How a Healthcare Pioneer Rebuilds Life After Rehab

We don't believe that family has been wife, mother, dad,

should be caregivers.

“You know, some of our clients that have moved independently”

for 20, 30 years now are ventilator dependent, quadriplejects. They don't move anything from here down. Don't breathe by themselves and they live independently. Of course, they need physical care.

But our philosophy is that family should not be caregivers. Sean Welch is the CEO, owner, and administrator of new start health enterprises. A California health care organization helping medically complex patients transition from the hospital,

toward greater independence and community living. Continuing a model her mother began more than 40 years ago,

Sean now leads new starts mission

to bridge the gap between rehabilitation and life after discharge. My mom started new start, it was called new start homes. Most of her clients back then were ventilator dependent. And so she found that, you know,

“the companies that serviced were not that great.”

So she started her own company, which is called new start home medical equipment. The health care system can look at it closely. They're spending millions and millions of dollars to save lives. And at discharge they lose lives.

Because that's, it's like they think of discharge. And they don't see what happens after that. And so for us. It spans the globe. Like a super high school.

Internet Elvis. And today Apple is going to reinvent football. It's not over. I'm telling how we're... The living your legacy podcast.

For those who live to leave a legacy. Hey, welcome back everyone to another episode of Living Your Legacy Podcast. I'm your host again, Jason Langen. And yeah, we have the privilege to speak into some of the best entrepreneurs from around the country.

The disruptors, the taste makers, the experts, and also the women in power. Like we have here today. And she's got a shoes on everyone. But that's a little inside joke.

“But anyways, why don't you introduce yourself and tell us about your business?”

Well, my name is Sean. And I am the CEO and administrator and owner of New Start Health Enterprises. Okay. It's kind of like an umbrella company to our new... Our other new start companies that really do all the work.

You're not just being a serial entrepreneur with several businesses. Yeah. All right. And so what's this new health industry or your business? What kind of health do we talk about here?

So New Start was founded by my mother Mary Williams back in 1982. And she's a nurse and she has a passion for rehab. So she took care of a lot of spinal cord injuries and over five years between 75 and 82 when she started the company. She saw there was this huge gap in the health care system.

She would follow her patient's home after a acute rehab. And like, yes, you're going home. We've done such good work in it. And then she would see the success rate was, you know, it was dismal. Yeah.

Yes. The disabled person usually felt like they were a burden to their families. And their families really had no resources or they really couldn't take care of their left one the way they needed to. Yeah.

Yeah. It's a difficult situation, right? It's very. And so how does that lead into the company? So that was 40 years ago, more than 40 years ago.

And I was in going into high school.

Actually, 10th grade is when she first had her first client, patient.

She founded the company on the medical. So he was just stuck in a skilled nursing facility hospital like one of her patients for many years. And she said, well, I have an idea. Why aren't I just take him home?

And she talked to medical and they said, let's try it. Well, you know, that's where it all started. He moved into our house. Like we moved out of the my home that I grew up in. Yeah.

And we found a single story house that somebody helped her buy.

And so that's how it started.

And his name was Joe. And he was a C2 quadriplegic. And he, you know what, he arrived. And this was before cell phones. The TVs had antennas on them.

Yeah.

“You know, there's nothing like what we have now.”

Yeah. And so she was a pioneer. And she had a great vision. You know, just. She saw a need and a gap.

And she's like, we could do better than this. Yeah.

And so it was a pretty neat time.

And you know, it was a good deal. And so she's getting some some disconnected of what she's actually doing. She's taking these people from rehab right and kind of giving them. Even further rehab in a home like situation. It's not really rehab because rehab only lasts a certain period of time.

Okay. And it's to what they're done with rehab. Yeah. Yeah.

“So when they're done with, it's called acute rehab.”

And that is, so the next stage is you can still have rehab. But it's not at that level. Mm-hmm. And that's all money wise, you know. So it goes at lower level of care.

