The Let's Get Comfy Podcast
Hosted by Founder and CEO of Comfort Measures Consulting LLC, Norman Harris. The Official Healthcare Edutainment station. Empowering listeners with the knowledge and resources to age comfortably. The podcast platform will uniquely provide laughter, peace, joy, resources and most of all COMFORT. Fostering professional partnerships and engaging the audience by providing them access to a REAL family-like conversation. That gives them the REAL reasons. Connects them to REAL reliable resources. To get REAL results. For REAL Comfort! Through interviews with C-suite healthcare leaders, experts, caregivers, founders, authors, educators, and thought leaders who are doing incredible work for older adults, family caregivers, and the healthcare community.
The Let's Get Comfy Podcast
Inside Evolutionary Healthcare's Vision
A healthcare revolution is brewing in post-acute care facilities, and it starts with understanding the challenges from the inside out. Dr. Hussien Ballout, a Florida geriatrician, noticed something troubling at nursing homes near his hospital. Residents were stuck in a "revolving door" of emergency visits for issues that simple medical oversight could have prevented. After becoming medical director at one such facility in 2018, he implemented protocols that closed this gap, laying the foundation for what would become Evolutionary Healthcare.
The company took a decisive turn when COO Sierra Jones, a former nursing home administrator, joined forces with Dr. Ballout. Their combined perspectives and clinical expertise paired with deep operational understanding created something unique in the healthcare landscape. While competitors promise similar metrics improvements, Evolutionary Healthcare approaches facilities with genuine comprehension of regulatory challenges, quality measures, and the daily realities of skilled nursing operations.
Their most transformative innovation? Introducing osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) to nursing homes. This physician-led, hands-on approach has yielded remarkable results—a 78% reduction in long-term narcotics use during their pilot program, with corresponding decreases in falls and hospital readmissions. Beyond pain management, these specialized physicians provide 20-30 minute sessions addressing everything from joint issues to anxiety to lymphatic flow problems, all without medication.
The patient response has been extraordinary. Facility staff report that residents with behavioral issues remain calm on OMT treatment days. One woman, unable to qualify for needed back surgery due to high narcotic use, successfully reduced her medications through OMT treatments and finally received her operation after a decade of waiting.
Looking ahead, Evolutionary Healthcare is expanding their unique model beyond Florida. Rather than requiring physicians to relocate, they're building networks around community doctors, allowing them to maintain their practices while joining the Evolutionary mission. This approach honors their core philosophy: when providers are well taken care of, everything else falls into place.
Ready to transform patient care at your facility? Connect with us at evolutionaryhc.org or through our social media channels to discover how our holistic approach can revolutionize your outcomes while supporting your existing clinical programs.
This episode of let's Get Comfy was brought to you by Evolutionary Healthcare. Caring is what we do.
Speaker 2:Another episode of let's Get Comfy podcast, and we're actually interviewing the sponsors of the show and Florida Healthcare interview series that we're doing here live at the Higher Regency Hotel. So I'm joined by my superiors, my leaders here with Evolutionary Healthcare. I let them introduce themselves, as that's the tradition here on the show. So to my right start with you.
Speaker 1:I'm Sierra Jones. I'm the COO of Evolutionary Healthcare and I am not Norman's superior. I am his teammate, his co-worker.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Hello, my name is Missane Ballou. I'm a teammate his co-worker. Hello, my name is Moussae Mbalu. I'm a local geriatrician in Florida.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, so glad they joined the show, but also one personally I want to say live here is. I want to give special thanks to them for embracing the vision of the show, but also Comfort Measures, consulting and having them a part of allowing me to be a part of Evolutionary Healthcare and the way that we're growing as an organization. So, personally, I'm honored to be a part of the dream and the vision and how we're growing as an organization throughout the state. But you guys be seeing a lot of big things coming from Evolutionary Healthcare, so stay tuned. For sure We'll be posting it too, all right?
Speaker 1:Norm. We thank you for that.
Speaker 2:Honored to be here. Yes, ma'am, so we'll get kicked off with just the origins of evolutionary healthcare. How did you guys begin? And we'll start with that question with you, dr Blue.
Speaker 3:So after I graduated from residency in Michigan, I ended up moving to Florida. I signed with Health First in Brevard. I was at Palm Bay Hospital. Right next door there was a life care facility. They kept referring to some of the patients in the facility as a revolving door of getting the patients in the ER and sometimes they could have been prevented with simple medical treatment if someone had done the UA or reviewed the results. So I ended up going over there, ended up becoming their medical director. We were able to close that gap. The hospital was very appreciative, the facilities and management was very appreciative and that led one thing led to another.
