By Maureen Traxler
"I can't imagine
people letting government say, ÔNo, you can't grow old and stay in
your own homes," says Taniella Jo Harrison, the 32-year-old executive
director of Tri-County Home Nursing Services (TCHNS) of Westbury.
Acknowledging that the growing healthcare industry is heavily government
regulated and the country has no national health care program, Harrison
notes that caring for the elderly in nursing homes and assisted living
facilities can be costly. But, she adds during the interview with
Networking magazine, "The cost of homecare is lower, and it's where
people want to be Ð at home."
TCHNS is a healthcare
agency providing nursing services, personal care and home health-aide
services, and homemaking and companion services. Harrison assumed
a leadership role less than two years ago, although she seemed to
be destined for the job. At age 10, while she was visiting her grandmother
Ella Ferguson, a Registered Nurse who founded the company in 1981,
Ferguson introduced her to an acquaintance as the future president
of the business.
"2003 was a year
of learning and mastering the business for my mom, Linda Cunegin,
the company's owner and president," says Harrison. "Developing business
and marketing plans, learning the politics of the industry and knowing
the right organizations to join" were large tasks for Harrison, who
grew up in Florida. But her early involvement in the company began
as a child when she'd spend summer vacations with her grandmother
in New York. At the healthcare company, Harrison helped with the time
sheets, stuffed envelopes, rewrote Rol-a-dex cards and filed. Her
grandmother was an industrious entrepreneur, dabbling in other businesses
as well. She operated an employment agency, a three-car limousine
business, and an office cleaning business.
"My grandmother
was an icon," remarks Harrison, adding that she also published the
first Black travel magazine, called "Odyssey," and a newspaper in
Queens, called "Community Chatter." Harrison believes her grandmother
inspired her interest in business and entrepreneurship. Throughout
high school, she took typing, home office procedures and economy classes,
and joined the Future Business Leaders of America and DECA, a marketing
club. She graduated from Tuskegee University with a B.S. in Business
Administration and received an MBA from Nova Southeastern University.
Her professional career began as a development coordinator in a grassroots
nonprofit organization in Florida. She joined the Girls Scout organization
and eventually landed a job as grants manager, working with corporations
and foundations in the national office of the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A.
in Manhattan. But when Ferguson passed away in July 2002, Harrison
quickly answered a call from her mom to join the company.
Because of heavy
government regulation, from quality care to reimbursement payments,
Harrison considers "keeping tabs on decisions made in Albany and Washington"
crucial to her business. "Politics changes by who's in office, and
that will be a major factor as time moves on," she says, adding that
"education and healthcare are the drivers of state budgets, too."
The homecare
business is "very competitive" on Long Island, adds Harrison, acknowledging
the numbers of babyboomers who are caring and making decisions for
elderly parents. She says, too, that people in their fifties "are
often preparing for long-term care for themselves." Her business challenge
lies in becoming part of the "network" of caregivers, including managed
care providers and local county departments of social service. She
is also a member of the Long Island Association.
Harrison believes
the keys to an effective and cutting edge business begin with "good
values and morals," and a conscious effort to "make the right decisions
for our patients." The second key is "a good quality assurance program
that provides the best care." TCHNS hires, trains and manages its
homecare workers, homemakers and health-aides and they conduct personal
background checks. The company has a five-member quality assurance
committee, which reviews patient care, policies and procedures, and
complaints. TCHNS conducts formal surveys, as well as informal surveys
during home visits to monitor delivery of services, and has an automatic
time-and-leave-system, which records the duration of a visit on computer
software through a telephone call placed by the caregiver upon arrival
and departure from a client's home. The third factor involves keeping
an ear to the industry, and Harrison adds, "We're always ready to
be entrepreneurial in the way we approach our business."
Harrison has
developed several new strategies. This year, she's begun attracting
private health care and private pay clients by targeting "the decision-makers,"
who make referrals to caregivers of people in need of services, such
as personnel in hospitals, insurance companies, doctors' offices and
assisted living and nursing home facilities, as well as elder law
attorneys and geriatric care managers. TCHNS attend "senior expos"
and is developing a workers' transportation system to meet the needs
of clusters of clients in remote Long Island areas.
When Ms. Ferguson
began her business more than 20 years ago, she felt she couldn't reveal
that an African-American owned the business, and she took a white
nurse with her when visiting homes. "People didn't think she was Ella
Ferguson," states Harrison. But firmly believing that this is "a different
generation," she adds, "I hope people judge us based on the quality
of service and the quality of care we deliver."
"TCHNS is non-discriminatory
as to who is able to deliver services, and we are constantly looking
to do work with minority businesses," says Harrison, nothing that
her office and nursing staff is "diverse." About 95% of her homecare
workers are minorities, many coming from the Islands Ð Caribbean,
Jamaica, Haiti Ð and from Russia, Asia and countries of Spanish heritage.
But Harrison decries the low salaries still prevalent for homecare
positions, and looks forward to a broader recognition of the workers'
contributions to health care.
In an effort
to promote awareness and education, Harrison works on behalf of the
scholarship program of the Brooklyn-Queens chapter of her college
sorority, Sigma Gamma Rho, an international, mostly African-American
sorority. The Mwanamugimu Project, as it is called, is an essay contest
designed to provide students an opportunity to increase their knowledge
of the historical and contemporary development of Africa. In addition,
Harrison supports her Tuskegee Alumni in efforts to increase enrollment
at the university.
Harrison enjoys
keeping her grandmother's legacy alive, and hopes that that legacy
will continue. Her sister, who married a man who's last name is Ferguson,
expects to give birth to a baby girl this May and name her Ella. With
luck, this Ella Ferguson will continue the legacy and the family will
pass down the business to another Ella Ferguson.
