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/.
Abbie Watson, Vice President of Central Operations, St. Croix Hospice, has been named a 2021 Future Leader by Hospice News. St. Croix is a portfolio company of the private equity firm H.I.G. Capital.
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.
Watson sat down with Hospice News to talk about her career trajectory and the ways the industry is evolving.
What drew you to the hospice industry?
Honestly, hospice kind of found me. I’ve worked in the senior industry for a number of years. I was a [certified nursing assistant] all through college. I got my undergrad in biology. My plan was to do nursing, and then I realized that direct patient care wasn’t necessarily what I wanted to do.
I pursued my Master’s in health care administration with the plan to work in nursing homes. I kind of stumbled upon hospice, just purely by applying for a job. I worked for a different hospice for a few years, and then found St. Croix. I love it. I am very passionate about end-of-life care and people getting extra support when they need it the most.
I’ve always been very passionate about health care and the senior industry. To me, hospice is such a special experience to be a part of. I’ve been very passionate about spreading the word about hospice and helping to educate the general public about it. There’s so many misconceptions around the amazing benefit.
Since you started working in this industry, what would you say is the biggest lesson that you’ve learned?
Not every day is the same. However you may think your day is going to go, it will likely change. But we can learn something every single day from our peers in the industry, whether it’s our internal team members, or working with our facility partners. There’s always something to be learned.
One of our patients had said, “Yesterday is already gone, and tomorrow’s not promised. So we have to live for today.” That saying stuck with me. Last year was the biggest curveball during the pandemic. In March of 2020, when everything was unfolding, that saying came to mind every day.
With an eye towards the future of hospice, if you could change one thing, what would it be?
The thing people always say is that they wish they could change the word “hospice,” because there’s such a stigma around it. I don’t necessarily think that changing the word would change the stigma. For me, it’s about changing the perception of what hospice is.
Whenever you say you work in hospice, people often say, “Oh you’re such an angel.” I always say that I’m not providing direct patient care, so the team members I work with are the angels.
Hospice is such an amazing benefit. I’d change the perception and the fear around hospice, that it’s not something to fear. It’s something to be really thankful for and appreciative of. If somebody is eligible for the extra support, it’s amazing that they can get that benefit
Looking ahead to 2022, what do you foresee being different about the hospice industry?
A lot could change. We have a large aging population. The number of those beneficiaries that are eligible for hospice is obviously going up. But depending on what goes on with any regulations,there’s so many different things that could come that it’s hard to predict.
I definitely follow the utilization of hospice very closely, and it’s been increasing during the last few years. I anticipate that’s going to continue to increase with our aging population. As a hospice industry, we’ll look to work more collaboratively with our referral partners to get the benefit out to as many people as we can.
Going on further beyond 2022, how would you describe the future of hospice?
I think that it’s becoming more and more accepted. The [Medicare] Hospice Benefit when it started in the early 80s, looked a lot different than it does today. Hospices like St. Croix are looking at ways that we can adapt our program to better meet the needs of the population we’re serving. The patient population looks a lot different today than it did in the early 80s.
We’re continuing to see other things can we offer. Here at St. Croix Hospice, we have a Northstar dementia program. That’s not something the Medicare benefit requires of hospice, but it’s something that we see is a really important thing to offer to our patients,their families and our clinicians. So I would expect more specialized care as it relates to hospice.
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