On many extended sojourns away from home, most people typically engage in two experiences: eating out and staying at a hotel. Both the restaurant business and the hotel industry are built on providing a service to their guests but, most importantly, they are committed to doing so with a degree of hospitality. This extension of goodwill from host to guest is meant to be paramount, to such a point the hotel industry is also known as the hospitality industry.
Another word shares the same ancient roots with both hospitality and host and that is hospital. The same expectations of goodwill and the fostering of a positive overall experience are also meant to be present at a house of healthcare.
At Solvera Health—located in Peoria, with clinics in Galesburg and Carbondale—they embrace this healthcare/hospitality connection, welcoming each patient with the goodwill a guest truly deserves.
Humanizing Healthcare
Hospitality in any venue hinges on interpersonal connections, and interpersonal actions are best carried out through the human touch. Solvera Healthcare Center, Inc.’s Chief Operating Officer, Robin Henry, has experienced this firsthand in her 20-year career as a registered nurse. “I affectionately share that my first language is nursing,” she states. “Wanting to provide personal care is what brought me to healthcare and continues to be my motivating factor—every day we can be better and do better by serving others and humanizing the healthcare arena.”
Much of Robin’s career has been centered on serving the aging population, advocating for safe transitions of care as a person’s needs change, specifically through their later years. Seeing there was a void in the system when it comes to providing necessary resources to families and other caregivers led Robin to be what she calls “an agent of change.” As someone who constantly seeks ways to make sure patients and their families are able to get the care they need, she is perfectly suited for her current role.
Robin embraces Solvera Health’s vision that healthcare can be reshaped by the tenets of the hospitality industry. “It’s being reshaped particularly in patient perceptions and expectations,” she says. “Now patients expect more; they want their own experience to be welcoming and pleasant. They want to feel soothed and comforted, with the kind of amenities and little touches that our favorite hotels and restaurants have long honed to perfection. Hospitality also evokes trust, which is vital to a patient’s commitment to improving their own health.”
Comprehensive Care
“At Solvera Health, we focus on a person’s health first,” Robin declares. Tending to someone’s health can, however, take on many different forms. Comprehensive primary care, therefore, is necessary in order to maintain that focus.
“Comprehensive care is important to patients, the care team, and the community,” Robin points out. “It addresses the health needs of all patients at the community level, integrating care, prevention, promotion, and education.”
This requires a team effort to deliver care for every patient, incorporating not only the provider but also the pharmacist in an active role. This team-based effort not only grants unique perspectives on how the care is enacted but also provides a more well-rounded care that can serve a person through every phase of their life.
“This model allows for a meaningful and impactful visit,” Robin adds. “The comprehensive primary care approach has also shown an ability to save money for both providers and patients.”
Healthcare costs, navigating coverage, and understanding the maze of both is another way in which comprehensive care shines. Solvera Health’s team of licensed and expert certified consultants not only understand the various healthcare plans, but they can also explain the differences, the advantages, and disadvantages of each to a guest. “Together,” Robin adds, they can help our guests explore the benefits of alternate insurance options with no cost or obligation required!”
The plans discussed can include Medicare plans and/or Group Share Plans. “Administered through WLM Insurance,” Robin puts in, “our team is ready to talk with our guests about their current coverage and help find an option that keeps them healthy at a cost that is affordable.”
Making healthcare affordable and accessible to everyone in the community is what Solvera Health’s comprehensive primary care model is all about. Through health promotion, disease prevention, health maintenance, education, and rehabilitation, Solvera Health’s team will aid their guests through every step of their healthcare journey, including managing illness, physical therapy, behavioral health support, and providing referrals and specialty doctors.
“Solvera Health considers a person’s whole healthcare journey,” insists Robin. “Comprehensive care puts positive patient outcomes at the forefront.”
Community Connections
Although each person technically experiences their healthcare journey on their own, the effort behind a successful journey is usually a collaborative one. From family members and doctors to researchers and insurance agents, there are often dozens working behind the scenes, as it were, to help each patient along.
Solvera Health recognizes a strategic approach is necessary in a healthcare ecosystem in order to enhance their guests’ quality of care, manage costs, and expand their positive impact on the communities in which they serve.
“Solvera Health aligns with partners with a similar mission, vision, and values,” says Robin. “Going back to the idea of personal touches, the partnerships we have built, nurtured, and maintained bring lasting connections while prioritizing trust.”
“We want to close the gaps around access to care,” she continues. “We can promote this by deploying our Solvera Neighbors and our transport service, who are an extension of our Care Coaches. Solvera Neighbors visit with people in the community, building trust and helping navigate the healthcare journey. This presence in the community mirrors our team approach to comprehensive primary care within our brick-and-mortar site.”
For those in the community unable to access their care from Solvera Health’s physical site, Solvera now provides at-home visits. Bringing convenient care to people in more vulnerable settings means each of those persons is no less a guest of Solvera Health’s hospitality.
Of course, there are those in the community whose healthcare journey might be longer than most. Chronic medical conditions require a person to have more frequent visits to doctors and hospital stays, referrals to specialists, tests, and medications.
By providing their guests with the knowledge and skills to manage their chronic conditions, Solvera Health’s care team reminds their guests that the patient is an active participant in their own care. “We start by assessing a person’s health literacy and understanding of their own health,” Robin explains. “Chronic care management aims to improve our patient outcomes and enhance their satisfaction by engaging them as an active partner in their care. Our Care Coaches assist our patients with care coordination and specialty referrals, improving the quality of care. This could mean making sure our patients have equipment and services available at home, arranging transportation to make sure of adherence to medical appointments, or setting a patient up with community resources to address any social determinants of health. The goal is to provide continuity of care and address our patients’ medical, functional, and psychosocial needs to keep them healthy.”
The True Spirit
To bring the spirit of hospitality to all, Solvera Health’s future in the healthcare landscape is one in which technology and healthcare practices will be leveraged to offer even more accessibility and personalized care to its patients. “Through the use of telemedicine, data-driven preventative care strategies, and a continued focus on patient-centric approaches, we aim to enhance health outcomes while fostering stronger connections within the community,” Robin says. “We are committed to shaping a future where quality primary healthcare is not only accessible but truly transformative.”
Bringing this spirit of hospitality back into the arena of healthcare, Solvera Health also aims to reflect the actions of the service industry, recognizing that to serve others is one of the greatest callings in which one may engage.
“Our care team sets the tone for the guest experience, and their ability to provide for our guests as patients is fueled by an environment that is compassionate to their needs, too,” Robin concludes. “Solvera Health places emphasis on creating a positive experience, appealing to our guests as their first choice, and doing whatever we can to earn the loyalty of those we serve. We work together to help our guests feel that they are in good hands—that they are safe and cared for.”
Conveniently located at 3525 North University Street in Peoria, (and with clinics in Galesburg and Carbondale), Solvera Health is open from 8:30–5:00, Monday through Friday. If you wish to bring primary care with hospitality back into your life, please call us at (309) 886-9172 or visit us on the web at www.solverahealth.com.
