Great Lakes Caring Home Health and Hospice announced today that Grace Hospice of Kansas City, MO, and Heart of America Hospice of Topeka, KS have become a part of Great Lakes Caring.
According to a statement issued by Great Lakes Caring, owners of Grace Hospice and Heart of America Hospice have operated a premier Hospice operation since 1997. Those owners, Laura and Steve Parkey, will continue to be a part of the management and integration process of Grace Hospice and Heart of America Hospice. The company is well known and respected throughout their 22 county service area and is a founder and key member of the Memorial Holiday Celebration of Veterans, the largest celebration of Veterans in Kansas.
Laura Parkey said, “We are excited to have selected Great Lakes Caring because they recognize and share our mission and the responsibility we have to deliver extraordinary end-of-life care to those we serve. Each of our employees is focused on creating 
a special relationship with each patient and their family as we guide them through the end-of-life journey. Great Lakes Caring has a mission that is a mirror image of what we do every day. Steve and I believe that Great Lakes Caring provides to us an effective platform for enhanced operational excellence as well as both organic and acquisition growth. They have a long and very successful track record of supporting home health and hospice companies by providing the strategic, tactical and financial resources they need to build their businesses. Great Lakes Caring is also recognized as a national award winning employer of choice in the health care industry and we are looking forward to utilizing their employee satisfaction and engagement processes to supplement our current employee appreciation programs.”
William Deary, Chief Executive Officer of Great Lakes Caring stated, “Grace Hospice and Heart of America Hospice provide a unique opportunity to continue expanding Great Lakes Caring’s operations in the Midwest. They are a much respected hospice provider in their local communities and have a strong reputation for superior quality health care and excellence in end-of-life care and caring. We believe that they have a world-class Management Team, that we are most pleased will join us and become a part of our Team. They have a proven track record of success and we are delighted to collaborate with them to further enhance the Mission, Vision and Values of the company.”
Great Lakes Caring, based in Jackson, Michigan, offers a broad range of services in the continuum of in-home health care. The company was founded in 1994 by Cherilyn Deary, a registered nurse, and has built its business on a patient-centric commitment to superior quality and innovation. Great Lakes Caring has become one of the highest rated home health and hospice companies in the country, developing and implementing its products and services throughout the Midwest. The company employs more than 2,600 health care professionals in 25 offices, providing superior quality home care, hospice care, palliative care as well as home-based primary care and private duty services to more than 9,000 patients daily. In 2016 Fortune Magazine selected Great Lakes Caring as one of the 20 Best Workplaces in Health Care in the United States.
Earlier this week, Wellspring Capital Management announced that it has exited its investment in Great Lakes Caring.
Alexander E. Carles, a Managing Partner of Wellspring who leads the firm’s healthcare investments, said, “We are very pleased by what Great Lakes Caring has accomplished since we invested in the company in 2014. We have enjoyed working with William Deary, Adam Nielsen, Lakshu Sundaram and the entire management team to grow the company through a range of initiatives, and we thank them for their hard work and partnership.”
William Deary, Chief Executive Officer of Great Lakes Caring, added, “We are grateful to Wellspring for their support over the past few years. Their strategic guidance and expertise have been critical to strengthening our market position. As a result of Wellspring’s many contributions, our business is ideally positioned for future growth. Our team is enthusiastic to build on our recent achievements in the next phase of our evolution.”
Seth Pearson, a Partner of Wellspring, commented, “We are proud of the success of our investment in Great Lakes Caring. The company is well positioned for future growth. We wish the entire Great Lakes Caring team every success in the future.”
