; and building trust with families who rarely see the triage behind delays. The message to rising administrators is simple: learn your people, lead from the front, ask for help when burned out, and communicate early and often—especially when the rules change overnight.
If this conversation resonates, follow the show, share it with a colleague who leads caregivers, and leave a quick review with one takeaway you’ll put into practice this week.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:08):
Welcome back to Senior Care Academy Podcast by
Helperly.
Our guest is Riley Moore.
He brings a unique blend ofhealthcare administration
expertise and real worldleadership.
So he's been the executivedirector at uh generations and
Rocky Mountain Care, overseeingeverything from staff culture to
finances to implementinginnovative systems.
And now he's at Lakeview FamilyMedicine.
(00:29):
Um, and even there, Riley'smission hasn't changed.
He's trying to help createbetter systems and strong teams
for seniors and their families.
So, Riley, welcome to the show.
Appreciate you coming into theapp uh the studio.
SPEAKER_01 (00:40):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (00:41):
So, kind of let's talk about your path getting
into leadership within thehealthcare space.
So you studied healthcare adminat Weaver State, um, but then
you went into like leadershipdevelopment as well.
SPEAKER_01 (00:52):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (00:53):
Even joining your uh the National Society of
Leadership and Success.
So, what drew you intoleadership in long-term care
more and kind of well, just ingeneral, what pulled you to
leadership?
SPEAKER_01 (01:05):
No, good, good question.
So actually, um back before Ilike even went into college, I
was working as a transportationdirector for a skilled nursing
facility down in Oram.
And Jeremy Meldrum uh was theadministrator there.
Um, shout out to you, Jeremy.
And Jeremy Osman was our uhphysical therapy director.
(01:27):
So, and I kind of I just reallyliked picking their brains.
I thought it was super cool whatthey did, like the more
managerial side andadministrator side.
Um, and Jeremy was alwayswilling to answer my questions.
I mean, I was a young, like21-year-old, yeah, fresh, fresh
back, uh, served in LDS missionback, and he was more than happy
to answer them.
So just started looking into itmore and I fell in love with it.
(01:51):
Uh really, really enjoyed it.
And I in my head, I just keptthinking, I want to help as many
people as I possibly can in mylife.
Like that's my personal goal andaspiration.
And I felt the best way to dothat was by being a great
manager and inspiring otherpeople to help as many people as
they could.
SPEAKER_00 (02:09):
So I like that because you can directly help so
many people, but if you're agood leader, then your ripple
effect can the people that youaffect can affect people who
affect people, and it goes outso much farther.
Um, so you you kind of were inthe long-term care, the senior
care.
Is Lake View similar or is itkind of no?
SPEAKER_01 (02:27):
So Lake View is actually like family medicine.
So helping just overall healthcare.
Um, so just traditional familydoctor.
We do have a couple geriatricspecialists at the clinic, which
is awesome.
Um, we've got two locations, onein Oram, one in Saratoga.
So we're gonna be, well, forthose of you who listen after
the fact, sorry, you're gonnamiss it.
But the Saratoga Fall Festivalstoday, we're gonna have a booth
(02:49):
at it.
So you can come get your bloodpressure read and meet one of
our geriatric specialists.
SPEAKER_00 (02:54):
I'm curious what um what overlap have you seen from
uh like the senior care,long-term care side just into
regular family medicine?
And what I guess are there anylessons that you think long or
senior care and long-term carecould pull from family medicine
and vice versa?
For sure.
SPEAKER_01 (03:11):
Um, I would say definitely one of the biggest
things that I see likecorrelation-wise, is just um
overall kind of, and this ismore, I guess, maybe a negative
thing.
Like the healthcare system forelderly isn't great.
Like in terms of reimbursementrates for physicians, which
affects then like insurancecompanies with skilled nursings
(03:34):
that you can go to and stuff.
Like that overall care system,like we're doing the best that
we can, but it definitely likeneeds a little bit of an
overhaul.
That's interesting, that it'sworse for older adults.
Yeah, like it it definitely umit's almost like it not it's
weird.
It's almost like you getpunished for going to the doctor
(03:54):
a little bit.
Like the the more that you go,uh the healthier that you can
age, the better.
Yeah, the better off you are.
Like the the more that you go,uh the healthier that you can
age, the better.
Yeah, the better off you are.
SPEAKER_00 (04:08):
Like finance, like that's interesting.
SPEAKER_01 (04:10):
Because like your your insurance rates are gonna
be lower.
Um, and then like you get likethese risk factors that are
associated with you that'scalled like a raft score.
I I could geek out about thisstuff probably for like hours
and hours, but in in a nutshell,it's like the healthier you are
when a major life event happens,because ultimately like crazy
things happen, right?
Yeah, getting older, your body'sgonna deteriorate no matter
(04:32):
what, at some point, right?
Or you know, you're like 65,fairly healthy, get in a car
accident, maybe break something,you know, have to get a hip
replacement, a knee replacement,something like that.
If you've been relativelyhealthy your whole life, you're
going to have a better insurancethat's going to give you a
better opportunity to go to abetter skilled nursing, and then
you're going to be able torecover faster.
Because the skilled nursingsthat have, you know, better,
(04:55):
better insurances, or theyaccept that, they get higher
reimbursement rates.
So they're able to hire the bestpeople out there.
They're able to have, you know,the best nurses, the best
in-house physicians, the bestphysical therapists, all those
kinds of things, right?
So money is a huge, huge factorwith it.
Um, one thing that I would sayis a positive is that ultimately
(05:16):
healthcare doesn't change nomatter what realm you're in,
whether you're doing familypractice, senior care, or even
pediatrics, um everybody's doingit because they love people,
right?
They want to take care of them.
So we want to help as manypeople as possible.