Gotcha. But what she saw was that when you have rehab, you do all this great rehab. And it's all lost. You don't have a plan or something in between actually going home. Or most a lot of times they went to a nursing home or ended up there.

Yeah. And then there are a patient with three or four other patients. They're laying in a bed. There's 200 patients. They're young alert.

You know, you basically have no hope then.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. And so what are the beyond services that she does? So for 20 years, she was a pilot program under the California Medical Program. And so basically patients moved into a regular community home.

Yeah. And 20 years later, she actually got licensed. And she legislated a new healthcare system called congregate living health, congregate living health facilities. It's known as cliff, the LHM.

And so, you know, that went on the books. I think it was in 2007. And she, there's about 200 now in California. Wow. 200 locations.

There's 200 different cliffs. So there are 200 regular homes in the community that people get licensed. Wow.

“So each home, the regulations are you have to have.”

24 hour LVN, CNA, doctor, you know, that visits all the patients. Mm-hmm. An RN case management that comes in every week. PT and OT come in just like they would come into your own home. Yeah.

They would come into the facility if the patient has any authorization. Yeah. Um, but, you know, what I've seen in, you know, with my mom growing up is that rehab, it's important. Um, but recovery and rehab go together. And so when you actually move out of an institution into a home like setting environment,

um, you're, it's like you're rehabbing your life. Getting your life back after such a devastating catastrophic injury or illness. Yeah. Um, things don't look the same. And it does take time.

And, and it, you know, our system focuses more on, come in, save the life and then discharge. And a lot of times we lose the life after discharge. Mm-hmm. And it doesn't make sense to me. And now I'm in the position I am.

And I can't believe after 40 years that this is, it saves millions of dollars. But it seems that there, it just doesn't seem to be where it should be. And so now I am, um, I've been running new start, um, fully, um, for about four years. Learned everything. And there's so much to learn.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, usually I'm so talkative. I'm just really intrigued and learning from this, you know.

It's, it's completely different from the physical therapy recovery room,

where you've got the machines or the tools and the special attention, right, that they give you. Mm-hmm. And between that and going home, right? Yeah. You don't have the tools, right?

Uh, your wife or your mom or dad or whoever's, your caretaker, uh, they don't have the training. And they don't have the patience and it's, it's, it's difficult. It's almost like the, they should go also through training as well. Uh, is there any of that in, in these cliffs, uh, you know, kind of bringing in the main caretakers of that final destination home, um,

“to kind of work with the recovery and the techniques of being in a home and caring for these people?”

I work philosophy is different.

Um, we don't believe that family has been wife, mother, dad should be caregivers. Yeah, sure. Um, you know, some of our clients that have, are moved independently for 20, 30 years now are ventilator dependent quadriplejects. They don't move anything from hair down, don't breathe by themselves. Right.

They live independently. Of course, they need physical care. But our philosophy is that family should not be caregivers. Um, when people want to do that, maybe because they need to be the caregiver so that they can, you know, help financially, um, you know, and do some of the care. Um, we caution with that because we say, well, make sure it's at a time that you are not trying to have your relationship.

Maybe in the middle of the night, if you have 24 hour care, you have your care giving it, you know, eight hours if something does happen, someone is there.

“But, um, as far as getting up in the morning, doing what you need to be done, um, it's best to have a separate caregiver from any family or friends.”

Um, and so what else is under that umbrella of business companies that you have? Well, um, new start, my mom started new start. It was called new start homes. Yeah. And, you know, as she went along, there were, there were new challenges.

And so, most of her clients back then were ventilator dependent. And so, she found that, you know, the companies that serviced were not that great. So, she started her own company, which is called new start home medical equipment. Mm-hmm. And that's been going 30 years.

It's got an amazing reputation.

“Um, same guys, artis, five artis, um, have been running it and, um, never lost a patient and they're amazing.”

