About Us
Spoon River Home Health Services was established in February 1993, by four Registered Nurses wanting to make a difference for patients living in rural areas and small towns. However, it did not take long for word to spread and our business grew from the small towns of London Mills, Ellisville, Fairview and Farmington, to include Peoria, Galesburg, Macomb and surrounding towns. Today Spoon River Home Health is licensed and providing care in thirteen counties in West Central Illinois. Spoon River Home Health Services is locally owned and operated, therefore making it possible to deliver professional home health services throughout the rural areas with the extra personal warmth everyone appreciates. Our main office is in Farmington, Illinois with an additional work site located in East Peoria.
Our home health care services include nursing assessments, wound care, medication management, education, and IV therapy, as well as therapy services -Physical, Occupation and Speech therapies.
Our Non-Medical side offers 24 hour care, personal care, transportation, companionship, and many more services. Services are set up based on individuals needs. A home visit is made to discuss services, develop a personalized care plan and provide the best possible services to help keep you or a loved one safely in their own home. We also provide emergency response systems for those who are not quite ready for home care but are looking for peace of mind.
Mission and Values
Spoon River Home Health Services is committed to providing the highest quality, individually-focused home health care to its clients in West Central Illinois. As a locally owned and operated entity with a dedicated and professional staff, Spoon River Home Health Services pursues this mission by:
- Recognizing and honoring the rights of all individuals to be treated with respect and dignity in the comfort of their own homes.
- Caring for, treating and educating those served toward independence, restoration of health, and peace of mind.
- Empowering the community and our health care partners in home health advocacy.
Company History
Spoon River Home Health Services was established in February 1993, by four Registered Nurses wanting to make a difference for their patients. Spoon River Home Health Services is locally owned and operated, therefore making it possible to deliver professional home health services throughout the rural areas with the extra personal warmth everyone appreciates. It is this immense sense of caring that has allowed Spoon River Home Health to overflow into much of the Central Illinois area. Spoon River Home Health not only “Bridges the Gap” between hospital and home, but makes sure the bridge crosses over into cities, towns and all of the small country communities that are the backbone of the heartland.
Meet The Owners
Spoon River Home Health is owned by Brian and Susan Platt and Frank Record. Unfortunately, Mary Lou passed away in November, 2015. Mary Lou was very proud to be a Registered Nurse for 65 years. She was a graduate of Cottage School of Nursing in Galesburg, Illinois, where she always looked forward to going back to her yearly reunions.
Frank is a current owner and continues to be very active in the business coming to the office daily to “crack the whip!”
Daily operations are ran by daughter Susan and her husband, Brian. Susan and her mother started the business, along with two other nurses in 1993. At this time Brian was actively involved in the Agriculture industry and farming.
Five years into the business, Brian and Frank came into the business, along with Mary Lou and Susan, making it truly a family run business.
In 1993, Spoon River opened it’s door in the small community of London Mills, along the Spoon River. Thus the moto at the time, “Bridging the Gap in Healthcare” was our theme and the old London Mills Iron Bridge our logo. It wasn’t long until the news of local nurses providing small town care spread, and quickly, our business was not just “small town” anymore. Our clients quickly spread into the Peoria area and communities to the West. It was for this reason, and the lack of updated phone lines, we relocated our main office to Farmington, Illinois.
Our main office remains in Farmington, with work sites in Peoria and East Peoria. SRHHS mainly serves the counties of Fulton, Knox, Peoria, McDonough and Tazewell counties, basically a sixty mile radius around Farmington.
A few years ago, it was time to update our logo. We choose the SRHH and using an arch to represent the bridge from our beginnings. We chose “Family Caring for Family” because that is truly what we are. Not only us, but countless family members have worked and still do, for Spoon River Home Health. Whether related by blood or proximity, we truly feel like a family and our patients become family to us.
Through the years, Spoon River Home Health has seen many changes in health care. SRHHS continues to grow and change to remain a vibrant part of the health care community and so that we can continue to provide the highest quality of care from our family to your family.
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 rules and regulations.
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 homecare 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.
Ladonna Boxley – Director of Administration
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 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.
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.
John Plowman - Accounting Manager
John has been the Accounting Manager for Spoon River Home Health since September 2012. He joined the Rotary Club of Farmington, Illinois in October 2012, has served as their Secretary since September 2013, and can be found volunteering at their Summer Fest and Spoon River Drive fundraisers.
John performs a variety of accounting and bookkeeping services for the company. He prepares financial statements required for annual Medicare cost reports and tax returns. He oversees accounts payable and manages the Billing Department in order to maintain accounts receivable. He processes payroll, reconciles and pays deductions, and reports statistical data. He acts as a liaison to our insurance agents by providing necessary information for all insurance coverages. He renews our annual licenses with the Illinois Department of Public Health and works quietly in the background to obtain information requested at regulatory site visits.
John graduated from Western Illinois University with a Bachelor of Business in Accountancy degree in May 1998. His previous work experience was public accounting in the Northwest Chicago suburbs from July 1999 to April 2010. During this time, he also served as the Park Ridge Noon Kiwanis Club Treasurer from July 2003 to June 2006 and as a Board Member from July 2006 to June 2008.
John became a first-time homebuyer in September 2015 and was married at a Philippine beach resort in October 2015. He enjoys attending concerts, movies, sporting events, and his nephews’ and nieces’ extracurricular school activities.