And that's everybody's likeoverall goal.
That's the one thing I reallylove about healthcare.
Yeah, is everybody's end goal isthe same.
(05:37):
Yeah, we all want to help peopleand get them healthy.
So it's just how we go aboutdoing it.
SPEAKER_00 (05:42):
Yeah.
And it is interesting that um asmuch as like I didn't know that
about the senior care side ofthings where you almost are
punished.
And it's like the doctors andphysicians and everybody want to
help, but then they can't, ormaybe they can't, the skilled
nursing can't hire the rightpeople or as good of people or
(06:03):
experience.
So it is an interesting kind ofdilemma.
We we've had a lot of people onthat talk about how they are
like up at Capitol Hill tryingto get uh rate increases across
Medicaid VA, Medicare, all theplaces.
Um and it makes sense now thatit's they just need more money
basically to try to get thepeople that have all the
experience.
SPEAKER_01 (06:23):
Oh yeah.
So it's like, well, and this islike so another thing, right?
How just senior care is affectedin general.
So Medicare, October 1st, right,a couple days ago, they just
dropped the telemed coverage forall Medicare patients.
So straight Medicaretraditional.
SPEAKER_00 (06:41):
That was only that got spun up like during COVID,
right?
SPEAKER_01 (06:44):
Yeah, like it was a huge thing.
Yeah.
And so, and and the interestingthing is that they didn't tell
anybody.
Like they didn't give anynotification on their website,
they weren't sending messagesout to us as providers.
So I I was lucky, I had a niceprovider who works for another
larger healthcare organization.
He sent out a message and he'slike, hey, internally they sent
(07:06):
this around to us.
They said Medicare's droppingcoverage tomorrow.
Wow.
And all of us were like, wait,what?
So, you know, we're franticallycalling patients, telling them,
hey, your telemed appointmentthat you had set up, we're
sorry, you have to come inperson.
SPEAKER_00 (07:18):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (07:18):
And a lot of these people, because of their older,
they're sickly, telemed's easyfor them.
You can sit in the comfort ofyour home and you can get your
medications refilled.
Yeah.
But now that's taken away fromthem.
I mean, I was talking to apatient's family member a couple
of days ago with all this goingon, and he was asking me, he's
like, well, on their website, itsays, you know, we could apply
(07:41):
and get an exception.
I'm like, that's really hard.
Yeah.
And and you're going to have toinstigate that.
Or whatever.
I'm like, you're you're the onethat has to instigate that too.
Yeah.
Like they're not going to takeit from us, the doctor.
They're just going to think, oh,you're just being lazy and you
just want them to have atelemed.
SPEAKER_00 (07:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (07:58):
Like, so patients have to advocate for themselves,
which is really difficult too.
And that's that's something Ifind unfortunate is that it's
almost like a way that they takeadvantage of seniors, is they're
like, oh, well, we're going toslide this thing in under the
radar, not tell anybody aboutit, and then be like surprised.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (08:16):
Um, that is crazy.
Um on the, I want to kind of goback to your take on leadership
or like building those teams.
Because you said there was atime that you said leadership is
as much about communication asit is about administration.
Um, what is a conversation, likecommunication aspect they've had
(08:37):
with maybe a staff member that'sreally stuck with you as far as
like driving that principlehome?
SPEAKER_01 (08:44):
Um, so I would say the the one thing that sticks
out to me in particular is whenI was working for generations, I
was working up at FairfieldVillage in Leighton in the Ogden
area, uh working as theadministrator for the assisted
living and memory care.
Yeah.
Had a really good um, we callthem med techs in assisted
living.
So it's it's kind of like ahybrid, almost like a step in
(09:06):
between a CNA and a nurse in theassisted living realm.
Yeah.
They're passing out medicationsto people, you know, helping
them still do CNA-based tasks,but they focused a lot on the
med administration.
She was a great employee.
She was super quick withMedPath, like she had things
down path, she had a reallygreat system, but she kind of
was a little abrasive with someof the new employees.
(09:28):
Yeah.
And she would get frustratedbecause she's like, I've been
doing this for two years.
I'm she has a system developed,and then it made her super
annoyed when she would like goin and somebody would say, Oh, I
haven't seen anybody all shift.
Like, you're the first personI've seen.
And she's doing, you know, like4 p.m.
Met Pass and the shift startedat two.
(09:48):
And she's like, How's no onebeen in here for two hours?
Yeah.
So then she kind of chewedpeople out.
So I I remember talking to herabout that and being like,
Listen, like you have such greatdrive and potential.
Like, you're a phenomenalemployee.
You have to be nicer to people.
Like you're scaring people awaythat are coming to work for us.
(10:09):
And mind you, this was like endof 2021, beginning of 2022.
So COVID, COVID stuff is not ascrazy, but people are still like
weary or like maybe jumping backinto work for into the workforce
after COVID and stuff.
So it's hard to find employees.
And it's like, please don'tdrive people away.
Yeah.
(10:30):
But so from talking to her andjust letting her know, like,
hey, you have great leadershippotential.
Let's take these skills andthings that you have and let's
harness them for good.
Yeah.
Like, let's work on ways that wecan talk to people and be
constructive with it.
Um, but do it in an appropriatemanner.
Like, if things are frustratingyou really, really badly, you
(10:51):
can come and talk to me.
And I said, and I told her, Idon't care.
Like, you can come in, you canyell, you can scream, cry,
whatever.
Like, cuss me out about what'sgoing on, but don't do it to the
employee.
We'll figure out a nice way totalk to him about it.
Um, then, you know, to she satthere for a minute, kind of was
thinking about it.
I was like, okay, like I I wantto do that.
(11:12):
She said, Are you okay if I takea couple days off to like kind
of think about this and processit?
I'm like, sure, we'll figure itout, we'll do it.
