Why Harris Clarke, our COO, Joined IconicCare

The last seven months of my dad’s life were all about pain management.

Eventually it became too much and during a heart-to-heart we discussed him moving from Washington, D.C. to Salt Lake City, Utah. He lived on Capitol Hill for 50 years and was part of the fabric of his neighborhood. He loved it. Picture an eccentric, outgoing senior who either knows everyone by name or acts like he does. Selling his home was like selling a part of himself, but he did it and moved to the mountains to be closer to me and my family and receive treatment at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. During just our second visit with his doctors they informed us that the cancer had spread too far and nothing could be done. The doctor committed to provide every available treatment possible to manage his pain and told us he only had 6-8 months to live. He passed away 7 months later. Those months were agonizing and precious.

My mornings started well before sunrise driving to see my dad, then talking with his doctors, sitting in the parking lot outside my office for a few minutes to pull myself together before going to work. Looking back, I am in awe of how well cared for he was. His doctor made good on his promise and the facility where he lived took great care of him. He still experienced pain, but not what it would have been without that care, which made it possible to navigate an unbearable time of life. Those who took care of him became angels to me and my family. Of course my dad was the first and most important degree of care, but not until I lived that experience did I realize the impact good care has on second, third and fourth degrees removed. My family and I, the people I worked with, our customers, my neighbors and friends all benefited indirectly from the care he received. I learned that a chain reaction of understanding and empathy is set off when good care is provided to someone in need. On the other hand, when someone does not get the care they need, tensions rise, tempers flare and collateral damage is inevitable.

In the wake of that, a friend I’ve known for over twenty years (Dallin Bills) reached out and invited me to help build a company that provides medical care for people in skilled nursing facilities. I had spent seven years building a software company that I thought I would never leave, but given everything I’d experienced, this opportunity got my attention. Dallin introduced me to Dr. Morris, who shared his experience in both hospitals and nursing homes.

For a variety of reasons over the last few years, a lot of patients have moved out of hospitals and into skilled nursing facilities, but some specialized medical care has not followed them from the hospital to the facility. This dynamic can create a challenge for both the patient and the facility increasing the risk of patients experiencing worsened mobility, readmitting to the hospital or visiting the emergency room. Dr. Morris discovered that working in conjunction with the facility, his care for those patients dramatically reduced those risks. He founded a company to bring that specialized medical care of physiatry, or Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation to patients who are trying to recover from surgeries, strokes, accidents, illnesses, and a variety of conditions to ensure they are able to get back to their lives as well as possible. When he and Dallin asked me to take what I have learned and apply it to this work, I felt if I can help anyone else going through what my dad and I went through, I’m in, because I know the difference it makes.

In fact, given the experience I had with my dad, what hit home the most was learning that patients often decline to participate in physical therapy because they are in too much pain, or don’t have the strength or comfort level to participate with dignity. My dad’s case was terminal, but many of the prognoses for skilled nursing patients are not. As a board certified Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) doctor, Dr. Morris and his team of Physiatry Providers address each of those mobility challenges by working in close partnership with Primary Care, Rehab and Nursing teams in the facility. They give patients the best chance possible to improve their mobility and either return home or live well in the facility.

They also play a key role in making sure a patient’s pain medication prescriptions truly aid in their recovery by establishing a carefully planned pain management regimen for each individual patient. Sometimes between different doctors and buildings, opioids prescribed at one point for medical necessity may linger longer than needed and end up as part of a pharmacological mix that no longer benefits the patient. This situation presents high risks and requires a specialist to make the proper adjustments. Identifying barriers to successful physical rehabilitation is something the PM&R team knows well as they manage and plan for anything that may get in the way of rehabilitation, with the goal of the  patient feeling ready to work with the therapy team that can help them recover and restore physical function, increasing their quality of life considerably, even dramatically.

Similar to how I noticed good care impacted others outside of just my dad, the work these providers do not only helps the patient, but also delivers for skilled nursing facility teams who are spread thin. This work alleviates mental and physical overload, reduces the need for and cost of transporting patients to outpatient clinics, and maximizes compliance protocols that reflect the medical necessity and standard of care each patient is receiving. This becomes critical not only in patient care, but in facility operations. Every year or so, state government surveyors come through each facility and the results of these surveys are public, ranging from 5 star ratings to significant fines when poor care is detected. As part of these surveys, the state asks patients about their pain treatment and how they are doing in therapy. Those answers are compared to notes that have been put into patient charts from the clinical team to show what care has been provided, how often and why. All of this works in harmony to ensure the facility is able to demonstrate how each patient is getting the best care possible.

Now across 10 states and 100 facilities, IconicCare is making good on its promise. We are benefiting patients and their second, third, fourth and so on degrees of connection by ensuring each patient gets the care they need, gets everything out of their recovery and can enjoy every moment they have with their loved ones. I know someone out there is going through their own version and timetable of agonizing and precious moments of life and IconicCare helps them make the most of each one.