Editor’s Note: McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Home Care are profiling the McKnight’s 2023 Pinnacle Awards honorees daily in April and May. For additional McKnight’s Pinnacle Awards content, visit this page.
When Denise Robertson arrived at Northern Iowa Therapy in 2017, the small company that serves rural Iowa was visiting a single outpatient population and nine skilled nursing communities.
Since then, she’s expanded operations to employ more than 200 therapists visiting more than 60 outpatient communities and 14 skilled nursing facilities. In 2021, she also started NIT’s home health care agency to ensure a continuum of care.
“Identifying and capitalizing on possibilities is one of my greatest joys,” says Robertson, who is the company’s chief operating officer. “I am determined to live a life that matters, and help others do the same.”
Robertson has even added “Creator of Possibilities” to her other title: principal owner of the DMR Team, or Dynamic Management and Staffing Response Team, a healthcare management and executive staffing firm.
Before joining NIT and starting the DMR Team, Robertson was COO for Rehab Management and regional vice president of Select Rehab from 1998 to 2016. Prior to joining the healthcare industry, she held human resources and operations roles in other industries. She is a certified dementia specialist as well as a former resident assessment coordinator.
At the pandemic’s start, Robertson and the team at NIT quickly adjusted, offering complimentary telehealth services to the communities they served until the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services allowed for reimbursement. The therapy provider also ensured that each of its clinicians was assigned to a single site, minimizing exposure for both the employee and the residents.
The McKnight’s Pinnacle Awards program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Home Care. Honorees were recognized March 7 at a gala banquet and awards ceremony in Chicago. The program’s Platinum sponsor was MatrixCare. Omnicare was a Silver sponsor, and additional sponsors included Pinnacle Quality Insight, HealthDirect and Sentrics.