Yeah.
So she took a couple days, cameback.
Um, and it was like, I'm not ahundred percent sure what
happened in those couple days,but man, a light switch just
went off and she was she wasamazing.
Um, ended up being a great, agreat asset for the team.
(11:34):
Wow, super good leader.
Um, we ended up promoting her,and she was like one of our lead
med techs at that point.
Then she ended up becomingalmost like an assistant
administrator for us.
Um, was just phenomenal.
She was a great employee, super,super happy to have her.
SPEAKER_00 (11:48):
Yeah.
So and it was just by having aconversation that you needed to
communicate with her.
Hey, when you do these things,it comes off very abrasive.
And we need to like being ableto see, like, we see a leader in
you, we see somebody that'syou're exceptional, but we have
to change a few things.
And so being able to communicatethat and not just live with it
(12:08):
probably changed the directionof a lot of things.
You said something that I thinkwas interesting.
Um, like the staff, even today,I think it's gotten better five
years since COVID, but um,there's still it's still just
like an inherently highturnover, especially the direct
care staff, nurses, CNAs,caregivers, mets.
(12:28):
Um, from your experience, whathelps keep the good caregivers?
Because it's it's just innatelydifficult work a lot of the
time.
Oh, yeah.
And so it's easy to get burnedout or overworked.
And how do you avoid that tokeep people long term that you
know, instead of having themjump ship every three to six
months to a new company?
SPEAKER_01 (12:47):
Yeah, for sure.
Um, biggest thing is you care.
Like you care about youremployees, you care about your
staff, and to have them buy inon your care, um, you have to be
there.
Like you have to show up.
You know, one thing that I was abig believer of, I tried to help
out however I could, like allover the building, whether that
(13:08):
be going with housekeeping oneday and cleaning a couple rooms
with them, going and passing outmeals during dinner time, uh,
actually helping maybe cover aCNA shift, or if a call light's
going off and being like, hey,uh, there's four call lights
going off.
We have three CNAs.
I'm going to go get one of them.
I need you three to pick who'sthe most difficult person.
(13:31):
I will take the most difficultone.
Yeah.
You guys take the easier ones.
So just showing them that you'rethere in the trenches with them
and that you care about it.
And then also getting to knowyour employees.
Like it's almost like there wasthis weird shift, I would say,
um, from like, I mean, I love myparents, they're great and
everything.
Their generation's awesome, butfrom like the baby boomers to a
(13:55):
little bit past the babyboomers, like beginning of Gen
X, there's this weird, likemanagerial like hierarchy.
The manager can't know anythingabout you.
You he has to be really aloof ormean, or she does, you know,
whatever.
And it I feel like it kind ofhas broken down over time.
But that was the biggest thingthat I realized, like thinking
about it.
All the employees that I workwith and have the opportunity to
(14:17):
work with, they're all people.
Like they have awesome lives,they have goals, hopes,
aspirations.
So why not get to know thatabout them?
Yeah.
So the more I knew about myemployees, the more they wanted
to stay because they realized Icared about them as an
individual.
I cared about their personallife, I cared about their
professional life, and I wantedthem to be happy when they came
to work because they spend eighthours, sometimes 12 hours then.
(14:41):
So why not make it good?
SPEAKER_00 (14:43):
No, I like to that point of um kind of the
generation that came up in theworkforce, uh, like 80s, 90s,
and early 2000s, the Gen X babyboomer type, or even the 70s.
It was a lot more of like thetraditional like corporate
America hierarchy, like uhstoicism stoic leaders that are
(15:05):
kind of it's hard to read.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And so it has been, it's a goodthing, and I think to have that
breakdown a little bit whereit's um where work is a place
where you can have conversationsand you have a relationship with
your boss, and it's like a goodplace to be.
And I think that's a huge playsa huge role in um creating trust
(15:28):
is remembering like you when youcame in, they were saying happy
birthday, that was so fun.
Um but remembering birthdays,remembering their kids'
birthdays, remembering um a funtrip that they have coming up,
and then ask how, like justhuman stuff, is such a good way
to build trust and affinitywhere they'll they'll want to
stay long term because they'reyour you're they trust you, they
(15:52):
love you, they want to be aroundyou as a leader.
Um within the the healthcare andsenior care healthcare
facilities um and the way thatthey support their staff, what's
and maybe this is anadministrative leaf thing, what
is the first thing that you'dwant to change to like better
(16:12):
support direct care staff?
SPEAKER_01 (16:14):
Uh the like if I had a magic wand and could do it
tomorrow, yeah, it would be payfor everybody.
Because I'm I mean, today,today's world, things are
expensive and people deserve toget paid appropriately for it.
That that's the first andforemost thing.
The second thing I would saywould just be like overhauling
(16:35):
culture a little bit sometimesis not a bad thing.
Like there's this negative, thisweird like negative thing where
in like skilled nursings, likenurses talk down to CNAs, or in
the assisted living realm, it'slike med techs talk down to
CNAs, or like, you know, andthen it's this chain of command
kind of thing.
Yeah.
It's like pecking order almost.
(16:56):
Yeah, very, very much so peckingorder.
Um, if you could break that downand get like true, genuine
buy-in and have like, you know,nurses understand, hey, like I'm
a nurse, but once upon a time Iwas a CNA, yeah, I can help do a
CNA job.
Or a med tech to understand,like I I can do what the CNA
does.
Or helping a CNA feel inspiredto the point that it's like,
(17:18):
guess what?
That nurse who maybe was chewingyou out a couple of minutes ago
because you did something thatwas kind of potentially maybe
harmful for a patient, they werein your shoes once upon a time.
Yeah.
And they're trying to teach youthe best way that they know how.
So maybe like trying to have anopen dialogue and realize like,
oh, everybody's kind of in thesame boat.
