At first glance, David Savitsky may seem an unlikely leader. Quiet, thoughtful, and dignified, he resembles more the teacher and educational publisher of his earlier life than the head of a multimillion-dollar corporation and new chairman of the American Association of Homecare (AAHomecare). But Savitsky makes things happen. For the last 23 years he has led Tender Loving Care/Staff Builders Inc, a $250-million, 100-location home health care company he founded with his brother Steve Savitsky in Lake Success, NY.

“He is a reserved person, but when he speaks people listen,” says Thomas Connaughton, president and CEO of AAHomecare. “He always speaks with an understanding of the industry and the issues facing it.”

Savitsky says leadership comes naturally to him. He was chairman of the Home Health Services and Staffing Association from 1994 to 2000. In 1999, he was named vice chairman of Tender Loving Care after serving as president in 1998, and as secretary, treasurer, and director of the company since founding it in 1978.

“I feel that what I am doing really helps the people we are servicing and really helps our industry,” he says. “If there are those who feel that they need to sit on the sidelines and let others make decisions for them, then I think they are missing an opportunity to have their voice heard. They are missing an opportunity to be counted among those that would make a difference in the industry.”

Savitsky believes in the benefits of home care and has tremendous compassion for the people the industry serves. He founded Tender Loving Care with his brother, Steve, after he was unable to find appropriate services for his wife’s 90-year-old great aunt, who needed home nursing help after being injured in a fall. Their company provides round-the-clock nursing to the elderly and sick. Under their leadership, Tender Loving Care has grown to cover 22 states and the District of Columbia. In addition, Savitsky has owned and operated three DME businesses.

For Connaughton, Savitsky’s home health agency background makes him an ideal choice as the next leader of AAHomecare, because the previous chairman, Don White, came from an HME background. “It is the first time we have had a home health agency executive as our chairman, and I think David will continue the traditions that Don White set of representing all elements of the industry,” Connaughton says.

Savitsky says having broad background experience makes him a more effective AAHomecare chair because it allows him to better represent the different perspectives of members. “Even though I come out of a home health care business, I have worked in almost all of the other businesses represented by AAHomecare,” he says. “I’ve lived through it. It’s not theoretical to me.”

For home health agencies, being able to see the big picture in home care is key because industry issues are complicated. “All of the different elements that come to bear on the home care patient are things that we see and we deal with,” Savitsky says. “Unless we have the support of the other necessary services, we can’t be successful as a nursing company, because if you don’t have the right equipment, supplies, and medication to service the patient, then you can’t service that patient at home.”

During his tenure, Savitsky hopes to encourage direct grassroots action and leadership by AAHomecare members for a simple, practical reason—they can make a greater impact on Congressional leaders than the organization’s professional staff ever could. “I believe very strongly that the members of the association are the best ones to carry the message,” he says. “The members are the ones that are in close contact with beneficiaries. The members are the ones that live and breathe the issues, the regulations, and the requirements on a day-to-day basis.”

His ambitions for grassroots action extend further than the AAHomecare membership. “Another thing we want to do to a much greater extent than we have ever done before is to involve the beneficiaries themselves,” he says. “Congress really seems to be attentive to they hear from those who receive the care.”

A long-term project Savitsky hopes to enact is a home care study that could be used as a benchmark to educate Congress, the public, and other health care providers about the value of home care and keep false definitions of the industry from circulating. “Those who are not in the industry—and that includes consumers, the general public, and Congress—they do not know it as intimately as we know it,” he says. “We want to establish [the value of home care] in a bedrock fashion, and the best way we know how to do that is by having statistics and studies that we can turn to ... when we say that home care is the patient-preferred, cost-effective alternative to institutionalization.”

However, Savitsky’s primary motivation is to help the customer and not any political agenda. “Once you understand how much your services are valued by that person, by that family ... then you can understand that you are part of a very important project to help people maintain their dignity, maintain their privacy, maintain a quality of life while they are recuperating, rehabilitating, or passing through a phase of life,” he says.

C.A. Wolski is associate editor of Dealer/ Provider.