Speaker 2:Yes sir, yes sir. Do you remember what year was that? How long ago was that 2017,?
Speaker 3:2018. 2018. So you've been in Brevard County area since 2017.
Speaker 2:Yep, we opened it. We started in the facility probably beginning of 2018. 2018.
Speaker 3:So you've been in Brevard County area Since 2017. Yep, we opened it. We started in the facility probably beginning of 2018.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's good. That's good. So, evolving you selected the name of evolutionary healthcare and that's stood out to me because a lot of my presentations that I do always say the evolution is here. I love saying that. But so you brought Sierra aboard. What would intrigue you about Sierra and how you all met? So the name.
Speaker 3:The name comes from the way that we're delivering the care. When we first started in the nursing homes, a lot of things were not done the way that they're usually done in an acute care system, whether it's the training that the staff has provided, some of the protocols and the way everything is written. And that's actually where I met Sierra, when we got together one of the buildings. We designed some protocols for the facilities, designed some training. We've seen the success of it, so there we are.
Speaker 2:Sierra brings that, of course, skilled nursing leadership experience as a licensed nursing home administrator, and that's part of the reason I wanted to join the organization too. But that sets us apart as an organization that we have someone that actually ran the facilities as well. But even from the corporate level as well, she's advanced bands. But so, Sierra, if you would just let the audience know how the impact of having a leader like yourself incorporating, integrating into evolutionary healthcare us being a multi-specialty physician group overall, yeah, so I came down to Florida in 2019, started my nursing home administrator career in Brevard County and that's where Dr Ballou and I met.
Speaker 1:He was medical director in my facility, so we worked close together, worked on some projects where we saw great outcomes. Like you said, over the couple of years Our relationship continued to evolve. I became a regional vice president of operations, used him in some of the facilities that I got to oversee and we started to see the same quality that we saw in the beginning trickle out, and I think that's when we both kind of said this could work a different way. How can we work together? So I had the opportunity to come over two years ago and we think alike and we also think differently, but our minds always meet at the finish line For us with Evolutionary Healthcare, and it's not just myself being a nursing home administrator. Our background administrative crew that you don't see in the forefront are previous directors of nursing and skilled nursing facilities or floor nurses, and I really take pride in the piece that we understand and we get it from the facility level A lot of these groups and providers.
Speaker 1:You know everybody's offering great things, correct? But we're all speaking the same tune. Hey, we can reduce your falls, we can reduce your RTH, we can do this, we can do that, but, all realistically, are the providers understanding what the facilities are going through? Do they understand quality measures and the drive to get there? Do they understand survey and the outcomes and how to help boost those outcomes for the facility? And I think that that's what's important and that's what sets us apart and I think that's what evolves us, is that we have that core understanding and I think that that's what continues to drive evolutionary, outside of the quality of care that the providers are giving.
Speaker 2:Yes, so I'm a big advocate of holistic healing and that's one thing that we bring to the table as an organization functional medicine and holistic health. Tell us how you were integrating that or the honors I should say in the post-acute space.
Speaker 3:So the post-acute space didn't have many holistic options when we first started. So we've been putting in osteopathic neuromusculoskeletal physicians. They specialize and do techniques such as OMT, the manipulative treatment. It's a hands-on approach done by a physician that they'll work on your lymphatic flow, muscle energy. If you're constipated, they can help with your constipation. They can do the joint manipulations to alleviate the pain. We've had significant results in the nursing homes decreasing narcotics. They can do local trigger injections or joint injections. It's a wide variety of things they can do, but the biggest benefits that we've seen in these nursing homes is one it's a hands-on approach. They're not just prescribing a medication, You're treating the root. You're treating the problem at the root. You're letting the body allow it to heal itself and use its natural techniques. We're just supplementing it. I would say that's the biggest thing that separates us from most companies is our approach to medicine is different.
Speaker 2:Very innovative, very innovative. So talk to us here about just the innovation, uh projects moving forward, but uh, uh aspects clinically that we're going to add as an organization. So your vision moving forward um.
Speaker 1:So, first, with continuing to build out the omt program and spread the awareness, I think people get conflicted with the fact that we start with it's a non-pharmacological approach to pain management. So they immediately think, oh well, we already have physiatry in-house, we're not interested, and it's one. It's actually it's an accessory, right. We're able to collaboratively work with those teams. What people need to understand is, like Dr Balut said, it's a hands-on approach to care, where it doesn't just have to be pain management.