(17:39):
We've all been there.
Let's work together to make thisthe best place possible.
SPEAKER_00 (17:44):
Yeah.
I like that a lot.
That I think that you see thatin a bunch of different like
industries and and um my mind,I'm just very like in the
entrepreneurial world.
And it's so often you have thepeople that like have made it or
whatever, their 40s, 50s, 60s,and they just want to pour into
(18:04):
the the up-and-cominggeneration.
Um, but even in other likesectors, you see that where um
people that have made it, theywent through the hard thing, and
they know, like, oh my gosh,that going from caregiver all
the way to nurse to like lead uhI forgot the O N.
(18:26):
It's a lot of work and it'spainful.
And especially if you have likea family that you're also like
trying to take care of, this istough.
I'm gonna support this personthat's behind me to make it
easier.
Like, I think that that would bea huge, huge benefit just to
everybody.
One, it feels really good forthe nurse to be able or the the
(18:47):
med tech to turn back and justbe like, your job is really hard
as a CNA, so it's mine, buthere's the things that made it
easier.
Yeah.
Instead of, like you said, kindof having a pecking order of
like, oh, well, that's a CNA'sjob, you know.
Yeah.
Um seniors and families, andjust I guess more broadly, since
right now you're in kind of uhmore general medicine, they
(19:07):
don't always see what's likebehind the curtains in admin and
leadership.
So, what's one thing that youwish families knew um about
running healthcare facilitiesthat like maybe would give them
a little uh a little bit moresympathy?
SPEAKER_01 (19:23):
I would say the biggest thing is like genuinely
the people that are at thesefacilities, they really do care
for your loved ones.
Like I understand things mighthappen that make you upset.
The worst thing that you can dois like come in and scream and
yell at a CNA or a med tech or anurse because something hasn't
been done.
(19:43):
It's not because they don't loveyour your loved one.
Like they do.
These are some of the mostcompassionate people on the face
of the earth that are working inhealthcare.
So that that's the my biggestmessage.
Like, just be a little patientwith us.
We're human beings at the end ofthe day.
Like, we're not perfect, we'regonna make mistakes.
And and guess what?
(20:04):
This is one thing um that kindof one of one of my mentors
taught me and told me about,right?
Every you might have a facilitythat has let's say 40 people in
it, 100 people in it.
But in that facility, each oneof those hundred people, 40
people, whatever the number is,is the most important person in
(20:24):
someone else's life.
It's somebody's mom, it'ssomebody's dad, grandma,
grandpa, whatever, right?
But you are being entrusted withall those lives of all those
very important people to thoseindividual families.
So if something isn't being donefor your specific individual,
it's probably because someoneelse's perfect individual was
(20:47):
being cared for.
Like that's the other thing youhave to think about.
We have all these people thatwe're caring for, and we're
doing the best that we can.
Just be patient.
So that's the biggest thing.
SPEAKER_00 (20:58):
I I um it makes me think of uh Tanner and Shea.
They have this uh Instagramaccount, Tanner or Jiffy.
He had they've they've grown toquite a following, but basically
he had cancer and he uh foughtit for about four years before
he passed.
And the video that he made rightbefore he passed it, or and then
(21:21):
they posted it after hisfuneral, was um, he just said,
assume good intent.
Like people aren't generally outthere being malicious.
I generally like we didn't meanto if um you know your mom had
to wait an extra two hours orsomething to get their shower.
It wasn't intention, we weren'trude and malicious.
(21:43):
It was assume good intent.
They're taking care of somethingthat was really pressing.
And they're they're trying tocare the best that they can for,
like sit your loved one.
So I love that.
Um, if a young professionalthat's listening today wants to
step into a senior careleadership or or hospital admin
or healthcare administration,what's your one piece of advice
(22:03):
to help them build out that teambelow them that truly cares?
SPEAKER_01 (22:08):
I would say the best thing that you could do to get a
team that truly cares is showyour team you care about them,
and invest in them.
Uh, you know, whether that begetting to know them personally,
helping them in a task that'sdifficult, like taking the extra
five minutes.
There were days that it's like Iwas tired.
I had been sitting at mycomputer, either being in
(22:30):
offices, doing administrativetasks, and I was like, okay, I
really don't want to do this,but I can see from my desk
there's like seven call lightsgoing off.
I'm gonna go help answer acouple call lights.
So just taking the extra timeand effort to do it.
Like, just buck up.
You're at the end of the day,it's all right.
And then if you if that's hard,um, I get it.
(22:52):
If you're feeling burnt out,like you have a boss for a
reason.
That's that's my other biggestpoint of like advice.
Reach out to your higher ups ifyou're struggling.
Don't be afraid to reach up andsay, like, I need help, I don't
know, uh, or this is a problemthat we're facing.
So just reach out when youpersonally need it too.
(23:12):
Yeah, because you're notSuperman and can't take on the
world.
unknown (23:15):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (23:15):
Um, no, I love that advice.
I think it's it's very true.
Um, Riley, thank you so much forum pulling back the curtains on
leadership and the long-termcare and just healthcare admin
in general.
I love your perspective and howit shows that it's not just
about managing operations, it'sabout creating a culture where
caregivers thrive and then theresidents feel valued.
(23:37):
Um and this has been anotherSenior Care Academy podcast by
Helperley.
Raya, thanks so much for joiningus.
It was great.
SPEAKER_01 (23:44):
Yeah, for sure.
Uh, final shout out.
Um, I am so blessed and happy towork with the people that I have
in the industry that I have.
Um, Dr.
Crump is who I work with rightnow.
He's an amazing family practicedoc.
So super grateful to work withhim and everything he does at
Lakeview.
Um, I've been truly, trulyblessed in my life to work with
(24:04):
some great people, and he's oneof them.
