For Bill Naime, a healthcare veteran, CEO and founder of Post Acute Specialists, his commitment to providing seniors with high-quality, specialized post-acute care has been long in the running—35 years and counting, in fact. His passion for this field of work emerged out of personal experience: while tending to his ill father, he noticed a glaring problem within the health care industry, and took it upon himself to (start to) fix it.

Bill’s father was an older man, and when he suffered a cerebral stroke, a medical specialist advised him to go to physical rehab. According to the specialist, because the stroke was not detrimental, only rehab—and, importantly, nothing else—would be necessary.

Bill, a young college student at the time, worried about how his immigrant father would be able to navigate the hospital given his limited English, and when a doctor presented his father with orders for a feeding tube and colostomy bag, this only amplified his worries. He did not want his father to undergo these procedures, and importantly, the supposed need for these procedures directly contradicted what the specialist said.

“Those are my orders,” the doctor said, firmly. “For your father’s safety.”

In Bill’s mind, the skilled nursing facility, 24-hour care and the conversation with the specialists should have rendered the feeding tube and colostomy procedures unnecessary. However, when he finally managed to bring his concerns to the doctor in charge, he was met with adamancy and coldness. “Those are my orders,” the doctor said, firmly. “For your father’s safety.”

… and sure enough, with physical rehab alone, he made a full recovery.

Bill was frustrated at the doctor’s insistence about these procedures, and, more importantly, the medical specialist’s clear lack of say in his father’s health care. The specialist had already said that only rehab was necessary, so why would he want to put his already vulnerable father through additional surgical procedures? Why would he want to keep him in the hospital instead of the comfort of his home? After much deliberation with his siblings, Bill decided to take his father out of the skilled nursing facility, and sure enough, with physical rehab alone, he made a full recovery.

Indeed, the medical specialist was right all along, and had Bill’s father remained in the skilled nursing facility, he would have undergone two unnecessary surgical procedures. This troubling experience of navigating his father’s health care issues is what led Bill to recognize a blatant gap in the industry: a lack of medical specialists in the post-acute realm, who help older adults like his father receive medical care while avoiding unnecessary hospitalization and procedures. Bill knew the frustration of a family member watching their loved one be confined to a nursing home. He knew the anxiety that came from speculating about the consequences of a seemingly unnecessary procedure. He knew that something had to change in the health care industry, and hence Post Acute Specialists was born.

Bill hopes that Post Acute Specialists will have a dedicated presence in the state of Texas.

The lack of medical specialists in the post-acute sector is a widespread problem across the US, but thanks to Post Acute Specialists, the state of Texas is starting to see positive change. Although Bill started services caring for patients in 2008 in post acute settings, PAS was fully launched and provided patients with specialized care in the comfort of their home, nursing home, and assisted living since 2017. His team of board-certified physicians are diverse in their expertise, offering medical consults on issues ranging from psychiatric to vascular to cardiology pulmonary, and more specialties (namely, neurology and pain management) are soon on their way. They are committed to preserving patients’ dignity and offer telehealth consults as well as personally travel to nursing facilities and assisted living communities—all to keep patients out of emergency departments, hospitals and in their comfortable surroundings. Moreover, the diversity of specialties offered ensures patients a thorough, specific path more than a primary care visit can provide. Indeed, Bill believes that a post-acute specialist is an integral complement to a primary care physician, who can help patients receive a higher level of specialized care that they deserve.

Bill’s story is one of proactivity, of tenacity, and of empathy. It is a story about family and dignity, of seeking to give seniors the post-acute care that Bill wished his father could have experienced 35 years ago. He saw a need and responded with a practical solution, helping the patient stay where they feel the most at ease without compromising the quality of care. With time, Bill hopes that Post Acute Specialists will have a dedicated presence in the state of Texas. When people come across PAS, he hopes to make known that with their quality post-acute health services, the patient is the priority; the patient comes first; and, in his own words, “The patient is the ultimate winner in the end.”