Applying Painful Experience
Near-fatal accident at 19 motivates new owner of home health care business
By Logan C. Ritchie | lritchie@atljewishtimes.com
Sandy Springs-based Advantage Private Home Care boomed this year after the company’s purchase by Daniel Levy, who knows from personal experience the value of the services his company provides.
Levy left corporate America to purchase the home care management company in the second half of 2015 and immediately increased coverage from six to 23 counties in the greater Atlanta area. He brought on a business development officer and more nursing staff and now employs more than 100 people.
Advantage Private Home Care provides services including nutrition, personal care, fall prevention, and assistance with medication, outings and medical appointments. Veterans are a significant population the company serves.
Levy’s standards guide his goal to meet all new families in person before they leave the hospital. With 16 years in the home health care industry, Levy said that if his company cannot help, he will offer other resources to families in need.
“I can relate to people,” he said. “I have been on the other side.”
Levy grew up in Columbus in a Conservative Jewish family of three children. He spent summers at Camp Judaea and went to the University of South Carolina-Aiken on a tennis scholarship.
The summer he was 19, Levy worked as a valet at an intown restaurant. He was hit and dragged by a car, was pinned under the vehicle, and sustained life-threatening injuries.
Levy was rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital, where he stayed for a month and spent his 20th birthday.
His injuries included a broken back, a dislocated right hip, a cracked knee, a broken collarbone, a broken shoulder and cracked back bones, as well as third-degree burns, but Levy calls himself fortunate.
“I am lucky I was not paralyzed,” he said. “I always had a good attitude, and my family would vouch for that. Yeah, I have aches and pains, but I don’t walk around complaining. I am fortunate.”
After surgeries, physical therapy and his recovery journey, Levy began a career in home health care. His goal was to prove how life experience can create an opportunity for personal success.
“I can relate to my clients no matter their age,” he said.
Now a passionate home health advocate, Levy said that building relationships is the reason for his success. He has developed relationships with hospital case managers, social workers, hospice and home health providers, senior facilities, and rehabilitation facilities.
“There are so many providers in this industry. The key is to differentiate and continue to educate referral sources on their options. It’s about proving your value to the family that you take care of,” he said.
In the coming year Levy is planning for continued growth of the company, including expanding the company’s licensure. Outside work, he stays busy on the tennis court while he and his wife, Sarah, raise infant twin boys.
His best advice?
“You’re never too old to look both ways before crossing the street,” he said with a smile.
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