SPEAKER_00 (24:06):
I love that.
SPEAKER_01 (24:07):
That's awesome.
Yeah, appreciate that.
Welcome back to Senior Care Academy Podcast by
Helperly.
Our guest is Riley Moore.
He brings a unique blend ofhealthcare administration
expertise and real worldleadership.
So he's been the executivedirector at uh generations and
Rocky Mountain Care, overseeingeverything from staff culture to
finances to implementinginnovative systems.
And now he's at Lakeview FamilyMedicine.
(00:29):
Um, and even there, Riley'smission hasn't changed.
He's trying to help createbetter systems and strong teams
for seniors and their families.
So, Riley, welcome to the show.
Appreciate you coming into theapp uh the studio.
SPEAKER_01 (00:40):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (00:41):
So, kind of let's talk about your path getting
into leadership within thehealthcare space.
So you studied healthcare adminat Weaver State, um, but then
you went into like leadershipdevelopment as well.
SPEAKER_01 (00:52):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (00:53):
Even joining your uh the National Society of
Leadership and Success.
So, what drew you intoleadership in long-term care
more and kind of well, just ingeneral, what pulled you to
leadership?
SPEAKER_01 (01:05):
No, good, good question.
So actually, um back before Ilike even went into college, I
was working as a transportationdirector for a skilled nursing
facility down in Oram.
And Jeremy Meldrum uh was theadministrator there.
Um, shout out to you, Jeremy.
And Jeremy Osman was our uhphysical therapy director.
(01:27):
So, and I kind of I just reallyliked picking their brains.
I thought it was super cool whatthey did, like the more
managerial side andadministrator side.
Um, and Jeremy was alwayswilling to answer my questions.
I mean, I was a young, like21-year-old, yeah, fresh, fresh
back, uh, served in LDS missionback, and he was more than happy
to answer them.
So just started looking into itmore and I fell in love with it.
(01:51):
Uh really, really enjoyed it.
And I in my head, I just keptthinking, I want to help as many
people as I possibly can in mylife.
Like that's my personal goal andaspiration.
And I felt the best way to dothat was by being a great
manager and inspiring otherpeople to help as many people as
they could.
SPEAKER_00 (02:09):
So I like that because you can directly help so
many people, but if you're agood leader, then your ripple
effect can the people that youaffect can affect people who
affect people, and it goes outso much farther.
Um, so you you kind of were inthe long-term care, the senior
care.
Is Lake View similar or is itkind of no?
SPEAKER_01 (02:27):
So Lake View is actually like family medicine.
So helping just overall healthcare.
Um, so just traditional familydoctor.
We do have a couple geriatricspecialists at the clinic, which
is awesome.
Um, we've got two locations, onein Oram, one in Saratoga.
So we're gonna be, well, forthose of you who listen after
the fact, sorry, you're gonnamiss it.
But the Saratoga Fall Festivalstoday, we're gonna have a booth
(02:49):
at it.
So you can come get your bloodpressure read and meet one of
our geriatric specialists.
SPEAKER_00 (02:54):
I'm curious what um what overlap have you seen from
uh like the senior care,long-term care side just into
regular family medicine?
And what I guess are there anylessons that you think long or
senior care and long-term carecould pull from family medicine
and vice versa?
For sure.
SPEAKER_01 (03:11):
Um, I would say definitely one of the biggest
things that I see likecorrelation-wise, is just um
overall kind of, and this ismore, I guess, maybe a negative
thing.
Like the healthcare system forelderly isn't great.
Like in terms of reimbursementrates for physicians, which
affects then like insurancecompanies with skilled nursings
(03:34):
that you can go to and stuff.
Like that overall care system,like we're doing the best that
we can, but it definitely likeneeds a little bit of an
overhaul.
That's interesting, that it'sworse for older adults.
Yeah, like it it definitely umit's almost like it not it's
weird.
It's almost like you getpunished for going to the doctor
(03:54):
a little bit.
Like the the more that you go,uh the healthier that you can
age, the better.
Yeah, the better off you are.
Like the the more that you go,uh the healthier that you can
age, the better.
Yeah, the better off you are.
SPEAKER_00 (04:08):
Like finance, like that's interesting.
SPEAKER_01 (04:10):
Because like your your insurance rates are gonna
be lower.
Um, and then like you get likethese risk factors that are
associated with you that'scalled like a raft score.
I I could geek out about thisstuff probably for like hours
and hours, but in in a nutshell,it's like the healthier you are
when a major life event happens,because ultimately like crazy
things happen, right?
Yeah, getting older, your body'sgonna deteriorate no matter
(04:32):
what, at some point, right?
Or you know, you're like 65,fairly healthy, get in a car
accident, maybe break something,you know, have to get a hip
replacement, a knee replacement,something like that.
If you've been relativelyhealthy your whole life, you're
going to have a better insurancethat's going to give you a
better opportunity to go to abetter skilled nursing, and then
you're going to be able torecover faster.
Because the skilled nursingsthat have, you know, better,
(04:55):
better insurances, or theyaccept that, they get higher
reimbursement rates.
So they're able to hire the bestpeople out there.
They're able to have, you know,the best nurses, the best
in-house physicians, the bestphysical therapists, all those
kinds of things, right?
So money is a huge, huge factorwith it.
Um, one thing that I would sayis a positive is that ultimately
(05:16):
healthcare doesn't change nomatter what realm you're in,
whether you're doing familypractice, senior care, or even
pediatrics, um everybody's doingit because they love people,
right?
They want to take care of them.
So we want to help as manypeople as possible.
And that's everybody's likeoverall goal.
That's the one thing I reallylove about healthcare.
Yeah, is everybody's end goal isthe same.
(05:37):
Yeah, we all want to help peopleand get them healthy.
