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Empowering nurses, enriching lives
Sisters Jill Lufkin-Robinson and Jane Hall, both registered nurses (RN), shared a vision to provide medically complex children and adults with the medical support and care needed to keep them at home with their families. They founded Home, Hope & Healing, a private duty nursing company, in Smithfield, ME, in 2002.
“We're both registered nurses and have a very diverse background. Jane has done school nursing and many other things, and I've done a bunch of home care and ICU, and we brought our experiences together to create a home care company that focused on the care of critically ill, highly complex clients that need as much as 24/7 care in their homes by professional staff,” said Lufkin-Robinson, who serves as Home, Hope & Healing’s CEO. They started their company with one client, a pediatric patient. Today, Home, Hope & Healing employs many nurses, a chief clinical officer, senior managers and others. Since opening their doors, the sisters said that Home, Hope & Healing nurses have cared for thousands of patients in Maine.
Hall recalled their company’s early days. “When Jill and I first started, we worked on all the cases. We paid ourselves as we would a regular nurse and put the rest of the money into the company to grow it. That's how it started. We worked probably 70, 80 hours a week, nights and days—you name it,” she said.
When asked what prepared them to run a business, Lufkin-Robinson attributed it to her former positions. In one nursing job, she managed a busy neurology nursing department. “I had an intermediate care room, which was an intensive care, and I had a regular floor. I managed the budget, hired and did all that kind of stuff. And I didn't know accounting, but I used to get out my profit and loss statement every month, and I would meet with these guys, and I’d find errors. I'd find things that were billed to our cost center that didn’t belong. To make a long story short, it gave me a great background and confidence in my ability to understand business principles. And so, I feel like I have a rare plan as an RN; I also have that business side of me. I think that that really allowed us to set this up. Plus, I worked for a large national health services company and managed three branches for them. So, I knew how to do it. And I knew survey process, how to work with Medicare and Medicaid services. I had all that background, so it wasn't an unknown what I was stepping into.”
Additionally, an unwavering desire to make a difference continues to motivate the sisters. They found working in a facility, such as a hospital, to be limiting in how they provided care to patients. “It’s much more challenging in a facility. Both of us have worked in facilities before. It's where I started, which was the cardiac step-down unit. So, the difference is night and day. And as I said to Jill at one point, I really feel like this type of nursing [private care], I make a difference. And that's what I hear from the nurses that are out in the field. I feel like I make a difference. I help these families, I help these children and [our nurses] are not being run ragged,” said Hall.
She added that Home, Hope & Healing also helps the nurses that join their team. “Within the first months of running the business, we noticed that we were not only a place that took care of very sick clients and assisted families navigating their way through a complex medical system; it was also a place for nurses to come and heal.”
Hall continued and said that one-on-one nursing is at the core of what Home, Hope & Healing does. They aim to enhance the lives of the patients they care for. “We’re not always able to in many cases, but we are able to assist families in other ways, whether it's preparing for end of life or connecting them with resources. There are just all kinds of aspects. But we were both kind of taken back in realizing that we provide a place for nurses to be nurses and to heal from some of the difficulties of working as a nurse, particularly in a facility setting. And even though it's home care, it's still a great challenge for these nurses. But they come into it both with their hearts and their knowledge, which is an amazing combination for helping these families.”
In addition to supporting their community through their work, the sisters made an even greater difference by advocating for registered nurses in Maine who care for their medically complex spouses or minor children. “It's known as a special circumstance nurse and part of our MaineCare benefit for private duty nursing. Jane and I had the opportunity to introduce this to MaineCare, and it was adopted. We had a mom who had twin boys with medical issues who was going lose her house. She was an RN but could not work outside her home because of the needs of her children,” said Lufkin-Robinson. The sisters researched how other states handle similar situations and found some that paid RNs to provide nursing care to their spouses or children. Then, they shared their findings with the state. “We had someone in MaineCare that lent us their ear and their support and made it happen.” Lufkin-Robinson added that since then, several more parents who are RNs have been able to care for their children and get paid for their work.
The sisters have also successfully advocated for adult children with complex medical needs aging out of care. Hall said, “Through a period of time, services were being denied in this state over and over and over again. And we went through a period where I went through 29 appeals in one year trying to get these children services. And I worked with disability rights lawyers to the point where we were best buddies. And one of our cases that we won went through the Supreme Court. The precedent was an individual turning 21, and they were taking away all of the services. So that's been a big part too—that we've really advocated and supported these families on that end of it,” said Hall.
In addition, Lufkin-Robinson and Hall believe that their employees are vital to their company’s success. They care for and invest in their employees and prioritize teamwork. “We recognize that to positively impact as many lives as possible, we must have a great team. Providing the very best care possible to our clients with supported and empowered staff is our goal,” said Lufkin-Robinson.
Moreover, this mindset has translated into employee retention. “We had our 20-year anniversary. So, we looked at how many people in our organization and nurses have been here for over 15 years. And the number surprised us. I think it was like 16. And I think that speaks volumes,” said Hall.
Over the years, Home, Hope & Healing has expanded into personal support services, which enables the in-home nursing care company to serve more people and a greater variety of needs. Additionally, the sisters noted that they are seeing retirement on the horizon and are confident in passing the torch. "Jill's daughter, Amy, works for us and her husband. The two of them are senior managers, and they're both really awesome. So we know that they'll be an integral part of that team. And we have a great HR person. We have a great chief clinical officer. So if everybody stays put, we'll be good," said Hall.
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