Elizabeth Marie Fago is an accomplished healthcare executive and entrepreneur dedicated to transforming the quality and delivery of care for the elderly. She is a versatile innovator who combines passion with business savvy to improve lives while delivering bottom-line results. Elizabeth has been repeatedly recognized for her contributions and expertise by the highest levels of the public and private sector, including multiple presidential and gubernatorial appointments. Her impressive leadership approach fosters collaboration and garners support within the communities and partners with whom she interacts. With an unparalleled commitment to industry outreach, community involvement and philanthropic efforts, Elizabeth Fago has made an impact nationally and internationally in a way few business people have.
Elizabeth Fago began her career as a commercial real estate broker at the age of 18. After working on a real estate transaction involving a long-term care facility, Elizabeth embarked on a career as a broker of senior housing and the rest, as they say, is history.
Responding to what she viewed as a serious deficiency in treatment quality, Elizabeth founded Home Quality Management to acquire, improve and turn around financially underperforming nursing homes and assisted living facilities. From her first acquisition in 1992, Elizabeth grew HQM to 85 facilities with 13,000 employees and annual revenues of $650 million at the time of its sale in October of 2007.
In a turbulent time marked by the failure of many health care companies, Elizabeth overcame significant obstacles and defied the odds to grow her business remarkably. In the spirit of caring and compassion that drove her to get involved in the senior care industry in the first place, Elizabeth not only returned facilities to profitability but, more importantly, improved the quality of care and living conditions of each facility’s residents. As a result of her leadership and guidance, Elizabeth established a work environment that made HQM an employer of choice.
Elizabeth’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. In 2001, Elizabeth’s accomplishments earned her a spot on the FloridaCouncil of 100- an advisory board to the Governor. Florida Trendmagazine ranked HQM as one of Florida’s Top 200 private companies. The Center for Leadership at Florida International University cited Elizabeth as the number one woman-led business leader in Florida in both 2007 and 2008. Nationally, HQM’s facilities were recognized by the U.S Congress for their ‘quality of care and community involvement’.
Elizabeth is currently a co-founder and partner in Palm Health Partners. Palm Health Partners is committed to improve upon the traditional health care experience by delivering dignified, efficient and technologically advanced post-acute, long-term care including assisted living, rehabilitation, skilled nursing, memory impairment and other specialty medical services.
Elizabeth and the Palm Health Partners team have developed state-of-the-art extended care facilities, named NuVista Care Communities, which integrate evidence-based design, innovative care, technology and research and development to provide improved clinical outcomes and greater patient satisfaction. Patients, families and care providers will have unprecedented access to real-time care information utilizing cutting edge‘smart room’ technologies.
Palm Health Partners’ three concurrent multi-million dollar projects in development will transform post-acute healthcare delivery, enhance research and provide hundreds of jobs. NuVista Care at Wellington Green opened its doors in June of 2011 and is considered to be the first new post-acute care community in Western Palm Beach County in more than 25 years. The 129,000 sq. ft. skilled nursing facility and 54-bed assisted living facility has provided numerous jobs to the community.
NuVista Care at Hillsborough Lakes located in Lutz, FL opened its door in October of 2011 it a 55,600 sq. ft. center that will offer post – cute and rehabilitation services, it will incorporate technology and evidenced based design principles that have been shown to improve patient recovery and outcomes.
The third project under development is the Institute of Aging, Life Science & Research at Abacoa. The $75 million dollar, 235,000 sq. ft. center, located adjacent to the Scripps Florida Research Max Planck Institute and Florida Atlantic University, will leverage partnerships with leading innovators in science, technology and medicine to revolutionize the standards of care for the elderly.
Care provided at the Institute and NuVista facilities will enjoy tremendous benefits from the advancements in science and medicine currently being researched and developed. Elizabeth has been instrumental in creating collaborative partnerships with several of the country’s preeminent leaders in health care research and education, including Scripps Florida. In 2003, Governor Jeb Bush appointed Elizabeth as a board member of the Scripps Florida Funding Corporation, which oversees the state funds allotted for the Jupiter campus’s startup.
In December 2002, Governor Jeb Bush named senior-care entrepreneur and GOP activist Elizabeth M. Fago to the board of the tax-supported Palm Beach County Health Care District. Her term was through September 30, 2006.
Business leadership, community involvement and philanthropy are significant elements of Elizabeth’s life. Elizabeth has been honored with numerous presidential and gubernatorial appointments as well as invited to participate in national and international business forums and summits. Elizabeth is a member of the Committee of 200 and has participated in prominent events such as the Helsinki Women Business Leaders’ Summit. Elizabeth was one of just fifty CEOs invited by President and Mrs. Bush to attend the Women Business Leaders’ Forum at the White House in 2001. She has also volunteered her leadership expertise and raised funds for several organizations including the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, the Red Cross and the National Symphony Orchestra.
Not just a visionary businesswoman, community leader and industry innovator, Elizabeth M. Fago is also a proud mother and grandmother, one who loves fast cars and cooking for both family and friends in her Florida home.