So it's just how we go aboutdoing it.
SPEAKER_00 (05:42):
Yeah.
And it is interesting that um asmuch as like I didn't know that
about the senior care side ofthings where you almost are
punished.
And it's like the doctors andphysicians and everybody want to
help, but then they can't, ormaybe they can't, the skilled
nursing can't hire the rightpeople or as good of people or
(06:03):
experience.
So it is an interesting kind ofdilemma.
We we've had a lot of people onthat talk about how they are
like up at Capitol Hill tryingto get uh rate increases across
Medicaid VA, Medicare, all theplaces.
Um and it makes sense now thatit's they just need more money
basically to try to get thepeople that have all the
experience.
SPEAKER_01 (06:23):
Oh yeah.
So it's like, well, and this islike so another thing, right?
How just senior care is affectedin general.
So Medicare, October 1st, right,a couple days ago, they just
dropped the telemed coverage forall Medicare patients.
So straight Medicaretraditional.
SPEAKER_00 (06:41):
That was only that got spun up like during COVID,
right?
SPEAKER_01 (06:44):
Yeah, like it was a huge thing.
Yeah.
And so, and and the interestingthing is that they didn't tell
anybody.
Like they didn't give anynotification on their website,
they weren't sending messagesout to us as providers.
So I I was lucky, I had a niceprovider who works for another
larger healthcare organization.
He sent out a message and he'slike, hey, internally they sent
(07:06):
this around to us.
They said Medicare's droppingcoverage tomorrow.
Wow.
And all of us were like, wait,what?
So, you know, we're franticallycalling patients, telling them,
hey, your telemed appointmentthat you had set up, we're
sorry, you have to come inperson.
SPEAKER_00 (07:18):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (07:18):
And a lot of these people, because of their older,
they're sickly, telemed's easyfor them.
You can sit in the comfort ofyour home and you can get your
medications refilled.
Yeah.
But now that's taken away fromthem.
I mean, I was talking to apatient's family member a couple
of days ago with all this goingon, and he was asking me, he's
like, well, on their website, itsays, you know, we could apply
(07:41):
and get an exception.
I'm like, that's really hard.
Yeah.
And and you're going to have toinstigate that.
Or whatever.
I'm like, you're you're the onethat has to instigate that too.
Yeah.
Like they're not going to takeit from us, the doctor.
They're just going to think, oh,you're just being lazy and you
just want them to have atelemed.
SPEAKER_00 (07:57):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (07:58):
Like, so patients have to advocate for themselves,
which is really difficult too.
And that's that's something Ifind unfortunate is that it's
almost like a way that they takeadvantage of seniors, is they're
like, oh, well, we're going toslide this thing in under the
radar, not tell anybody aboutit, and then be like surprised.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (08:16):
Um, that is crazy.
Um on the, I want to kind of goback to your take on leadership
or like building those teams.
Because you said there was atime that you said leadership is
as much about communication asit is about administration.
Um, what is a conversation, likecommunication aspect they've had
(08:37):
with maybe a staff member that'sreally stuck with you as far as
like driving that principlehome?
SPEAKER_01 (08:44):
Um, so I would say the the one thing that sticks
out to me in particular is whenI was working for generations, I
was working up at FairfieldVillage in Leighton in the Ogden
area, uh working as theadministrator for the assisted
living and memory care.
Yeah.
Had a really good um, we callthem med techs in assisted
living.
So it's it's kind of like ahybrid, almost like a step in
(09:06):
between a CNA and a nurse in theassisted living realm.
Yeah.
They're passing out medicationsto people, you know, helping
them still do CNA-based tasks,but they focused a lot on the
med administration.
She was a great employee.
She was super quick withMedPath, like she had things
down path, she had a reallygreat system, but she kind of
was a little abrasive with someof the new employees.
(09:28):
Yeah.
And she would get frustratedbecause she's like, I've been
doing this for two years.
I'm she has a system developed,and then it made her super
annoyed when she would like goin and somebody would say, Oh, I
haven't seen anybody all shift.
Like, you're the first personI've seen.
And she's doing, you know, like4 p.m.
Met Pass and the shift startedat two.
(09:48):
And she's like, How's no onebeen in here for two hours?
Yeah.
So then she kind of chewedpeople out.
So I I remember talking to herabout that and being like,
Listen, like you have such greatdrive and potential.
Like, you're a phenomenalemployee.
You have to be nicer to people.
Like you're scaring people awaythat are coming to work for us.
(10:09):
And mind you, this was like endof 2021, beginning of 2022.
So COVID, COVID stuff is not ascrazy, but people are still like
weary or like maybe jumping backinto work for into the workforce
after COVID and stuff.
So it's hard to find employees.
And it's like, please don'tdrive people away.
Yeah.
(10:30):
But so from talking to her andjust letting her know, like,
hey, you have great leadershippotential.
Let's take these skills andthings that you have and let's
harness them for good.
Yeah.
Like, let's work on ways that wecan talk to people and be
constructive with it.
Um, but do it in an appropriatemanner.
Like, if things are frustratingyou really, really badly, you
(10:51):
can come and talk to me.
And I said, and I told her, Idon't care.
Like, you can come in, you canyell, you can scream, cry,
whatever.
Like, cuss me out about what'sgoing on, but don't do it to the
employee.
We'll figure out a nice way totalk to him about it.
Um, then, you know, to she satthere for a minute, kind of was
thinking about it.
I was like, okay, like I I wantto do that.
(11:12):
She said, Are you okay if I takea couple days off to like kind
of think about this and processit?
I'm like, sure, we'll figure itout, we'll do it.
Yeah.
So she took a couple days, cameback.
Um, and it was like, I'm not ahundred percent sure what
happened in those couple days,but man, a light switch just
went off and she was she wasamazing.