Speaker 1:The demographic of patients that we're working with are used to spending time with their provider. This is a physician-led program and they're getting hands-on care for at least 20 to 30 minutes with the provider. That alone sets us apart, right. We're typically used to the providers knocking on the door how you doing, ms Jones? I'm fine, you feeling better? Let me check your heart rate, et cetera. We're taking care to the next level. Other visions that we have I wouldn't quite give the blueprint to, but just know that we're working and we are. Our biggest goal is to make sure that we're making a difference and making it in quality ways.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes. Now, sierra, I know your personal story right regarding OMT, but tell us how you were convinced.
Speaker 1:So, just like Dr B said, a lot of people don't have the open-mindedness to holistic approach. Right In the world it's starting to become more and more popular, but especially in the skilled nursing setting we're kind of closed off to just this is how we've always done it right and this is traditional. If it works, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Well, it's not necessarily broken, but it can get better, right, um? So I had a physician who worked with us who was specialized in onmm, and she would always tell us let's try omt, let's try omt. And honestly I would say I'm from the backwoods of west virginia, miss me with the holistic hippie stuff. You know that's not going to work. You're not going to touch me and fix my pain. Can you just give me a script to get through? We were playing basketball.
Speaker 1:One day I twisted my knee. This guy's going to tell you he crossed me over, but I ate my own words. My knee was swollen and I finally allowed the physician to do treatment on my knee. The swelling went down in 20 minutes. She used a portable ultrasound to see that I had torn my meniscus and that's when a light bulb went out or came on and we tried it in.
Speaker 1:We had one opportunity to try it in a pilot program in a sniff. After six months we had decreased their long-term narcotics by 78% and falls and naturally falls in RTH reduced, wow. And we were also able to, you know, show a difference in polypharmacy, et cetera. So we've kind of started trickling up and down the East Coast, made our way into the West Coast, and now we have attention from different providers and groups out of state that we're going to be able to expand our services to and we're super excited for. For me as an administrator, it's something that I'm proud of, because we are truly getting to the root of the problem instead of masking it with narcotics or medications that are unnecessary. So it's something I'm proud of and I don't feel like I'm just saying that because it's part of my career.
Speaker 2:So it's something I'm proud of and I don't feel like I'm just saying that because it's part of my career Right, right, right. So big thing about organizations and providers when they're seeking to partner with skilled nursing facilities. The thing that I cherish is that we have employees that really enjoy doing what they do, and we embrace that. And so the culture. I always say you treat your employees well. Ultimately, that's the patient's going to also feel that as well. So the culture talk about our culture here at Evolutionary Healthcare. You don't see many practices or organizations you know interviewing live and promoting their other physicians as well, but that's one thing I think is very unique about us is that you can go on our LinkedIn page and see our doctors, hear from them personally, but just overall your approach to culture building.
Speaker 3:We're building out the company in a way that's going to empower physicians. As a physician, I loved some of the parts of working at a hospital, but the autonomy of having your own practice, setting your hours, picking your own days that's kind of the culture that we're giving them. We want to supplement their life. I want them to be able to make more money with evolutionary healthcare than they would be able to make on their own. So we're more positioning ourselves as a management service for these physicians so they don't have to move per se to Florida where we can acquire the buildings around them. They can have their own practice and then round with us a day or two a week.
Speaker 3:And then that's the process that we we've launched in West Virginia by partnering with West Virginia School of Medicine and their neuromuscular skeletal program. So we're more so finding physicians that are leaders in their community and want to stay in their community and then giving them a opportunity to be able to make enough income and not move away. That's why we think that we're going to be able to change the game and revolutionize the way that health care is delivered. It all starts with. It all starts with your providers, and if your providers are well taken care of, everything falls in place.
Speaker 2:I 100% agree with that. I love the fact. One of the things we say is we play nice in the sandbox. So just leading it with stating that I want to ask misconceptions right With us. You know, introducing the holistic approach, folks in medicine in the skilled nursing space. If you could talk about misconceptions, that are hesitations right that other organizations may have about embracing sort of our vision in regards to that, tell them they don't have the second guess.
Speaker 3:Like Sierra was saying earlier about the pain management, sometimes we're viewed as a pain management group. Our number one referral source are physiatrists and inpatient rehabs. We supplement what they're doing. We don't replace any specialty. The neuromuscular physicians are their own specialty. It doesn't interfere with therapies. Billing doesn't interfere with the billing. Compensation doesn't interfere with a primary doctor's compensation. It's supplemental and the results speak for themselves.