And so, she started that to service just her clients. And then she, um, you know, when people came into the facility, we have an independent training program. And, and that is really, as we go along, it's like, well, you can feed yourself because you can move your arm. So, we, anything they can do, we're like encouraging, do everything. It doesn't matter if you have a caregiver or a nurse here to help you.

If you can do it, do it and struggle through it. Because you want as much autonomy as possible. And so, um, most of her clients didn't have families and, and homes to move to. So, she, um, she bought a couple of homes and rented them, you know, low, low rent. And, um, she became a home health agency. The problem was if somebody moved out into the community.

Home health agencies need, um, you know, a responsible party back up in case something happens or the caregiver and nurse doesn't show up. What happens. And so, she took that responsibility. Um, so that they couldn't move out if they were able and desired. It's, it's, it's a lot of work for, like, a ventilator quadriplegic to move out on its own. He has his own financial career.

It, amazing man. Yeah. You know, he's been a quad for 40 years, you know. He's, you know, he's, he's like a brother to me. Worked hard.

Worked really hard. So, they take full responsibility. They're mentally alert. So, you couldn't do this if somebody had maybe a TBI or something because they can't make those decisions and manage their life like somebody like a spinal cord injury who is mentally alert.

Yeah.

“It's just physically, they need to be able to direct and manage keep their nurses.”

You know, you can't just abuse them and think they're going to come back in the morning. Yeah. So, it's, there's a lot of life skills and at the same time getting over what's happened and what you've lost. Moving into the, you know, when, when people come into our facility, they'd say it's better than being at home. Because their families, we don't, we don't, we don't have any visiting hours or anything like that. Yeah. You know, mom can't sleep, sleep over, even though we don't, we're not supposed to really have people sleeping over.

It is a family and we have six patients in a, in a house and they become like family. Yeah. And we have a cook in a, and full time cook in each house so they get great meals and fresh food and everything like that.

So, yeah. That was amazing.

And your mom sounds amazing as well. I mean, I'm seeing these gaps in the market and then, you know, taking a gamble. And yeah, building these businesses that have been going on for 20, 30 years, right? That's not a easy thing. And also to hand it on to the next generation where you can kind of take things to the next level. Speaking of that, I ask everyone, what are you most excited about? What either in your, you know, at the forefront of your industry or maybe you got some some plans cook in the background?

What are you most excited about? This has been blood sweat and tears. Yeah. It's not like a normal business where you have a product and you sell a product and then you grow. Yeah.

You know, there's a ton of challenges.

So, we are just, you know, we're, I'm steadfast in the model that was the first vision.

And if I kind of go off that model, then it will just go back to this huge gap in the system. What I would like to do is, you know, I've, I've realized that I need to build the new start brand.

“And that's why I've named it new start health enterprises because we're so small.”

We're only 18 beds with the new start clips independent training centers. So we can't help a lot of people. And even though we can give information, we can, you know, be supportive of new injuries and giving some kind of guidance because we know this world. Yeah. Nobody plans on this world.

And they don't know. So I, I want to build it. So the healthcare system can look at it closely. They're spending millions and millions of dollars to save lives. And at discharge, they lose lives because that's, it's like, they think of discharge.

And they don't see what happens after that. And so for us, we're, we're this part where it's like, we need, we need to have that support that they're able to step down in their, their level of care to a place where they can have 18 months, two years. To get their life back to stabilize for them and their families.

Yeah, and once they do that, they never go back to the hospital.

None of hundreds and hundreds of people over 40 years. They don't go back to the hospital. They go back if they break their arm or something. They don't go back because they have a stage for wound. Yeah.

Because they know how to stop, how to prevent that. Whereas other people go from, you know, hospital to rehab. And they go to a nursing home. And, you know, Todd, who is in our facility. He came to us with 26 wounds for stage four wounds.

Okay. And it's because they're in people, they're quadriplegics. They need a lot of care. They're very complex. And so that they were going to just get released and it'd be like, okay.

