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/.
Alexander Koshevatsky, CEO of Healthflex Hospice, has been named a 2021 Future Leader by Hospice 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.
Koshevatsky sat down with Hospice News to talk about his career trajectory and the ways the industry is evolving.
What drew you to the hospice and palliative care fields?
Originally, part of my family went into the post-acute care world, and I was a part of the startup and development of our Home Health Division. I was involved in some of the business development and outreach, education, and I was working closely with hospitals and case managers.
About seven years or so, I was just seeing how much value we were able to provide and the benefits we were able to offer families and patients that are challenged with various health conditions. I felt like it was something I enjoyed.
I was always kind of in the realm of caregiving. Even when I was younger, I was a caregiver for some family members, and that’s the way that I kind of grew up around my family and how we always took care of one another. I felt like the next step was to really put the pieces together and build a company that would be all inclusive, kind of like a one-stop-shop. Home health, home care, hospice, and other services for the elderly and most vulnerable — we should be able to offer that continuum for patients.
I was seeing that as our family’s home health agency grew that people were often not educated about more things that they could be offered to improve their quality of life at the elder years. There were some of the sad scenarios where nurses and case managers were treating them and trying to get them better, because any nurse in their heart wants to help people get better.
But that’s not always possible. Some of the patients that our home health agency was caring for wouldn’t improve anymore, and they were towards the end of life. Sometimes they would experience some sort of exacerbations or conditions that would lead to a hospitalization. They didn’t get to take advantage of some of the great benefits that hospice offers.
I wanted to fit that piece into their care and be able to catch those instances a little bit earlier, and offer them that smooth transition with the same care team, if possible. So we launched the hospice division. I’m really heavily focused on our hospice sector and what we’re able to do for the community.
What would you say is the biggest lesson you’ve learned since you’ve started working in hospice?
I just see that there’s such a lack of knowledge and familiarity in the community about what all of these services are able to provide and how they help. The lessons I’ve learned is to really be more vocal and more direct with people and families about how we can help and the true value behind these levels of care. It’s something that I feel very passionate about.
If you could change one thing with an eye towards the future of hospice what would it be?
The general perception of hospice kind of dates back to quite some time ago when it was mostly focused on a very narrow demographic of candidates, specifically cancer patients. It hasn’t really progressed much throughout the years. I really feel like it needs to be looked at on a broader scale of who would be able to qualify and with what health condition.
I think the six-month terminal prognosis is just a very narrow scope of looking at it. If we were to look at it a little bit differently, I think the savings would outweigh the costs, even though it may feel like to Medicare and other payers that it would be such a heavy cost. I believe it needs to be looked at on a broader scale for patients that may not be limited to only six months or less and not only limited to a handful of diagnoses or diseases.
I strongly believe that those on Capitol Hill and those lobbying them need to push that forward.
What do you foresee as being different about hospice as you look ahead to 2022?
There’s been times through COVID when there’s been a little bit of resistance to people coming into the home setting on one side of it, and on the other side of it there’s been definitely hesitation to go to facility settings. Obviously, the need for facility settings will always be there, but I really think that home health and hospice should take more of a center stage.
I believe the rate of people “graduating” from hospice, at least in our organization, has increased. People have gotten better, even though we didn’t think they would have improved.
I would like to see the hospital systems and those social workers and case managers that are making recommendations to really show [home care and hospice] as a very valuable option.
We’ve really done a great job on infection control, safety precautions and limiting how many people are actually going in to the home. It’s just a safer environment.
Our Home Health Division is working to increase the level of care for higher-acuity patients. We’re now able to do a lot of things that before were always done only in a facility setting in the home setting.
Back in the day the doctors would come to your home. There were not a lot of scenarios where you rushed to a doctor’s office or hospital. I feel like it’s shifting backwards, with technology and with remote patient monitoring. We’re able to really keep the patients in their homes and deliver that care there.
Looking back to your first day working in hospice, if you could give yourself any piece of advice what would it be and why?
I think the advice that I would give myself is to connect with our team members on a much more personal level. I feel that if those connections are strong. We would hit our organizational goals and aspirations better and faster, just having that stronger foundation.
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