Larsen is hoping to foster an educational and creative culture at Harbors.
Ryan Larsen joined Harbors Home Health and Hospice as its CEO in December 2022, a move that brought him back to his home state of Washington. His father worked as a pharmaceutical representative for more than 30 years, which started his interest in healthcare, even leading him to begin working as a certified nursing assistant (CNA) in high school.
With a mixture of hospital communications and healthcare administration experience, Larsen is planning on leading Harbors Home Health and Hospice into the post-pandemic era, nurturing a culture of education and creativity to provide the best quality of care.
This transcript has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.
HealthLeaders: How did you get started in home health and hospice?
Ryan Larsen: I switched over to a provider relations management position with a hospice agency, opening new territories, generating growth, and learning how businesses interact with other businesses. After getting my master’s in healthcare administration, I was hired on to assist a personal care agency and ended up overseeing the whole state for that agency.
During that time, I thought I'd like a more all-encompassing route, so I worked with the ownership group, establishing their skilled home health agency, taking them through accreditation, and Medicare certification. Then the ownership group acquired a hospice agency that came up for sale, so we were able to create this all-encompassing system for patients who needed long-term personal care support, short-term skilled support, and end-of-life support.
I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, I'm from Washington, and was able to land this position with an agency that has been around for over 40 years and has a wonderful established footprint here in Grays Harbor and Pacific counties.
HL: Considering your experience as a CNA, from the practitioner perspective, what are some changes affecting home health and hospice post-COVID?
Larsen: It was scary for clinicians, families, and clinical staff, but for home health and hospice care, we did see an uptick in patients but there was also a big fear with letting people in their homes. A lot of agencies had to rely on travelers and then also balance that with fear from patients, the clinical team, and the all-around unknown.
I think a lot of agencies just try to kind of stay afloat but those that were successful kept pushing forward with education and training and building culture and building team and thinking outside the box. It pushed the creativity and boundaries of different agencies on how they could provide care, how they could be efficient with it, how they could be safe with it, how they could work with the hospital systems and clinics and the skilled nursing facilities and assisted living facilities to continue to provide quality care.
HL: Was there anything that you implemented or used as a workaround strategy during that time?
Larsen: It was always keeping the bigger picture at the front. It was inevitable that COVID was going to either quiet down or we were going to get used to living with it.
I did focus a lot on training and education because we're only going to continue to see nurse shortages, therapist shortages, things like that. So, implementing those training programs and those first-year nurse programs and also building leadership tracks because people want to learn and grow.
I was also transparent with the information we were giving them. We would hear that the COVID vaccine is mandatory, then the next day we would hear that it wasn't mandatory, so being transparent and open and honest in our communication helped drive growth. Then we also got creative on when and how we scheduled staff.
HL: As the demand for aging services increases, what are some trends you're noticing?
Larsen: It's not only dealing with the aging population, but you have this shift in healthcare in general where you're starting to see even hospitals are pushing hospital-at-home programs. You're seeing oncology at home, dialysis at home, you're seeing an increase in home health and hospice, and skilled care being pushed toward individuals’ homes.
You have a lot of nurses who have worked in the field for 30 years, so they're starting to retire. Bringing in a brand new nurse and expecting them to be able to fill the position of a seasoned veteran nurse, for example, is just not realistic. There's a shift in the workforce and I don't think I'm alone in this sentiment.
Home health and hospice agencies have been cast aside when it comes to healthcare. What I'm trying to do is create a rebranding, so to say, for home health and hospice, because it’s such a valuable service and it saves money for Medicare. I think we're starting to see a shift in focus on how home health and hospice care is viewed from the type of leadership entering that field, the creativity being brought in, and then also the skills of our clinicians.
I'm starting to see first-year clinicians that are coming out of school showing interest in home health and hospice care, but for them to be successful, agencies are going to need to create some sort of educational culture where we're not throwing these first-year therapists and nurses into the deep end. At Harbors, we're trying to create that training culture.
HL: What are some other objectives you have for your first year at Harbors?
Larsen: People were just trying to stay afloat during COVID, and there was a lot of fear. These first years coming out of it are going to be very focused on getting back to the basics, the training, the onboarding of staff and patients, communication, and building relationships with different facilities and clinics in the area.
We're getting back to what patients need, what the community needs, what our medical partners need. What can we do to really bring a voice to the patients, bring a voice to our clinicians and then also manage the expectations of the administrative team as well? We just gave our website a facelift and have been getting back out into the community, as well.
Harbors has been a wonderful pillar in this community for over 40 years. We've got a wonderful board and staff that go above and beyond for the patient, so I'm very lucky to be able to join this team here at this point in my career.
Editor's note: This story was updated on 4/11/2023, correcting the name of the organization.
Jasmyne Ray is the revenue cycle editor at HealthLeaders.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Agencies that push education, training, and building a culture within themselves have been able to navigate the post pandemic climate.
Transparent and open communication can help drive growth.