Um, ended up being a great, agreat asset for the team.
(11:34):
Wow, super good leader.
Um, we ended up promoting her,and she was like one of our lead
med techs at that point.
Then she ended up becomingalmost like an assistant
administrator for us.
Um, was just phenomenal.
She was a great employee, super,super happy to have her.
SPEAKER_00 (11:48):
Yeah.
So and it was just by having aconversation that you needed to
communicate with her.
Hey, when you do these things,it comes off very abrasive.
And we need to like being ableto see, like, we see a leader in
you, we see somebody that'syou're exceptional, but we have
to change a few things.
And so being able to communicatethat and not just live with it
(12:08):
probably changed the directionof a lot of things.
You said something that I thinkwas interesting.
Um, like the staff, even today,I think it's gotten better five
years since COVID, but um,there's still it's still just
like an inherently highturnover, especially the direct
care staff, nurses, CNAs,caregivers, mets.
(12:28):
Um, from your experience, whathelps keep the good caregivers?
Because it's it's just innatelydifficult work a lot of the
time.
Oh, yeah.
And so it's easy to get burnedout or overworked.
And how do you avoid that tokeep people long term that you
know, instead of having themjump ship every three to six
months to a new company?
SPEAKER_01 (12:47):
Yeah, for sure.
Um, biggest thing is you care.
Like you care about youremployees, you care about your
staff, and to have them buy inon your care, um, you have to be
there.
Like you have to show up.
You know, one thing that I was abig believer of, I tried to help
out however I could, like allover the building, whether that
(13:08):
be going with housekeeping oneday and cleaning a couple rooms
with them, going and passing outmeals during dinner time, uh,
actually helping maybe cover aCNA shift, or if a call light's
going off and being like, hey,uh, there's four call lights
going off.
We have three CNAs.
I'm going to go get one of them.
I need you three to pick who'sthe most difficult person.
(13:31):
I will take the most difficultone.
Yeah.
You guys take the easier ones.
So just showing them that you'rethere in the trenches with them
and that you care about it.
And then also getting to knowyour employees.
Like it's almost like there wasthis weird shift, I would say,
um, from like, I mean, I love myparents, they're great and
everything.
Their generation's awesome, butfrom like the baby boomers to a
(13:55):
little bit past the babyboomers, like beginning of Gen
X, there's this weird, likemanagerial like hierarchy.
The manager can't know anythingabout you.
You he has to be really aloof ormean, or she does, you know,
whatever.
And it I feel like it kind ofhas broken down over time.
But that was the biggest thingthat I realized, like thinking
about it.
All the employees that I workwith and have the opportunity to
(14:17):
work with, they're all people.
Like they have awesome lives,they have goals, hopes,
aspirations.
So why not get to know thatabout them?
Yeah.
So the more I knew about myemployees, the more they wanted
to stay because they realized Icared about them as an
individual.
I cared about their personallife, I cared about their
professional life, and I wantedthem to be happy when they came
to work because they spend eighthours, sometimes 12 hours then.
(14:41):
So why not make it good?
SPEAKER_00 (14:43):
No, I like to that point of um kind of the
generation that came up in theworkforce, uh, like 80s, 90s,
and early 2000s, the Gen X babyboomer type, or even the 70s.
It was a lot more of like thetraditional like corporate
America hierarchy, like uhstoicism stoic leaders that are
(15:05):
kind of it's hard to read.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And so it has been, it's a goodthing, and I think to have that
breakdown a little bit whereit's um where work is a place
where you can have conversationsand you have a relationship with
your boss, and it's like a goodplace to be.
And I think that's a huge playsa huge role in um creating trust
(15:28):
is remembering like you when youcame in, they were saying happy
birthday, that was so fun.
Um but remembering birthdays,remembering their kids'
birthdays, remembering um a funtrip that they have coming up,
and then ask how, like justhuman stuff, is such a good way
to build trust and affinitywhere they'll they'll want to
stay long term because they'reyour you're they trust you, they
(15:52):
love you, they want to be aroundyou as a leader.
Um within the the healthcare andsenior care healthcare
facilities um and the way thatthey support their staff, what's
and maybe this is anadministrative leaf thing, what
is the first thing that you'dwant to change to like better
(16:12):
support direct care staff?
SPEAKER_01 (16:14):
Uh the like if I had a magic wand and could do it
tomorrow, yeah, it would be payfor everybody.
Because I'm I mean, today,today's world, things are
expensive and people deserve toget paid appropriately for it.
That that's the first andforemost thing.
The second thing I would saywould just be like overhauling
(16:35):
culture a little bit sometimesis not a bad thing.
Like there's this negative, thisweird like negative thing where
in like skilled nursings, likenurses talk down to CNAs, or in
the assisted living realm, it'slike med techs talk down to
CNAs, or like, you know, andthen it's this chain of command
kind of thing.
Yeah.
It's like pecking order almost.
(16:56):
Yeah, very, very much so peckingorder.
Um, if you could break that downand get like true, genuine
buy-in and have like, you know,nurses understand, hey, like I'm
a nurse, but once upon a time Iwas a CNA, yeah, I can help do a
CNA job.
Or a med tech to understand,like I I can do what the CNA
does.
Or helping a CNA feel inspiredto the point that it's like,
(17:18):
guess what?
That nurse who maybe was chewingyou out a couple of minutes ago
because you did something thatwas kind of potentially maybe
harmful for a patient, they werein your shoes once upon a time.
Yeah.
And they're trying to teach youthe best way that they know how.
So maybe like trying to have anopen dialogue and realize like,
oh, everybody's kind of in thesame boat.
(17:39):
We've all been there.
Let's work together to make thisthe best place possible.
SPEAKER_00 (17:44):
Yeah.
