When Allen Hager developed his concept for providing in-home care for seniors, he had no idea it would become a billion dollar enterprise 30 years later.

Sitting inside a small office on the third floor of a historic building in downtown Fremont - where coats and blankets were required when working late during the winter because the landlord turned down the steam heat at night - Hager methodically plugged away, building on the idea of helping an aging population remain at home for as long as possible.

With nearly 775 offices worldwide, including 566 in the United States, Right at Home has grown from Hager as its lone employee in 1995 to more than 19,000 caregivers across the country. Caregivers have helped more than 830,000 people around the globe. International locations include Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and the Netherlands

More than 600 people – franchise owners, caregivers and corporate representatives – gathered in Omaha May 7-9 to celebrate Right at Home’s 30th anniversary in its adopted hometown. It was the largest conference attendance in company history, seemingly appropriate for its “Back to the Future” theme. Hager even appeared to climb out of a DeLorean on stage, paying homage to the Hollywood movie of the same name. The only thing missing was its current CEO dressed as Doc Brown from the movie.

Right at Home grew from an idea Hager developed while serving as the administrator at Bishop Clarkson Hospital. He wondered if the hospital could offer a service that seemed counter to its model.

With Clarkson about to merge with the University of Nebraska Medical Center to form Nebraska Medicine, Hager said he felt it was time to leave and test his theory about providing in-home care for America’s aging population.

He believed Fremont was an excellent location to test his concept of in-home senior care. In 1995, seniors (65+) accounted for about 12 percent of the American population, but the Fremont area’s aging population was about 17 percent. Today, about 19 percent of Dodge County’s population is considered aging, while the national average is 18 percent, according to the US Census Bureau. The move paid off for Hager.

When he decided to leave the hospital and create Right at Home, friends in the healthcare industry recommended he learn the care side, Hager said.

"They said, 'You're on the death side, working with doctors and nurses. If you're going to really grow this business, you should learn it better,'" he said.

Hager did just that, becoming a Certified Nursing Assistant and working weekends at a Fremont nursing home. It opened his eyes to the need for in-home assistance for seniors, Hager said.

"It really helped me understand the people who did the care," he said. "And I saw that a lot of people were in nursing homes. The only reason they were there is they did not have support to be able to stay at home."

With his company plan established, Hager went after the people best prepared to support seniors at home - the CNAs with whom he worked alongside at the nursing home. He later added licensed nurses who had left the career field for personal or family reasons.

Believing you build a staff first, Hager hired 30 caregivers before signing the first client.

The first few months, as he stared at photos of the caregivers on a board with no clients, he wondered if he had made the correct decision to leave the hospital. Sales calls to social workers, discharge planners and facilities were more educational, Hager said.

“We were not in their minds even as a category, so it was a lot of education about this is what we do - supportive care,” he said. “We're not there to do more health care. They've already had that. What we're there to do is to make sure they're safe and that they're supported in the home, and that their quality of life is improved.”

Something clicked with people, as business took off for Right at Home. Within six months of opening in May 1995, Right at Home had 80 clients in the Fremont area. It wouldn’t be long before the company actually outgrew its downtown digs and needed a new home.

About two years after opening, Hager relocated the company to Omaha, first working out of the basement of his home. Then, Right at Home’s first official Omaha office was located near 120th and Center. Following a few more moves, the company eventually settled in Aksarben Village, leasing space in a building next to Security National Bank. The corporation constructed its own building in Aksarben Village, across from Stinson Park and a couple of blocks north of Baxter Arena.

With more than 100 employees in its corporate headquarters, Right at Home has embraced technology and innovation as key to its future growth, said Margaret Haynes, who assumed her role as the company’s third chief executive officer in 2018. She followed Hager (1995-2010) and Brian Petranick (2010-2018).

Leading the company into its next chapter isn’t something Haynes takes lightly.

“It's a little surreal,” she said. “If you think about it, there are so many companies that never make it this far, and to have this brand be celebrating 30 years, and then 25 years in franchising, and to think it began with what Allen started and blossomed into this. I feel blessed to be a part of it. It's really, really exciting.”

