Cathy Baxter:
Medical Records/ CNA

Cathy started working for Spoon River HH in February of 2006.  At Spoon River, she is in charge of data entry; including telephone orders, new sign ups, recertification’s, and referrals. She also verifies the payment source for new patients, files, and performs patient care when needed.     Cathy has over 10 years of experience in the healthcare industry and received a Bachelor’s Degree.  Cathy has a certified nurse assistant certificate and has worked in health care for 19 years.  

Cathy spends her free time with her family. She has been married for 22 years and has two children 17 and 21 years old. She loves her 5 pets: 3 cats and 2 dogs. She considers them members of the family.

Elaine Knox:
Community Education Coordinator

My responsibilities include: Phone nurse, client/physician liaison, medical supplies, flu shot clinics  

I have been a nurse since 1968. My background includes surgical, pediatrics, trachs, vents, general, bedside nursing and home health.  

Everyone thinks I’m from England because I have an accent. But actually I’m from Maine, although I’ve lived in Fulton County almost 50 years. I enjoy cooking, quilting, traveling, and working at SRHH. I love home health, it is an ever changing field that continually challenges me. I love the clients, my co-workers physicians and their staff. Each day is different and I look forward to each and every day!

Susan Platt:
Director of Professional Services

Susan has been involved with Spoon River Home Health since 1993.  Her main role is the “Director of Professional Services.” As an R.N., she oversees all nursing and therapy- internally and externally. She communicates and educates on a daily basis with the staff of SRHHS, therapists, MD officers, hospital discharge planners, skilled nursing facilities, senior apartments, all referral sources, and the clients and their families.

Susan's background is in critical care nursing. She always formed strong relationships with her patients and their families, and wondered what happened to them when they left ICU. It was for this reason, when the opportunity arose, she went into home health care and chose to open a home health agency with the help of her mentor and the best nurse she knows, her mother!

 A friend, on a stressful day in health care, asked her what her ideal job was. After a lot of thought, she has to admit she's doing her “ideal” job. She gets to meet some of the nicest, funniest, sweetest, strangest people in the world. She loves to hear their stories. She loves to be able to make a difference in their life. Sometimes in home health we have the same client for years and sometimes only days but it is such a privilege to be invited into someone’s home and life and be able to make a difference.

Brian Platt:
Administrator

Brian manages all of Spoon River's business activities in the office. He says that he is lucky because his wife, Susan, manages the clinical and community education activities. Plus, Brian says that Spoon River also has a great staff which makes the business run fairly smoothly.

Following graduation from Western Illinois University, Brian started working for the Soil Conservation Service and also farming with his dad. Susan and he had been married for about 1 year when she started Spoon River Home Health. Being married to a nurse, having a mother-in –law for a nurse, and having a grandmother who was a Navy nurse must have qualified Brian to start helping out with the business side of a homecare company. After 2 years of helping manage the business, he became the administrator when Susan slowed down to have their 2 girls.   

Brian likes to ski on the water and snow, as well as horseback riding. He had the chance to show off his horses when he acted in the movie Sand Prairie. His favorite drink is anything that has seen the inside of an oak barrel for at least 12 years.          

Norma St. Clair:
Director of Client Services

I started working for Spoon River Home Health in 1999 as a home health aide while attending nursing school. I truly loved working as an aide and had qualms about completing the nursing program to work as a RN, knowing that my time with patients would be more limited in a nursing role. After graduating, I worked in a hospital, but soon came back to home health so I could practice nursing in a more personal setting.

In my free time I enjoy riding the motorcycle with my husband and spending time with family. We have three grown children and one grandson.  I also enjoy fellowship with my church family and recently went on a medical mission trip to the Dominican Republic.

Mary Lou Record

Dawn Giacabazi:
Senior Intake Specialist

Dawn has 13 years medical experience. Dawn works with Social Services, discharge planners, physician’s offices, other home care agencies, and individual’s to coordinate in home services. If what you need is not what we provide or funding is an issue she uses many of her contacts in the community to arrange assistance. Dawn is also responsible for maintaining and scheduling skilled nursing services.  

Dawn says the best part of her job, “knowing the relief she was able to bring to the client and or their families & they are receiving the best possible services available. Dawn is a certified nursing assistant with 13 years of experience, which began with Spoon River Home Health Services. Her experience including: caring for many clients in home health, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities. Dawn says she thinks she brings a unique perspective to her job after becoming a client herself.  

Dawn describes herself as caring, compassionate, and self motivated. Her co-workers describe her as a perfectionist who never leaves until the job is done. Dawn enjoys spending time with her family. She is a wife and mother of 2 children. Her hobbies include reading, walking, and having fun with her children. She is a certified scuba diver with 11 years experience.

Debbie Stewart:
Billing Office Manager

At Spoon River, Debbie's responsibilities include: MC billing, Payroll and managing employees in billing office.

She has 15 years of experience in the healthcare industry.  She started with Spoon River Home Health Care in 1993 as a Certified Nurse Aide and enjoyed working with the patients in their homes.  In 1996 she left the field and worked as assistant to the administrator of the newly started Private side of the company. This is where Debbie began learning about the Office procedures of the agency and through seminars that she attended, learned diagnosis coding and MC billing. She left the company in April of 1998 when her third child was born but returned in Nov. of 1999 when the Home Health Company she was working for at that time closed and referred their patients and office personnel to Spoon River. Debbie thinks this is where she was always meant to be and she's very happy she was given the opportunity to return.

