Optimal Care bridges physical distance with chats, weekly luncheon for employees

It's not easy maintaining a consistently upbeat workplace when most of the company's employees work outside the main office.

That is the challenge faced by Optimal Care, a fast-growing home health care agency in Bingham Farms whose employees provide skilled nursing, physical therapy and occupational therapy inside the homes of more than 300 clients across the tri-county area.

Optimal Care bridges the physical distance between its employees and the main office through routine communication, including via FaceTime video chats on company-issued IPads. Optimal also hosts a weekly luncheon at its headquarters every Friday that any and all employees can attend if they care to stop by and chat.

"That is our time to communicate, to let them know about any changes and any new hires," said Coleen Murphy-DeOrsey, one of Optimal's co-owners.

It finished second in the Top Workplaces small business category.

Employees are encouraged to compliment one another for above-and-beyond job performances. These tributes, called "kudos," are aggregated and combined with similar compliments from clients, then e-mailed to everyone in the company.

Nearly everyone on Optimal's staff is a full-time employee with full benefits, which isn't always the case in home health care. Optimal is also fairly unique in the industry for offering its employees annual profit-sharing checks. These checks range in size from several hundreds dollars to several thousand dollars, Murphy-DeOrsey said.

The company started focusing in recent years on employees' strengths in annual performance reviews, rather than page after page pointing out weaknesses, said Erik Wilson, Optimal's director of nursing.

"The research is really strong on focusing on strengths instead of weaknesses," Wilson said, "And I feel it's really brought our teams closer together."

Optimal Care specializes in skilled nursing care and employs registered nurses, nurse practitioners, physical therapists, occupational therapists, social workers and speech therapists.

It has a mix of shorter-term clients and a few longer-term clients. A typical short-term client will receive help for about six weeks while recovering at home from a surgery or a bad accident, such as a hip fracture. 

"We take care of them in the home until they're ready to take care of themselves," Murphy-DeOrsey said.

The company was started in the early 2000s and, amid financial struggles, was purchased by three of its nurses in 2006. It has since added dozens of employees and has annual revenues exceeding $6 million.

"We've come so far since then," she said.

Optimal Care

Industry: Home health care agency

Directors: Administrator Coleen Murphy-DeOrsey and Chief Clinical Officer Kristyn Gall

Home: Bingham Farms

Employees: 125

Popular employee perks: Full-time work and benefits in the home health care industry and annual profit-sharing checks.