Frank V. Guerrieri, President and CEO
Jody A. Guerrieri, R.N. Vice President
In 1984, Frank, a bright, ambitious 26-year-old, with a will and desire to succeed, wanted a career that could combine his passion and goal of success.
His mother-in-law, Lois Whitesell an R.N., approached him with the idea of home health care. Frank, with no medical background, but a people person, had an innate business mind in sales and marketing and quickly saw the potential. He began developing and implementing processes for the business. His commitment to learn and drive toward excellence enabled him to become an expert in the home health care industry. By applying practical business principles that were unique to this industry, the business grew rapidly. He recognized a special need in home health care: a long-term cost affective 24-hour service that nearly everyone could afford. He coined the term “live-in”, which became a highly sought after and popular service.
Meanwhile, Frank’s wife, Jody, who had gone through Nursing School a few years earlier, worked her summers at the Hebrew Home for the Aged as a Nurse’s Aide, and provided private duty nursing care in the home while awaiting her nursing board test and results. These experiences gave her the chance to witness firsthand the need for better care for the elderly, and the importance of having more options of care provided in the comfort and security of their home. Later on, as a Registered Nurse, Jody worked in an intermediate cardiac care unit, as well as an emergency room.
Working with her husband, Frank, in the home health agency, Jody enjoyed teaching training classes for the home health aides, making supervisory visits to the clients for quality assurance, and maintaining clinical documentation.
For the past 24 years, the two have owned and operated, first home health care agencies and later a non-medical home care company. They personally performed the ongoing day-to-day tasks that marked the success of their business. They continually developed their caregiver base, never forgetting how important the caregivers were to the company, and nurtured them with great respect. Quality assurance was a mainstay of their day-to-day as well; regularly engaging their clients to find out how to better serve them. Perhaps their greatest identifiable strategy was the approach taken to passionately market to specifically targeted referral sources, developing and using key phrases that captured the audiences while finding ways to network through health seminars, health fairs, and speaking engagements.
When Frank decided to relocate his family from Central Florida to East Tennessee, he marketed to sell their 16 year established home health care business and successfully sold to a prominent hospital chain. In 1998, he started Help at Home, a non-medical home care service in East Tennessee. Although culturally different than Central Florida, he once again re-established his home care prominence by using the very same business and health care practices that made him successful in the past. “Are there other home care companies doing the same thing? Absolutely, but not with our years of experience or unique selling position,” Frank often is heard saying, “really, there is no competition!”
From a rural mountain setting to the valley of Knoxville, his expansion progressed, and to date his office is still providing assistance to those in need. Throughout each phase of developing these businesses, Frank had a strong desire to teach and nurture others in the same way that has brought him and his family such success and rewards.
Preferred Care at Home, a non-medical home care franchise, has been in development for the last 8 years, and was officially launched in August of 2007. Frank and Jody’s excitement and commitment to excellence is contagious. Potential franchise owners see that and are already quickly joining their team. With owners stretching from Minnesota, Michigan, Minnesota, Arizona, Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, as well as up and down the Florida coast, it is no coincidence that Preferred Care at Home has grown more than 4 times that of the average franchise company.
The Guerrieri’s have always run their businesses with a very personal touch. They say that this family feel is never going to change. This franchise family will not only soon stretch across every state in the nation but will become an international enterprise within the very near future. When you come on board with Preferred Care at Home, you join a family with family values and loyalty toward one another.
Frank and Jody know what it takes to succeed in the home care business. They have done it themselves for 24 years, and now want to come alongside you and watch you live your dream. When new franchise owners ask, “will I be successful?” Their answer is always, “We have absolutely no doubt, if you are willing to follow our proven system step by step. It has worked for us for now over 25 years and we will make sure it will work for you!”
Jody and Frank Guerrieri live in Boca Raton, FL with their two sons, Frankie, 18 and Ethan, 14. Their two daughters, Francesca, 23 and Gina, 22 reside in Knoxville TN. Along with Francesca, a University of Tennessee graduate, Gina, the Administrator, operates the Anderson and Roane Preferred Care at Home office.
Protecting your eyesight is one of the most important things you can do to maintain your quality of life. Although impaired vision is not normal, it is common. In fact, forty-five new cases of cataracts are diagnosed every hour in the U.S.
CROSSVILLE, TN –December 12 –Dianne Rathnow of Preferred Care at Home of Cumberland and Putnam County visits “Wheeling in the Outdoors” hunting event with a Santa bag full of hunting gifts.