The Future Leaders Awards program is brought to you in partnership with PointClickCare. The program is designed to recognize up-and-coming industry members who are shaping the next decade of senior housing, skilled nursing, home health and hospice care. To see this year’s future leaders, visit https://futureleaders.agingmedia.com/.
Shawna Rainey, vice president of clinical reimbursement at Ignite Medical Resorts, has been named a 2022 Future Leader by Skilled Nursing News.
To become a Future Leader, an individual is nominated by their peers. The candidate must be a high-performing employee who is 40-years-old or younger, a passionate worker who knows how to put vision into action, and an advocate for seniors, and the committed professionals who ensure their well-being.
Rainey sat down with Skilled Nursing News to talk about her career trajectory and why innovation is crucial to the industry’s future.
SNN: What drew you to this industry?
Shawna: As soon as I graduated nursing school, I wanted to find something where I could begin increasing my knowledge and skills across a wide variety of diagnoses and treatments. I remember the employment market being highly competitive in 2008, especially for new nurses, so I was excited to have been offered a job as a licensed nurse at a SNF in my hometown where I gained experience in both post-acute care and long-term care.
SNN: What’s your biggest lesson learned since starting to work in this industry?
Innovation is crucial. SNF providers have been forced to get creative and think outside of the box in finding ways to recruit and retain staff while simultaneously operationalizing the challenges of minimum staffing requirements, regulatory compliance issues and changes to the Five-Star Quality Rating System. The only way we overcome these hurdles is by being innovative and creating meaningful change.
SNN: If you could change one thing with an eye toward the future of skilled nursing, what would it be?
I would ask for improved collaboration between SNFs and state and federal agencies with an understanding that broad, cookie-cutter policies are detrimental to SNF operations.
SNN: What do you foresee as being different about the skilled nursing industry looking ahead to 2023?
With respect towards the expanding value-based purchasing metrics and quality reporting data, patient outcomes and satisfaction will become more important, and we’ll have to take a closer look at those measures that have incentives tied to reimbursement using enhanced dashboards and quality management strategies as we look towards 2023 with continued rises in operating and labor costs.
SNN: In a word, how would you describe the future of skilled nursing?
Evolving.