Brandi Barnes:
Customer Service Specialist

Brandi is assisting with nurse scheduling, referrals, data entry, and new admissions. She also assists the QA nurse with OASIS tracking.

Brandi has an Associate in Arts and Science along with a 3yr degree/diploma in Nursing.  She has worked in healthcare for 6 years.

Brandi describes herself as pleasant to be around, and always has a good attitude and smile on her face.  On the weekends she enjoys going to the dirt track, stock car races because her boyfriend drives, as do many of her friends. She also enjoy athletics, such as Softball and Basketball.  She LOVES watching Nascar Racing and cheering for #88 Dale Earnheart Jr.   Brandi also has a son who is 2 years old named Braden.  He is her world or rather her world revolves around him.  He is very energetic and outgoing and loves being outside.  He also enjoys going to the stock car races, ballgames and playing outside.  He keeps my life on the go and very interesting because you never know what will happen next.

Lex Walker:
IT Director

Lex has been providing leadership for the computing, networking and communications infrastructure for the entire organization since 2002.  His divisions are responsible for the design of multi-office networking and telecommunications infrastructure.

Lex has an Associate’s degree in Data Processing from a local community college. He attends various classes and training seminars geared toward network administration and security. He has 10 years computer experience and 6 years with Spoon River Home Health.

He describes himself as a quiet and easy to talk to person, with a preference for listening and speaking only when he has something important to say.  He likes to golf, although he doesn’t seem to find time anymore. He also enjoys bike (motorcycle) rides, maintaining his property, taking walks and wine making. 

Lisa Goodwin:
Billing Asst. CNS Prg. Asst.

Lisa's job consists of verifying notes for billing, CareLink coordinator, audit therapy bills, running the print shop, where we do most of our own forms, and assisting with our CNA educational facility. She also helps coordinate CNA in-services and provides instruction.  

She has 10 years of experience in the healthcare industry as well as a Bachelor’s Degree.   Lisa started out working as a homemaker while training to become a CNA. She continued working in the field for 10 years until being promoted to billing assistant.  

Lisa enjoys collecting frogs, thimbles, and spoons. She loves to watch NASCAR(Tony Stewart) and WWE(Batista). Her favorite sports teams are the Chicago Bears and the White Sox. She also has two wonderful children and a perfect husband who she loves very much. He also works for SRHHS.

Charlie Wilkinson:
Client Service Manager

Charlie is the scheduler and supervisor of the Home Health Aides and Home Care Assistants. She also works with multiple clients and agencies to provide intermittent and extended visits, which provide ADL and home making assistance within their home.  

She has been a C.N.A for 40 years. Charlie was one of the very first employees to be hired by SRHH in 1993. Prior to getting into management, she did direct patient care for 30 years. She also has raised 5 children and 2 grandchildren.  

Charlie loves a challenge and loves people, therefore Home Health is perfect for her. Helping people remain safely in their homes that they love,  is a very special reward!

Mary Ericson:
Quality Improvement Coordinator

As the Quality Improvement Coordinator my tasks include coordinating the development, implementation, and evaluation of the QI program.  My main goals are to identify trends, prioritize, and recommend improvements based on best practices in the nursing industry.  This includes education of nursing staff.  

I have 10 years of experience in the healthcare industry, an Associates Degree from Blackhawk College in Moline. I have been a RN for about 15 years and a CNA prior to that. I have a varied background including hospital, long-term care, and home care. Home Care is by far my favorite!    

My personality fits so well into Home Care! I really like change and hate routine. Working in Home Care  offers unique, interesting, and challenging situations every day.   I enjoy treating each patient as an individual and doing whatever possible to have them remain in their home.  I believe the future of Home Care will just continue to grow! There is so much that can be done in the home that used to be only done in the hospital.  I love to continue to learn everyday and share that knowledge with my coworkers, patients, and families.

Margo Marliere

Lori Staley-Brian:
Client Service Coordinator

Lori has worked with Spoon River Home Health since December of 2007.  As Client Service Coordinator she schedules Home Health Aides and Home Service Workers.  She also prepares the monthly in-services for the HHA’s & HSW’s.

Lori gained 20 years office management experience while helping to run a ready mix concrete company with her parents. She went to State Concrete College where she became QC/QA Certified. She is also a State Level I & II Concrete Engineer and Concrete Lab Tech.  Since that time she has owned and operated a western retail store, until selling out in 2007. Now she is still in western wear and tack, but sells it from the back of her trailer. 

If you want to talk horses, Lori can talk all day.  Lori says that whenever she meets someone she always gives them a chance and never judges. She spends as much free time as possible with her family, especially her granddaughter, Lacie. They love to ride the 5 horses her husband and she own and spend most weekends camping and riding.

Brenda Ford:
Billing Specialist

Brenda has been employed at SRHH for over 11 years.  She prepares the final billing audit for all Medicare, HMO/Medicare, and insurance episodes.  She works closely with the nursing staff in order to insure that all documentation required for this process is received in a timely manner.  

Brenda also has over 10 years of experience in the healthcare industry along with a Bachelor’s Degree.  She has 25 years of experience at previous workplaces in accounts receivable, accounts payable, inventory control, job costing, budget preparation, payroll, government payroll reports, and income preparation, which makes her highly qualified for this position.  

Brenda attempts to read every day.  It helps her relax at the end of a long day.  She also enjoys being outdoors in the summer working in her flower beds and in her one acre truck patch.  She spends as much time as possible with her two youngest grandchildren, Alex(5) and Austin(3).  They ride bikes, play games, fly kites, fly airplanes, and ride the golf cart.  Never a dull moment!