The Future Leaders Awards program is brought to you in partnership with PointClickCare. The program is designed to recognize up-and-coming industry members who are shaping the next decade of behavioral health, senior housing, skilled nursing, home health, and hospice care. To see this year’s Future Leaders, visit https://futureleaders.agingmedia.com/.
Emina Krajina, executive director at Friendship Village, has been named a 2024 Future Leader by Senior Housing News.
To become a Future Leader, an individual is nominated by their peers. The candidate must be a high-performing employee who is 40-years-old or younger, a passionate worker who knows how to put vision into action, and an advocate for seniors, and the committed professionals who ensure their well-being.
Krajina spoke with Senior Housing News about her early interest and education in senior living and the lessons she’s learned since joining it, among other topics.
What drew you to this industry?
As a teenager, I’ve been introduced to caring for a geriatric individual, my mother, and that was the start of my curiosity and education on seniors and how to provide the best possible care in their homes. My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s dementia early on in her life and I became her caregiver. Not having proper resources and not knowing where to turn to help was exhausting. My goal was to find a way to impact caregivers and patients in their homes by providing different disciplines and resources to make their lives just a bit easier.
What’s your biggest lesson learned since starting to work in this industry?
I’ve learned so much over the past several years being in senior care and continue to learn, but one of the biggest lessons learned in this industry is that you have to continuously assess your agency to ensure you are up to date with federal and state rules and regulations. Continue educating yourself to be able to educate your staff and pass that knowledge to our patients/caregivers and providers.
If you could change one thing with an eye toward the future of senior housing, what would it be?
If I could change one thing toward the future of senior housing, it would be eliminating managed care visit restrictions. Every patient is different with different acuity and a set number of low reimbursement visits is not enough for an agency to make a huge impact on a patient. Contracts and visits should be approved by patient acuity and needs.
What do you foresee as being different about the senior housing industry looking ahead to 2025?
Honestly, I am worried about the future of senior care. We are seeing a shift in patients switching to Medicare replacement plans that are strictly managed which makes it so much harder for home health agencies to meet the needs of their patients and sustain low reimbursement rates for the agency.
In a word, how would you describe the future of senior housing?
Unpredictable.
If you could give advice to yourself looking back to your first day in the industry, what would it be and why?
It is natural for humans to jump into a new role and seek ways to impress their new employer. Looking back to my first day in the industry, I got right into it, but if I could go back, I would take those first days to simply observe and assess the environment: talk to employees, managers, review financials, compliance books, etc. to be able to understand the business and its challenges.