Speaker 1:It's an added impact right. So I think that that's what people don't realize. It's not taking away, it's adding to. Not only adding to care, but it's adding to something that you're able to market. It's something different and it's getting from a customer service approach, a satisfaction approach. You know the residents start to say, oh, my personal masseuse is here and while the neuromusculoskeletal physician is much more than that. That is what they perceive it as and that's what we're fine with. Right, because you're making them feel better. A success story that we had. We had a lady who needed a back surgery for 10 years and was on so many narcotics. After seven months of OMT treatment she was able to titrate down the amount of narcotics that was preventing her from getting the surgery and she was able to have that back surgery. So those are the type of things that are impressive and that we're proud of.
Speaker 2:Right. One story I can share is that when I'm rounding to other facilities, one administrator told me to say with our patients that may have behaviors, they say they have behaviors every day except for OMT day Every day except for OMT day.
Speaker 3:We've become the most popular group in the facility.
Speaker 2:And what's unique and you can expound on this Sierra is how wound physicians also you know sort of see the impact or utilize OMT as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think even outside of the wound physicians, it's multiple physicians. Once they buy in and realize what we're doing and they realize that it doesn't affect their outcomes or their pockets, they start to buy in because they understand the benefits that OMT is able to provide. So it's not just wound, it's site providers. You know OMT can be used for anxiety and I think you guys will get to hear from one of our neuromusculoskeletal physicians here a little bit later, so we'll let him go down that honey hole and speak a little bit more from his profession. But I think it's something definitely that people should give an extra two to three minutes to learn about.
Speaker 2:Thank you. So we're concluding the interview here, but I want to say if Sierra got some skills, she can play ball right. She actually went to the college level, collegiate level playing too, and her and Dr Blue played often. Now, if it was a game of one-on-one, you guys had to play right now. Who would win? Right now, I'm taking me all day, you all day, dr Blue.
Speaker 3:I wouldn't want to hurt her feelings if I were taking an emotional day off.
Speaker 1:Understood Now if we had to play like first to 30, I'm dead after 10 points. This guy's cardio is impeccable, so don't give it all to me. This guy wakes up in the morning and goes and plays two hours of war of racquetball or tennis. It's insane. But if you really want to know, his wife would beat us both in one-on-one.
Speaker 2:In one-on-one Got it All right. And final question If you guys were in the woods and you were approached by a bear, what would you do? Would you run just die, or would you fight?
Speaker 3:You make a lot of noise.
Speaker 2:You make a lot of noise.
Speaker 3:So the bear hears you and you don't startle a bear and you definitely don't just start running away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sierra, okay, so I feel like if I'm making the noise, the bear is going to come after me. So I'm going with all three options I'm going to run, the bear is going to catch me, I'm going to try to fight it and then I'm going to die because the bear is going to kill me. What about you?
Speaker 2:Norm Me, I'm going to have to. Just, I saw it on Discovery Channel. They say it's best if you have like a backpack.
Speaker 1:What if you don't have?
Speaker 2:the backpack Norm? Well, I have one. What if you don't have the backpack Norm? Well, I have one. What are you doing in the woods? Right, I don't go in the woods, but I'm just like if I go, I'm going to have a backpack. How about that? So you squirt down, crouch down, have the backpack over your head and the bear is going to be distracted by the backpack. So he's going to be trying to mess with the backpack, and so that's like your guard. That's how I started discovering child. Okay, we'll stick to it.
Speaker 3:Whoever produced that needs to be fired. There's no way. That's good advice. Put it on your head so he starts kicking at it with his claws. Sounds like a great idea to die.
Speaker 2:So tell us, tell the audience here where they can reach us, our website, all those things here, all those things here.
Speaker 1:We're on LinkedIn, we are on Instagram, Facebook. Evolutionary Healthcare Our website is evolutionaryhcorg and you guys can always hunt down Norm the man, the myth, the legend, on LinkedIn.
Speaker 2:He'll tell you how to find him. I already messaged you too.
Speaker 1:Look at the deal. I already messaged you already.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, thank you for joining the show again. Sponsors the Lesson Get Comfy podcast here at the Florida. Healthcare Conference in Orlando, florida, 2025. I'm so glad that they did it. I feel good. Cmc Media is growing. Thank you, tune in to the next show. All right, thank you so much. Bye, guys. Yeah.
Speaker 1:We got it. This episode of let's Get Comfy was brought to you by.
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