Veterans Care Today: Mike Perez Of BrightStar Care On How The US Has Improved Its Care For Veterans Over The Past Five Years
An Interview With Eric Pines
Learn to Listen. Most of us have heard the saying about having one mouth and two ears. This is the most important skill of all the skills required to be a good salesperson.
The daily headlines remind us of how countries around the world care or do not care for their military service members. How does the United States hold up with regard to how it cares for its veterans? We know in the past questions have been raised about the VA system, but it seems that a corner has been turned and veterans’ care has improved. How exactly has the VA system been improved? How does the US care for veterans compared to other comparable countries? What exciting new technological or methodological innovations are being used to improve veterans’ health outcomes? To address these questions, we are talking to successful physicians, healthcare workers, veterans, or other VA employees and officials who can share stories and insights from their experience about the state of veterans’ care today and how the US has improved its care for veterans over the last five years.
As a part of this series, I had the pleasure to interview Mike Perez.
BrightStar Care of Santa Barbara is owned by navy veteran Mike Perez, who served for four years. After retiring from the navy, he turned to franchising and entrepreneurship as his second act. Now he provides seniors, injured veterans and those in need of care services with a higher standard of home-based care.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive into our interview, our readers would like to get to know you a bit. Can you tell us a bit about your backstory and a bit about what brought you to this specific career path?
I have been in direct sales for years. I knew nothing about the healthcare industry until I become the sole caregiver for a loved one. This opened my eyes to the need for home care and how caring for a person takes a huge toll.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
There are so many stories since this business gives immediate satisfaction and results. One that stands out is the beautiful woman we cared for who suffered from Alzheimer’s. During conversations about her life we learned that she worked on the Manhattan Project. I have also met men who landed on the beach on D-Day.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
I like to say that it does no good to go around with your hair on fire. Reacting to a challenge without learning the facts does not allow us to stay on a level keel. Once we have facts we can thoughtfully create a plan to meet the challenge. When I was diagnosed with cancer it was important not to go around with my hair on fire. We learned the facts, the treatments and the odds of success, made an informed decision and started the path to become cancer free.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you think that will help people?
Sharon and I have recently expanded our territory where the community is being underserved with quality home care. This commitment is a big stretch for our entire team but we got tired of turning away those with health care needs that we could provide.
How would you define an “excellent healthcare provider”?
Our entire team is focused on our Core Values. Be Open and Positive, Serve With Passion, Do The Right Thing, Do What You Say and Make It Great. We have a dedicated training coordinator and training room to provide immediate training for any situation a caregiver may need before going to provide care. We show up for shifts 99.9% of the time and when we do not we are sure the client or family is aware. If we make a mistake Sharon and I take the heat, learn the facts about it and fix it. We remind every member of the company that our focus is to provide a higher standard of care to our client. It seems odd that our office staff and back office work is a strong part of providing great care. When we have good processes we can focus on helping our caregivers be better at their job.
Ok, thank you for that. Let’s now jump to the main focus of our interview. Based on your experience can you please share three recent improvements to veterans care that you are really pleased about?
The VA seems to be more active about helping with home care needs of Vets. We have had so many Vets tell us they do not qualify for aid. We put them in touch with the local VA Center and encourage them to inquire again about new programs that are coming online. The VA has started to reach out to agencies like ours to help coordinate care for those who do qualify.
In contrast, can you highlight three areas of veterans care that still need improvement? What would you suggest needs to be done to address those challenges?
The VA programs available and qualification process is unwieldly and hard to understand.
From your perspective how does the US care for veterans compared to other comparable countries?
No Comment
What exciting new technological or methodological innovations are being used to improve veterans’ health outcomes?
Technology is certainly changing home care with TeleMedicine and remote monitoring of vitals. However, it takes a real live person to visit a person who needs help. Nothing replaces a caring human being when a person needs help with changing adult briefs. It takes a caregiver to sit and listen to stories of the good old days, a robot cannot have that conversation.
This is our signature question that we ask in many of our interviews. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started My Career”?
- Be Patient. Success generally does not come overnight.
- Become an Expert in your Field. Early in my sales career I thought I was able to sell most things with only a small amount of knowledge about the product. That turned out not to be true!
- Learn to Listen. Most of us have heard the saying about having one mouth and two ears. This is the most important skill of all the skills required to be a good salesperson.
- Work hard. It sometimes seems like I am working hard but in reality it is misdirected busy work. Working hard on things that move you forward toward your goal is the real work. Focus on the important and usually hard tasks first.
- Go All In. All of the above items worked best when I finally gave up the idea that I could do things half way and be successful.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
I think a movement that encouraged people to follow the teachings of most religions of the world especially the Bible is the way to bring the most good to all people.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
Website: www.brightstarcare.com/santa-barbara
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharon-moss-holland-perez/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BSCSantaBarbara
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sirenadelmarllc453
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success and good health!
About the Interviewer: Eric L. Pines is a nationally recognized federal employment lawyer, mediator, and attorney business coach. He represents federal employees and acts as in-house counsel for over fifty thousand federal employees through his work as a federal employee labor union representative. A formal federal employee himself, Mr. Pines began his federal employment law career as in-house counsel for AFGE Local 1923 which is in Social Security Administration’s headquarters and is the largest federal union local in the world. He presently serves as AFGE 1923’s Chief Counsel as well as in-house counsel for all FEMA bargaining unit employees and numerous Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs unions.
While he and his firm specialize in representing federal employees from all federal agencies and in reference to virtually all federal employee matters, his firm has placed special attention on representing Veteran Affairs doctors and nurses hired under the authority of Title. He and his firm have a particular passion in representing disabled federal employees with their requests for medical and religious reasonable accommodations when those accommodations are warranted under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (ADA). He also represents them with their requests for Federal Employee Disability Retirement (OPM) when an accommodation would not be possible.
Mr. Pines has also served as a mediator for numerous federal agencies including serving a year as the Library of Congress’ in-house EEO Mediator. He has also served as an expert witness in federal court for federal employee matters. He has also worked as an EEO technical writer drafting hundreds of Final Agency Decisions for the federal sector.
Mr. Pines’ firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has offices in Baltimore, Maryland and Atlanta, Georgia. His first passion is his wife and five children. He plays classical and rock guitar and enjoys playing ice hockey, running, and biking. Please visit his websites at www.pinesfederal.com and www.toughinjurylawyers.com. He can also be reached at eric@pinesfederal.com.
Veterans Care Today: Mike Perez Of BrightStar Care On How The US Has Improved Its Care For Veterans… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.