I like that a lot.
That I think that you see thatin a bunch of different like
industries and and um my mind,I'm just very like in the
entrepreneurial world.
And it's so often you have thepeople that like have made it or
whatever, their 40s, 50s, 60s,and they just want to pour into
(18:04):
the the up-and-cominggeneration.
Um, but even in other likesectors, you see that where um
people that have made it, theywent through the hard thing, and
they know, like, oh my gosh,that going from caregiver all
the way to nurse to like lead uhI forgot the O N.
(18:26):
It's a lot of work and it'spainful.
And especially if you have likea family that you're also like
trying to take care of, this istough.
I'm gonna support this personthat's behind me to make it
easier.
Like, I think that that would bea huge, huge benefit just to
everybody.
One, it feels really good forthe nurse to be able or the the
(18:47):
med tech to turn back and justbe like, your job is really hard
as a CNA, so it's mine, buthere's the things that made it
easier.
Yeah.
Instead of, like you said, kindof having a pecking order of
like, oh, well, that's a CNA'sjob, you know.
Yeah.
Um seniors and families, andjust I guess more broadly, since
right now you're in kind of uhmore general medicine, they
(19:07):
don't always see what's likebehind the curtains in admin and
leadership.
So, what's one thing that youwish families knew um about
running healthcare facilitiesthat like maybe would give them
a little uh a little bit moresympathy?
SPEAKER_01 (19:23):
I would say the biggest thing is like genuinely
the people that are at thesefacilities, they really do care
for your loved ones.
Like I understand things mighthappen that make you upset.
The worst thing that you can dois like come in and scream and
yell at a CNA or a med tech or anurse because something hasn't
been done.
(19:43):
It's not because they don't loveyour your loved one.
Like they do.
These are some of the mostcompassionate people on the face
of the earth that are working inhealthcare.
So that that's the my biggestmessage.
Like, just be a little patientwith us.
We're human beings at the end ofthe day.
Like, we're not perfect, we'regonna make mistakes.
And and guess what?
(20:04):
This is one thing um that kindof one of one of my mentors
taught me and told me about,right?
Every you might have a facilitythat has let's say 40 people in
it, 100 people in it.
But in that facility, each oneof those hundred people, 40
people, whatever the number is,is the most important person in
(20:24):
someone else's life.
It's somebody's mom, it'ssomebody's dad, grandma,
grandpa, whatever, right?
But you are being entrusted withall those lives of all those
very important people to thoseindividual families.
So if something isn't being donefor your specific individual,
it's probably because someoneelse's perfect individual was
(20:47):
being cared for.
Like that's the other thing youhave to think about.
We have all these people thatwe're caring for, and we're
doing the best that we can.
Just be patient.
So that's the biggest thing.
SPEAKER_00 (20:58):
I I um it makes me think of uh Tanner and Shea.
They have this uh Instagramaccount, Tanner or Jiffy.
He had they've they've grown toquite a following, but basically
he had cancer and he uh foughtit for about four years before
he passed.
And the video that he made rightbefore he passed it, or and then
(21:21):
they posted it after hisfuneral, was um, he just said,
assume good intent.
Like people aren't generally outthere being malicious.
I generally like we didn't meanto if um you know your mom had
to wait an extra two hours orsomething to get their shower.
It wasn't intention, we weren'trude and malicious.
(21:43):
It was assume good intent.
They're taking care of somethingthat was really pressing.
And they're they're trying tocare the best that they can for,
like sit your loved one.
So I love that.
Um, if a young professionalthat's listening today wants to
step into a senior careleadership or or hospital admin
or healthcare administration,what's your one piece of advice
(22:03):
to help them build out that teambelow them that truly cares?
SPEAKER_01 (22:08):
I would say the best thing that you could do to get a
team that truly cares is showyour team you care about them,
and invest in them.
Uh, you know, whether that begetting to know them personally,
helping them in a task that'sdifficult, like taking the extra
five minutes.
There were days that it's like Iwas tired.
I had been sitting at mycomputer, either being in
(22:30):
offices, doing administrativetasks, and I was like, okay, I
really don't want to do this,but I can see from my desk
there's like seven call lightsgoing off.
I'm gonna go help answer acouple call lights.
So just taking the extra timeand effort to do it.
Like, just buck up.
You're at the end of the day,it's all right.
And then if you if that's hard,um, I get it.
(22:52):
If you're feeling burnt out,like you have a boss for a
reason.
That's that's my other biggestpoint of like advice.
Reach out to your higher ups ifyou're struggling.
Don't be afraid to reach up andsay, like, I need help, I don't
know, uh, or this is a problemthat we're facing.
So just reach out when youpersonally need it too.
(23:12):
Yeah, because you're notSuperman and can't take on the
world.
unknown (23:15):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (23:15):
Um, no, I love that advice.
I think it's it's very true.
Um, Riley, thank you so much forum pulling back the curtains on
leadership and the long-termcare and just healthcare admin
in general.
I love your perspective and howit shows that it's not just
about managing operations, it'sabout creating a culture where
caregivers thrive and then theresidents feel valued.
(23:37):
Um and this has been anotherSenior Care Academy podcast by
Helperley.
Raya, thanks so much for joiningus.
It was great.
SPEAKER_01 (23:44):
Yeah, for sure.
Uh, final shout out.
Um, I am so blessed and happy towork with the people that I have
in the industry that I have.
Um, Dr.
Crump is who I work with rightnow.
He's an amazing family practicedoc.
So super grateful to work withhim and everything he does at
Lakeview.
Um, I've been truly, trulyblessed in my life to work with
(24:04):
some great people, and he's oneof them.
SPEAKER_00 (24:06):
I love that.
SPEAKER_01 (24:07):
That's awesome.
Yeah, appreciate that.
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