There you go, back home. No, no people live their life in a nursing home. You know, they're one of three or four people in one room. Young, young, mentally alert people. And they, their thousands probably stuck in nursing homes.

Yeah.

“It's, it's, you know, you've got to go from 18 beds to 180 beds to 1000 beds, right?”

Nationwide. Yeah, you know, growing a company like this is not like other companies. Because if you grow and you grow fast, then it's very easily lost.

Yeah, you have to, you have to be profitable.

“You have to make money and that's the goal.”

But it's, it's really, it's about what do we need to do to help people. Our, our most disabled population, you know, physically disabled, mentally, after stroke. But these are young people that have their life in front of them. I, I'm an Instagram. I see, I, I'm connected to a lot of people I don't know.

And they're doing amazing things. And, but they're, they're all young. And they, diving, or, you know, something happened. Yeah, very sad. And I just, I just heard the 17 year old kid, spinal cord, and, and I saw it on Instagram.

And everybody's rallying around him. And for me, I'm like, I know that world.

I, not that I think, like, oh my gosh, he'll never do this.

He'll never do that. Nothing like that. I just know, like, that first week into weeks. What's going on? And that it will come a time where you got to leave the hospital.

Then you got to go to rehab. But you don't qualify because of this or you that. And then you want to get home. Everybody, especially a 17, 18 year old young kid. People, mom wants to take him home.

Yeah, go ahead. Like, what's the best thing for him? We need a system that a kid like him can go to college in a way to rebuild that part of his life. Because going to mom at 17, that's, we're doing an opposite.

We're, we're flying the coop. So there's so much to think about. There's so much work to do.

“And I believe that, you know, my mom started this.”

And you know, it's, you know, and God.

I always think about that, you know, things that he started.

He's faithful to finish. I'm not sure if it's going to finish with me. Yeah. But I'm, I'm dedicated, I'm committed. And I'm, I really believe in what we do.

Amazing. Amazing. Yeah. It's a lot of, uh, more people will need to do a work like what you do, right? Uh, but, yeah, how do people find you? Well, I have, um, the website is newstarthealthenterprises.com. Okay.

Um, and I have, um, I'm starting the Instagram, at everything board that. But I haven't gotten there yet. But, um, you know, um, you can find me on Instagram. It, this is 60 something.

It's kind of like a, a fun day in the life of me. Yeah. Um, it's been really fun. Uh, so I've enjoyed that. And, um, you know, I'm, any, any time I can connect with someone that we can help, you know,

doesn't it? Even if they're not going to become a patient or a client. I mean, we're, we're full. We're 18 patients. Yeah.

I just want to, you know, kind of get the word out. Um, and see if we can change this system, not go backwards. Amazing. Amazing.

Well, it's amazing work that you do.

Uh, thank you so much for coming on the show. Uh, and it's been a pleasure to have you. Um, so how was your experience? Uh, you did your filming, right? Uh, with Jorge, right?

Yes. And, uh, and then the podcast, right? So how, how was the day today? It was, it was really great. Um, I'm feeling exhausted.

Yeah. Um, but everyone here has been so good. Jorge, just made me feel super comfortable. Nice, nice. Um, gave me time and I got my own dressing room.

Yeah. That's pretty cool. Amazing. Yeah. Um, great.

Uh, so yeah.

“I mean, if you want to find out more about her journey and her, the business that she's setting up.”

And, yeah, I mean, everything that she's been talking about. Uh, then tune into her episode when it airs, women in power. I mean, just amazing women that come onto the show. Uh, proving it's not just a guy's world. Uh, but yeah.

Uh, we need more women out here. And join us in our studios and hop in that hot sea. And, yeah, talk about your journey. But thank you for joining us here in the studios. And thank you guys for joining us for another episode.

And we'll see you next time everyone. Cheers. [MUSIC PLAYING]