The Future Leaders Awards program is brought to you in partnership with PointClickCare (BHB, SHN, SNN) and Homecare Homebase (HHCN, HSPN). The program is designed to recognize up-and-coming industry members who are shaping the future of behavioral health, home health, hospice and palliative care, senior housing and skilled nursing. To see this year’s Future Leaders, visit https://futureleaders.agingmedia.com/.
Sarah Friede, Senior Vice President at Health Dimensions Group, has been named 2023’s 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.
Friede sat down with Skilled Nursing News to talk about her career trajectory and the ways the industry is evolving due to market and regulatory forces and the COVID-19 pandemic.
SNN: What drew you to this industry?
I’ve worked for Health Dimensions for about seven years. I operate as a senior vice president of recruitment and placement services right now. I actually started as an HR consultant, which morphed into this recruitment role. Then my role further changed into one where I was driving a service line where I was responsible for filling interim and permanent leadership-level positions nationwide, with clients all in the senior living, post-acute, long-term care industries. So I work with a lot of different providers.
I came from Brookfield Senior Living prior to Health Dimensions Group, and had been an executive director in these communities and also an assistant executive director, running things on the community level, and then navigated over to joining Health Dimensions Group Management Consulting Group and splitting off the service line of being able to place talent, which is in definite high need right now for all these organizations.
SNN: What is the biggest lesson that you’ve learned since you started working in this industry?
The biggest lesson learned is I think those communities that operate by their values, and have integrity and are humble and are in it for the right reasons, go far and they stay around for a long time. We see a lot of change in this industry. In 2006, within a five-year period, there were over 3,000 nursing homes that changed ownership. That’s a lot of change constantly happening, and it’s hard to keep your workforce intact when there’s so much change happening. So the industries that do it well are the ones that operate by their values. And that’s like the core of who they are, and why they’re in this is for the right reasons of serving those in need and serving the residents who need quality care.
And I preach this lesson from the mountaintops that you gotta operate by your values. And your values must have a solid sense of who you are as an organization in order to hire and retain all of your talent – that you’re trying to make sure they stick with you during the tough times and the best times.
SNN: Looking toward the future of skilled nursing, what would you change?
Probably reimbursement rates – and that those small rural communities and small skilled nursing facilities remain open and operable and not shut their doors, displacing all of the residents. I know it’s really tough reimbursement-wise right now. The Biden administration and CMS are cracking down on a lot of regulations. We have to respond by making sure we operate with quality care, but it’s making it really, really hard for these small rural providers. So, I would probably look at changing reimbursement rates.
SNN: What are some of the major changes on the horizon?
I think diversification of these portfolios and investors that are coming in. I look at the standalone SNF model, and it’s a really hard model to maintain for a lot of providers. So I think that an aging in place mentality is important. We have to offer more than just the skilled nursing facilities by having a blend of the short-term rehab and offerings in OT, PT, and speech, and then having a system connected to that with independent memory care so people can truly age in place. That is a change that I see occurring, especially with a lot of developers that are looking at investing. They’re not just building SNFs anymore. They’re building a SNF combined with multiple services so people can age in place.
SNN: What quality do you think all future leaders must possess?
Resiliency. There is constant change in this industry. And since it’s a people-serving-people industry, you’re always having to pivot and change and look at things like, what is the market need? What are the wants? What are their acuity levels coming into these healthcare facilities? And, how do we provide the best quality care? So you’re always looking at changing and evolving and asking ourselves, how do we do things better and differently?
SNN: If you could give advice to yourself looking back on your first day in the industry, what would it be?
Well, my first day in the industry was at the age of 16 years old. So, I would say to stay curious and ask questions. My passion and my calling at 16 was working in memory care and seeing that these residents, some of whom didn’t have families and you are their families, left an impression. So being able to understand the dynamics within these communities, why people need assisted living, senior living, skilled nursing facilities, and then asking questions and challenging the status quo. Another advice would be to look ahead to the challenging times. You might be looking at why we can’t afford these levels of staffing or we can’t afford the best of the best talent. But thinking outside of the box and finding solutions where you can give better care and asking those questions and advocating for policies can be really effective in these communities.
To learn more about the Future Leaders program, visit https://futureleaders.agingmedia.com/.
