New Element Care CEO Sets the PACE for Elderly Health

This article was originally published on ItemLive.com.

LYNN — Swampscott resident Doug Thompson stepped into the role of Element Care’s CEO at the end of September and has continued the nonprofit’s mission of providing healthcare to older adults.

Thompson worked in the healthcare industry for more than 30 years before arriving at Element Care, working in leadership positions at companies throughout the area. He also founded Perfect Health, which provided home-based primary care to seniors.

“Being here at Element Care, for me, is a perfect, natural culmination of everything that I’ve done in the past,” Thompson said. “I feel like I’ve really found my home.”

Element Care’s Program for All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) provides participants ages 55 and older with an interdisciplinary team of 11 staff members to provide them with comprehensive, individualized care. The team offers everything from home-based services to access to the facility’s memory care unit.

“If you know anything about what it’s like to take care of an aging parent … it is exhausting,” he said. “Here, we take care of all of it.”

Thompson said he visited all seven of Element Care’s facilities – Lynn, Beverly, Brighton, Gloucester, Lowell, Lynn and Methuen – early on in the new position and saw the passion and excitement among all the employees.

“Building a great place for people to work enables us to attract great talent and delivers great care for our participants,” he said.

He also said he hopes to work with organizations in the Lynn area to expand Element Care’s reach and impact, such as Lynn Community Health Center and Greater Lynn Senior Services.

“We look forward to partnering with everybody here in Lynn to make sure that every single person that can benefit from this, at least knows about it and, ideally, is part of it,” Thompson said.