by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
There was a time when nursing homes were considered safe, reliable facilities in which to place America’s needy, aging population. Recent horror stories involving inadequate care and soaring costs have caused many nursing homes across the country to close and invoked trepidation in the minds of many who would have considered them viable final living quarters for loved ones.
All of this has caused many to seek in-home care for elderly parents. However, 24-hour attention can also get costly. A new industry sweeping the nation may be answer and one local company is quickly gaining a foothold on the market. Comfort Keepers is presented as affordable, non-medical in-home care and while the faces may not be familiar, the name is — Movsovitz, as in the longtime produce company that provides many of Jacksonville’s restaurants with their fruits and vegetables.
On Jan. 1, Larry, Seth and Max Movsovitz formed Moso Enterprises, Inc. and opened their first Comfort Keepers in Jacksonville, becoming one of almost 400 franchises in the country. Locally, Seth Movsovitz owns the Jacksonville Beach-based company. With a second franchise in Lawrence, Kan., Sandy Argroves is the general manager of the Jacksonville Beach office which allows Movsovitz to live in Lawrence and run that office.
For Movsovitz, the decision to go into in-home care was spurred by several things.
“My background is in elementary education and I taught school in Topeka and really enjoyed it,” said the 1984 Bolles School grad. “I decided I was ready for a change and I did not want to go into administration. I did a little research to see what’s out there I’d enjoy. I knew I loved teaching, working with kids and helping other people.”
After discovering in-home care, Movsovitz looked at home — Jacksonville — and saw a void.
“I did more research, looked into the start-up costs and what it entailed,” he said.
What Movsovitz found was one of the nation’s fastest growing industries. Comfort Keepers is based in Dayton, Ohio and its success is grounded by one simple idea — keeping the person in their home and functioning for as long as possible. While Comfort Keepers employees are certainly willing to entirely perform a variety of functions such as light housekeeping, grocery shopping, laundry and cooking, Movsovitz stressed the objective is not to completely enable people.
“Our primary goal is to keep the client in their home as long as possible,” said Movsovitz.
Since starting in January, Comfort Keepers has acquired about 100 clients, most of whom are in the Amelia Island area with several on the north and west of Jacksonville, in Arlington and Atlantic Beach. Plans are to create a second territory that would encompass the rest of Jacksonville and into Ponte Vedra.
With close to 70 employees, Movsovitz is quickly building a solid company that not only provides a needed service, but is also growing and hiring new people. However, the objective isn’t to corner the market, but rather expand smartly. One of the biggest challenges that must be met is hiring quality people.
“We do background checks and even bond them,” said Argroves. “We do license checks and other things all to protect the client.”
In addition to a variety of light services, Comfort Keepers also provides the elderly with something as simple as companionship. Movsovitz says many of his clients just want someone to talk with or take walks with each day. The company, however, takes precautions to assure its clients don’t become totally reliant upon Comfort Keepers to help them with virtually every facet of their lives.
“We are aware of that at all times,” said Movsovitz. “We do not want them to become totally dependent. Our goal is to keep them as independent as possible and encourage them to do things. We take a very proactive approach.”
So far, so good. Movsovitz said he’s happy with the company and how it’s grown in just a few months. Right now, he doesn’t measure success in revenue generated, but rather hours of service billed per week. By year’s end, he’d like to see those hours double.
“We didn’t put up an ‘Open’ sign and get swamped with business,” he said. “It has taken a while. Our biggest referrals come from existing clients.”