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/.
Tyler Witges, president of diagnostics at EmpowerMe Wellness, has been named a 2022 Future Leader by Senior Housing News.
The St. Louis-based integrated healthcare provider also this week announced the completed build-out of a new diagnostics laboratory space in the Kansas City area. The hospital-grade diagnostics laboratory is slated to exclusively serve the needs of the company’s senior living partners.
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.
Witges sat down with Senior Housing News to talk about his career trajectory and the ways that he sees the industry evolving, including the need for more on-site and comprehensive clinical services.
What drew you to this industry?
I’ve been passionate about health care from a young age. I wanted to combine my interest in science and human biology with health care, and in building EmpowerMe’s diagnostics laboratory, I’ve had the chance to do just that.
My mother was, and still is, in the senior living industry, and that is where I first started to understand the special health needs of seniors. Through our lab, I am excited to be able to increase access to laboratory services for individuals who need them the most.
What’s your biggest lesson learned since starting to work in this industry?
The biggest thing I’ve learned has been how frequently the complexities of health care delivery contribute to gaps in care.
My entire laboratory career prior to EmpowerMe was in a hospital setting, and while we did provide laboratory services to senior living communities, it was eye opening to discover what all is necessary to deliver high quality service on a daily basis for long-term care populations in a way that meets all their needs.
If you could change one thing with an eye toward the future of senior living, what would it be?
The change that I would make is to expand the use of technology to initiate care for even more seniors in the places they call home. Today, it seems like we can get almost everything on demand.
Having the ability to speak to a health care provider in real time without having to arrange transportation is a massive benefit for our seniors. But even post-Covid, as so many of us have gotten used to conducting health care visits virtually, we still have a long way to go as an industry to ensure convenient access to care is available to everyone who needs it.
What do you foresee as being different about the senior living industry looking ahead to 2023?
An intense focus on value-based care. I believe that this will be the driving factor in getting occupancy in senior living communities back to pre-pandemic levels.
For residential care settings, the key will be to provide a clinical component on-site that can provide multiple services. That is so important to reducing hospital admissions and emergency room stays. For these communities, the value that comes from partnering with an on-site, multi-service provider like EmpowerMe Wellness cannot be overstated.
In a word, how would you describe the future of senior living?
Promising.
The post Future Leader: Tyler Witges, President of Diagnostics, EmpowerMe Wellness appeared first on Senior Housing News.
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