Lisa Vogel: "My goal is to figure out how I can help families overcome obstacles they are facing by providing them with the best possible caregivers to match their needs." (Handout photo)

The Lisa Vogel Agency helps families with aging loved ones at home find loving caregivers.

For Lisa Vogel, home care is about more than health care; it’s about connecting caregivers and patients to help families.

“I am really a matchmaker,” says Vogel, founder and president of the Lisa Vogel Agency. “My goal is to figure out how I can help families overcome obstacles they are facing by providing them with the best possible caregivers to match their needs. That is what my job is about.”

Founded in 2008, the Lisa Vogel Agency focuses on giving clients the highest quality of non-medical care. The agency provides custodial care, such as medicine reminders, transportation, activities of daily living and homemaking services.

In addition, there is a skilled nurse on staff who is able to offer care management as an added service to patients. But most importantly, Vogel’s caregivers allow clients to remain independent in their own homes as they age.

“I want to be able to keep someone in their home for as long as possible, as long as they are safe,” says Vogel, 37, a Randallstown native and mother of two boys. “We aren’t trying to take away our clients’ independence. By providing them with caregivers, we are allowing them to hold on to that independence in their own home for as long as possible.”

Vogel’s professional career didn’t begin in home health care. A Loyola College graduate, she first worked in sales for a homebuilder. But as it became clear a recession was about to hit, Vogel wanted to start her own business.

“I wanted something that was just as rewarding as selling new homes, but recession proof,” says Vogel, whose brother helps run her agency. “I wanted to be able to meet people I could help and make an impact on the community, and I felt home care was the best way to accomplish all of those things.”

Although she didn’t study home health care, Vogel believes it’s her childhood experiences that prepared her best for running such a service.

“Growing up, I had two very ill grandparents,” Vogel recalls. “My bubbie was in a nursing home for 16 years, and my grandfather was in a different nursing home with Alzheimer’s at the age of 50. I remember my brother and I would visit our grandparents on a daily basis and if we weren’t there we knew they wouldn’t get the care we expected.”

Vogel makes it a priority to hire caregivers to provide extremely high levels of care. With a caseload of 75 patients and more than 120 employees, the agency serves the Timonium, Pikesville and Owings Mills communities, and recently opened an office in Montgomery County.

Vogel’s niche is working with patients needing long-term care, with an average patient using the services for 3 ½ years. The agency, which is licensed with the state, is able to bill and collect from long-term care insurance policies.

“Our main focus is to work with the patient from diagnosis until end-of-life care is put in place,” says Vogel, who determines price after an assessment to determine the level of care needed. “The level to care is so much greater using a service like ours since we have one-to-one care.”

Many of Vogel’s caregivers have been working with her for 10 years. “Patients don’t want a bunch of different caregivers,” says Vogel. “Consistency is the best way for a patient to trust his/her caregiver will know everything they need to know.”

For Barbara Siegel, whose 92-year-old mother has been using the agency for more than 2 ½ years and has round-the-clock care, the reliability is worth every penny.

“My mother has had the same caregiver since we started with the agency,” says Siegel. “She basically has two people who help, one during the day and one at night. These women know my mother’s every move. They know when to push her to do something and when to back off. They have been to every Jewish holiday and have really become part of the family. …

“There are some things I don’t necessarily want to do as a child, and my mother’s caregivers are able to do it all,” says Siegel. “These women have unbelievable patience and fantastic personalities. They really are incredibly special.”

Being able to help Baltimore families thrive during what can be a tough time is one of the many aspects Vogel loves about owning and operating an in-home care agency.

“It is so rewarding,” she says. “I’m helping grandparents of my friends who I have known my whole life. It’s the nicest compliment when someone I know calls me and trusts me to take care of someone they love.”

For information, visit lisavogelagency.com. 

Aliza Friedlander is a Baltimore-based freelance writer.

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