faith care

How HealthKeeperz of Pembroke, North Carolina, Keeps the Faith With Home Health Care. 

More than 50 years ago, Howard Brooks founded the business that would become HealthKeeperz — and he’s been helping neighbors in North Carolina with their health care needs ever since.

Tim Brooks, his son and the president of HealthKeeperz, said, “We want to make sure people are healthy at home. It’s our job to ensure they’re getting the care they need and feel like they’re getting some sense of well-being.”

Howard Brooks started the Pembroke Drug Center in 1966, a community pharmacy for the people of Pembroke, North Carolina, and the surrounding areas. Through his thoughtful partnership with locals, Brooks innovated and expanded into the home health sector and beyond, putting the company on the fast track to becoming Medicare Certified Home Health, which sends physical therapists and nurses to clients’ homes to help.

At the beginning of the 2000s, the company added more services. HealthKeeperz has four primary services: home health care, hospice care, home medical equipment, and case management for the Community Alternatives Program (CAP).

Case Management Program

CAP is the official name – CAP Case Management is the service name healthkeeperz offers.

In a nutshell, it gives patients choices. If someone is eligible for a skilled nursing facility, they can choose to be cared for at home, as long as they meet the safety, health, and well-being requirements.

Tim Brooks acknowledged, “In health care, collaboration is necessary. What CAP does is build a bridge so that providers can confer with one another for the benefit of the patient.”

Brooks continued, “For example, some people with heart disease and some mental health conditions are treated as if they are separate. CAP could be used to connect them so that all the patient’s needs are addressed.”

HealthKeeperz Keeping the Faith

Since the company started in the 1960s, faith has been a big part of it — but not a requirement. Even though faith is an element of the company’s core values, no one is obliged to follow any particular religious dogma.

“We have a leadership philosophy that says this company can’t do well unless its people do well,” Tim Brooks says. “If a nurse is here and doing well at work, it will affect their life at home and in the community.”

“Barnabas culture” is what HealthKeeperz calls the desire to help people do well and to make a positive difference. It’s named for the biblical Barnabas, a disciple of Jesus. 

HealthKeeperz sponsors a Barnabas Award, which is given to a company employee every three months. Any worker can nominate another by filling out a questionnaire about how the nominee has emulated HealthKeeperz’s core values. There’s also a Big Barnabas Award winner at the end of each year.

“The Barnabas culture is meant to make you aware of what you know and want to do,” says Tim Brooks. “We want to be kind, take responsibility, give great care, and put family first. With all of these things in mind, we want to honor people who are good examples of how to live these things out.”