Rather than stand pat and revel with $1.2 billion in revenue and a solid place in the in-home care industry, Haynes said Right at Home sought to take care to a new level. So in 2022, company leaders developed a three-year plan, she said.

With in-home care enjoying success, innovation was key to the company’s growth, Haynes said.

“Technology was going to be a bigger play, from an operational perspective as well as consumers starting to adapt, with more technology in the home,” she said. “So we took this innovation stage, taking care to a whole new level, setting out a strategy that said we're going to carve out some focus and resources in a different way than we've ever done before, around getting just more innovative, because we wanted to not be bleeding edge, but to actually stay on top of what was happening.”

Right at Home developed products to help people remain in their homes with the assistance of technology. RightAssist is a wellness bracelet that connects users with family members, recognizing fall detection. If a person falls, family members are automatically alerted. It also provides additional information, including sleep patterns, walking speed and decreased outings.

A strategic alliance with PocketRN supports seniors with dementia. Right at Home’s technology complements the device through monitoring, as well as continuous education, emotional support, in-home care and safety assessments. The company also joined with RespirAI Medical to monitor a variety of health issues, such as COPD.

Unlike some businesses, Right at Home employees have personally experienced the company’s services, Haynes said.

“I used Right at Home, both for my mom, who had Alzheimer's, and then my father who just passed away last year,” she said. “With my mom, we had promised her, because she said, ‘Don't ever put me in an institution.’ So they always had independent living, but as things were progressing, we wanted my dad to just be able to be the husband and us as the daughters. I'm one of four girls. We helped put mom to bed because we wanted to say prayers and do all that with her, but we couldn't do all this stuff because we all have had careers, and so Right at Home came in to supplement, so we could still be the daughters.”

While Haynes appreciates Right at Home operating as its own company, it’s actually part of Risemark, a company Hager established when he was preparing to sell the company, she said. Its parent company is Investors Management Corporation.

“IMC is truly the best partner we could have,” Haynes said. “Unlike maybe some of our competitors that have true private equity, I always talk about what IMC is, they're a privately held company. They’ve got a lot of equity, but they don't act like a normal private equity. They are stewards and studiers of Warren Buffett's philosophy of buy really good companies and let them run.”

Rosaleen Doherty and her husband Jay Kenney were among early franchise owners. Doherty echoes Right at Home’s philosophy. Their daughter, Gabrielle Kenney, is a Legacy owner-to-be, learning her parents’ company with the plan to one day succeed them.

“I came from corporate America, too, and I came from technology, and I just really thought that it's terrible if JP Morgan can't connect from here to here, and everybody's yelling at me and they can't talk to Brazil. Like, that's bad. But in the end, I don't feel anything for it. For us to take care of our seniors is truly a mission, and really keeping people in their home as long as possible, and then also having a roof over your head is a very good thing,” Doherty said.

If Haynes could jump into the DeLorean and travel 30 years into the future, she believes Right at Home will see its impact grow around the world.

“When I look 30 years from now, I hope that, obviously, we'll have more franchise owners,” she said. “We may have a broader impact across the globe, but just the amount of lives that we can touch, that is what, at the end of the day, we're constantly thinking about. How can we bring this incredible experience to more lives? Because once you experience it, it is life-changing. And so I think technology is going to look very different.”

While robots and other technology will eventually enhance in-home care, personal contact will be what matters, Haynes said.

“At the end day, what I love about this industry is we're focused on improving the quality of life for those we serve and helping them age wherever they call home,” she said. “And we know that when people have a choice, they really want to stay at their home. And while that may not always be the case, and in some cases, we have to move a loved one into a memory care center, whatever the case be, we can come alongside and maybe make that time a longer time that they can stay in the home before they have to go to institutions.”

Tim Trudell is a freelance writer and online content creator. His work has appeared in Flatwater Free Press, Next Avenue, Indian Country Today, Nebraska Life, Nebraska Magazine, Council Bluffs Daily Non-Pareil and Douglas County Post Gazette, among others. He is a citizen of the Santee Dakota Nation.