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Soon after Heather Fries came to work with her father’s company 10 years ago, Harold C. Sims II decided to prepare her to do his job.
Sims has been involved in health care since 1969. After working with the Chatham Nursing Home for more than a decade, the Vietnam veteran started his own firm in Savannah in 1984 — Nightingale Services, Inc.
The family-owned business specializes in personal home care for elderly patients, providing skilled nursing, respite care and other services.
Sims’ wife, Glenda, helped him create the company. Their son, Lance Sims, is the medical director.
Fries’ father appointed her vice president and CEO five years ago. In the last year, she has taken over day-to-day operations from her father.
“She’s a steel fist in an iron glove,” Sims said. “She knows how to manage people well.”
He led the company through its early years when Nightingale was involved in a variety of health care programs: From operating nursing homes and providing emergency response services to founding Savannah’s Marsh View Senior Living Facility.
Home care for elderly patients has always been an essential part of the company. It’s a passion for Sims and now the company’s sole focus.
“Home care has always been a love for me,” he said. “Most people who need assistance want to stay in their home.” Home service is a way to give patients “a nursing home without walls.” Many elderly people, he said, are independent enough to live at home but still need a level of medical assistance.
Cyndi Spiva, who has worked with the company for nearly eight years, said the business tells a lot about Sims. “For someone to step out there and start this business, he had to be compassionate himself.”
When someone asks Sims why he is so involved in health care for the elderly, he says it’s because it’s a special kind of work.
“After a while, you really get to know these individuals, and it’s almost like taking care of your own grandparents and family,” he said. “It’s really just a joy to do. That’s why I think Heather is doing so well in this business.”
Turning to his daughter, he joked, “pretty soon, you’ll be taking care of me.”
Fries began working for Nightingale after she got her master’s degree at the University of Memphis, where she studied psychotherapy.
Running a business, however, was not nearly as familiar to her, so Sims began mentoring her. Before she took over all the day-to-day operations, Fries supervised smaller portions of the company.
“There was a lot of learning curve,” she said. “If I hadn’t had him mentoring me, I wouldn’t be able to be successful in my job currently.”
Since the two began running the business as a father-daughter team, Nightingale has expanded across the state of Georgia.
“With the two of us working together,” Fries said, “it has just grown tremendously.”
The company now has 11 branches throughout the state and is preparing to open two new offices, one in Columbus and another in the Jacksonville area. According to Fries, Nightingale serves more than 1,000 patients and makes 5,000 visits to their homes every week.
Georgia’s population over age 65 has increased in the last 12 years, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In 2010, the Georgia Council of Aging projected this section of the population would increase substantially by 2030.
This trend has raised the demand for health care services, according to Fries and Sims. With its experience and resources, Nightingale has been able to respond to this increase in demand.
“Because we have done it so long, we don’t know anything else,” Fries said. “We know it and we live it.”
As a veteran, Sims takes considerable pride in the company’s involvement with the Veterans Administration. Nightingale also works with Georgia’s Medicaid waiver programs — CCSP and SOURCE. Both programs finance medical costs for elderly people who live at home and qualify for Medicaid. CCSP reported that its services saved Georgia taxpayers an average of $209.5 million statewide in 2011.
Fries said in-home care is one-third of the cost of a nursing home.
For individuals who don’t need 24-hour-care, “it’s really the most economical service going today in health care,” her father said.
As a certified Medicaid provider, Nightingale must meet a number of rules and regulations. Sims and Fries said this has reinforced the company’s attention to detail and emphasized that patient needs are met.
Many patients may not qualify for Medicaid benefits, Sims said, and this has created a larger market for private payment options, which he said the company is focusing on more.
Private payment options allow non-Medicaid patients to get in-home care they otherwise might not receive.
With the company stressing private payment plans and its expansion into Florida, Fries said the “sky’s the limit.”
As for her role in the company, she attributes her success to her father’s guidance.
“You could put my father and me in different jobs,” she said, “and we may not be as successful as we are together at this.”
Meanwhile, Sims said he believes Nightingale is in excellent hands.
“Most parents find it difficult to bring their child into a business,” Sims said. “Heather and I have always gotten along very well. She listens, she learns, and not just from me. As a parent, this is my only way to retire.”