Meet Our Team

The SRHHS Team constantly strives to provide clients with the most professional level of health care in the home, and keeps the lines of communication open for referrers and payors. At the same time, our approach has always been to deliver personal service to all of the people and organizations we serve. To learn more about our office and field management staff, check out their bios below.

Susan Platt – Director of Professional Services

Susan started Spoon River Home Health in 1993. Although she owns SRHHS, her main role is the “Director of Professional Services.” As an R.N., B.S.N. she oversees all nursing and therapy- internally and externally. She communicates and educates on a daily basis. Susan is responsible for ensuring SRHHS is compliant with all policies and procedures related to the Home Health Care field. Susan’s background is in critical care nursing. She always formed strong relationships with her patients and their families, and wondered what happened to them when they left ICU. It was for this reason, when the opportunity arose, she went into home health care and chose to open a home health agency with the help of her mentor and the best nurse she knows, her mother!

A friend, on a stressful day in health care, asked her what her ideal job was. After a lot of thought, she has to admit she’s doing her “ideal” job. She gets to meet some of the nicest, funniest, sweetest, strangest people in the world. She loves to hear their stories. She loves to be able to make a difference in their life. Sometimes in home health we have the same client for years and sometimes only days but it is such a privilege to be invited into someone’s home and life and be able to make a difference.

Brian Platt – Administrator

Brian manages all of Spoon River’s business activities in the office. He says that he is lucky because his wife, Susan, manages the clinical and community education activities. Plus, Brian says that Spoon River also has a great staff which makes the business run fairly smoothly.

Following graduation from Western Illinois University, Brian started working for the Soil Conservation Service and also farming with his dad. Susan and he had been married for about 1 year when she started Spoon River Home Health. Being married to a nurse, having a mother-in –law for a nurse, and having a grandmother who was a Navy nurse must have qualified Brian to start helping out with the business side of a home care company. After 2 years of helping manage the business, he became the administrator when Susan slowed down to have their 2 girls.

Brian likes to ski on the water and snow, as well as horseback riding. He had the chance to show off his horses when he acted in the movie Sand Prairie. His favorite drink is anything that has seen the inside of an oak barrel for at least 12 years.

Coming Soon – ***Office* *Manager***

Bio

Mary Ericson – Director of Nursing

I have been with Spoon River Home Health since 2008. I have enjoyed many varied positions with the company and am currently the Director of Nursing. I have been a nurse for 20 plus years and have discovered that Home Health is my passion! I have the pleasure of overseeing the Skilled services we offer along with the Home Service department.

When Spoon River Home Health says we are “Family Caring for Family”, they couldn’t be more accurate! Spoon River couldn’t be the successful agency we are without our “Families”. Each and every employee I work with is like my extended family. Being a smaller, privately owned agency gives us that distinct advantage. My coworkers are as caring and compassionate to each other as any family member. And that compassion and caring gets passed along to all our clients, your family. It is that caring that sets our agency apart from the others. I couldn’t be more proud than to work with my family to help maintain your family’s health and daily needs.

Lex Walker – Director of Information Systems

Lex has been providing leadership for the computing, networking and communications infrastructure for the entire organization since 2002. His divisions are responsible for the design of multi-office networking and telecommunications infrastructure.

Lex has an Associate’s degree in Data Processing from a local community college. He attends various classes and training seminars geared toward network administration and security. He has 19 years computer experience and 14 years with Spoon River Home Health.

Coming soon – Case Management Specialist / CNA

Bio

Ladonna Boxley – Client Service Coordinator

I came to Spoon River Home Health in 2001 and started out as a clerk in the Billing Department. I wasn’t looking for a job, I was looking for a career – and that’s what I found. Spoon River Home Health shared with me their knowledge of the home health industry and their passion to make a difference in the lives that we touch. In the past 15+ years I have worked hard, moving up through the ranks of the Billing Department, the Client Service Department, Human Resource Department and am now the Health Information Coordinator.

My responsibilities include verifying insurance benefits and assisting with referral calls helping families and other providers know about all of the ways Spoon River Home Health can help someone live independently with the help of our care. I consider myself a Spoon River success story, and I am not the only one here that way. There are many others here at SRHHS that can say the same thing. My career is to help those who have a passion for helping others. My name is LaDonna Boxley and I am proud to be part of the Spoon River Home Health family.

Pat Paul – Home Health Aide

My name is Pat Paul and I have been a Home Health Aide for Spoon River Home Health Services, Inc. since 2001. I applied at SRHHS after relocating to Farmington from Missouri. A friend of the family had just started working there and when she heard that I had done private duty care for a lady in Missouri she thought I would like this. I have always loved taking care of others and have worked as an aide in a nursing home in the 70’s and have done private duty. I had never worked for an actual agency until coming to SRHHS and although I have received a lot of offers to do private duty, I don’t ever plan to go back to private duty and like working for Spoon River Home Health.

When I first started with Spoon River Home Health I was not a Certified Nursing Assistant, I was a Home Service Worker. In 2002 I took their Basic Nurse Assistant Training Program and became a CNA. I love being a CNA because it makes me feel important. I am important to those that I help take of, and it feels great to be needed. Spoon River has a great Nurse Assistant Training Program and they also have a tuition reimbursement program. The tuition reimbursement program provided me with the opportunity to become a CNA and after maintaining my employment for a year I received the amount that I had paid for the class back. I liked working for Spoon River so well, that here I am 12 years later. And I don’t plan on leaving anytime soon!

– Client Service Specialist

What Our Patients Say

The staff of Spoon River Home Health always goes above and beyond during each of their visits in my home. They have quickly become not only caregivers, but a part of our family.

J. Smith August 3, 2015

View More Testimonials >