Best of Care, Inc. President and COO Kevin Smith believes that a 360-degree approach is critical to serving the agency’s aging and disabled clients, wherever they choose to call home. In 2007 Kevin joined the business his father, Best of Care Founder and CEO Stephen Smith, began in 1981.
Having experienced the joys and challenges of caring for his own aging family members, Steve founded Best of Care to offer the right caregiver match and thorough attention to each client’s needs. As Best of Care’s President, Kevin Smith is building upon his father’s vision. Under Kevin’s direction, during the past five years Best of Care has grown to employ more than 350 caregivers and deliver home care services to over 1,000 clients per week.
Kevin Smith is helping his agency and industry adapt to home care’s challenges and opportunities within today’s cost-constrained health care environment. He has expanded Best of Care’s non-medical home care and homemaker-companion services from Boston and the South Shore to eastern Massachusetts, Cape Cod, and Martha’s Vineyard. He is at the forefront of education and technology initiatives that can help more people to receive quality care.
In 2010, Best of Care was one of the first home care agencies in the state to become accredited by the Home Care Alliance of Massachusetts. That year, Best of Care also became one of the first agencies in the state to be awarded a contract with the ABI Waiver Program which helps individuals with acquired brain injuries transition from facility care to community based, residential settings. Kevin has obtained contracts with ICOs, SCOs, and MassHealth to enable Best of Care to deliver home care services to recipients who, until recently, could only receive facility-based care.
Kevin has played a critical role in expanding Best of Care’s geographic reach. He oversaw Best of Care’s 2013 acquisition of Boston-based Independence Home Care and 2014 acquisition of Westwood-based Access Home Care. To serve clients and their families on the Cape, in 2015 Kevin and Steve opened a Best of Care office in Dennis.
Best of Care remains committed to serving the myriad aging-in-place needs of its diverse client base. In addition to offering private pay services to individuals and families with personal and/or long term care insurance, the agency is an established home care provider to Medicare and Medicaid-eligible seniors under contracts with eight of Massachusetts’ Elder Care Services’ Aging Services Access Points (ASAPs) in Boston, on the South Shore and on the Cape.
Continuous education and professional advancement – for Best of Care and for his peers across the home care industry – is one of Kevin’s priorities. As president and executive committee chair for the Home Care Aide Council – an industry group that represents the interests and professional development needs of Massachusetts’ home care aides – he actively supports creation and deployment of training courses for the state’s home care workforce.
To serve our rapidly growing senior population, the home care industry must address a severe shortage of skilled home health workers. Under Kevin’s leadership, Best of Care partners with Quincy Community College and the Quincy Housing Authority to offer a free non-credit Home Health Aide training program for the housing authority’s residents. Since its inception in early 2017, the program has graduated certified home health aides that work for Best of Care. A similar public-private-educational partnership is in the works on Cape Cod.
Kevin understands that technology enhancing remote communication between client, caregiver and family can improve both the quality and efficiency of home care.
Kevin has been profiled in and is a regular contributor to local and regional media outlets in Massachusetts, including the Quincy Patriot-Ledger, Cape Cod Times and Cape & Plymouth Business Magazine. A frequent contributor to Massachusetts’ online Radio Entrepreneurs webcast, he frequently speaks to health leadership, business and educational groups.
Kevin, his wife Joan, daughter Lucy and son Teddy live in Milton Mass.
Connect with Kevin by email (kevin@bestofcareinc.com), Twitter (@BestofCare) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/BestofCare/)