The winner of the 2024 Dorothy Royce Award is Sherry DiFrancisco, OTR/L, Associate Administrator, Integrity Home Care!
The Ohio Council for Home Care & Hospice awards program recognizes individuals for their exemplary service and care in the home care and hospice field. Additionally, OCHCH awards special recognition to allies in the legislature that support a patient’s right to receive care in the comfort of their home. Nominations for future awards can be submitted at this link.
The Dorothy Royce Award is named in honor of the founding president of the Ohio Council for Home Care & Hospice. This award recognizes an individual that has worked hard to promote home care and hospice in Ohio through OCHCH and the community setting.
Sherry graduated from Cleveland State University in 1986 with a BS in Occupational Therapy and began her career working in mental health at Deaconess Hospital in Cleveland. Early in her career she supervised numerous occupational therapy students in health sciences programs from across the state of Ohio. Later while working at the Cleveland Clinic, Lutheran Medical Center and Fairview Hospitals she assisted in development of new programs related to the rehabilitation of patients suffering from diseases such as AIDS and Multiple Sclerosis and implemented a successful work hardening program as well as advanced programing for a geriatric mental health program. Sherry was promoted to Director of Occupational Therapy and then to Director of Rehabilitation where she supervised a staff of occupational and physical therapists and expanded the department to cover innovative and emerging areas of practice in orthopedics. Sherry spent 5 years as a Rehabilitation Manager for a skilled nursing facility, home care, and outpatient in Wisconsin.
Upon her return to Ohio, Sherry was quickly recruited to Associate Administrator at Integrity Home Care where she has been expertly leading the agency for the last 21 years. She has been instrumental in expanding client census, hiring/training staff, OASIS education and coding, Value based purchasing and QAPI endeavors, office and therapy staff management and demonstrating an admirable level of patience and commitment in an ever-changing area of health care. She was integral to the agency’s success through the years as a Top 100 and Top 500 Agency nationally and repeated 5 stars on home health compare. Sherry is integral to planning, organizing, directing, managing and other operational responsibilities as Associate Administrator and Therapy Manager overseeing the clinical care and treatment of all therapies and supervising staff and patient care. Sherry also makes home visits as needed or increased patient care needs, supervisory visits, or other clinical reasons.
Sherry has many other duties essential to operations and management of the agency. She tirelessly works with a dedicated, committed and compassionate spirit to provide excellent care to patients and their caregivers and to support all staff towards that end. She has demonstrated knowledge in a variety of areas as an invited speaker at both local and state levels. Topics include OASIS, OBQI, geriatric rehabilitation promoting safety, health and independence, and occupational therapy. Sherry often speaks at Cleveland State University and serves as an expert panel member in a management consortium for therapy graduate students. She provides Active Aging presentations to seniors around Cleveland as well as other educational topics for Seniors and their caregivers.
Sherry is constantly doing research and updating her knowledge base to stay on top of all cutting edge or emerging areas of home healthcare. She is always seeking answers and loves a good challenge. She manages to present a difficult message in a manner that has everyone buying in. Her calm demeanor in a tumultuous area of healthcare has always been one of her biggest strengths! Her wisdom, experience and contributions to the wider home care industry, to seniors, clinicians and to Integrity Home Care are invaluable.
Nominated by Holly Frietchen, BSN, RN
Clinical Manager, at Integrity Home Care
