For more than fifty years, HealthKeeperz has served the health care needs of the people of North Carolina.

The company traces its roots back to 1966 when Howard Brooks established Pembroke Drug Center, a community-based pharmacy for the people of Pembroke and surrounding areas. Throughout the decades, the pressure of Brooks caring for his family of five children led to the need to innovate.

Brooks took many risks and created the opportunity to provide different home care services that led the company well into the nineties. This catapulted the company into Medicare Certified Home Health, which sends nurses and physical therapists into homes to help clients. 

In the early 2000s, the company expanded its service offerings. Today, Healthkeeperz has four core services: Home Health, Hospice, Home Medical Equipment, and Community Alternatives Program Case Management.

CAP Case Management is a program associated with North Carolina's Medicaid program. Essentially, it allows patients to have options. If one qualifies for being in a skilled nursing facility, as long as they meet the requirements of health, safety, and wellbeing, they are allowed to choose the option to be taken care of at home. 

"We want to be sure people are healthy at home," said Tim Brooks, president of HealthKeeperz. "Our job is to oversee their care and make sure healthcare services are being provided, and there is some sense of wellbeing for these people we care for." 

As the company continues to grow, the vision of the future becomes brighter.

"If you think about healthcare, there's always this desire or need for people not to work in silos," stated Brooks. "So what case management does is create that bridge across different silos, which allows that idea to become used in different ways." 

Brooks is constantly thinking of ways to use the idea of taking a network of case managers and using it in other settings. 

"For example, there is a cross-pollination of people who have things like heart disease and some mental health conditions. These are not separated but treated as such. Case Management could be used to bridge them so the person is being addressed more integrally and allow providers to talk to each other," explained Brooks.

Since working with CAP Case Management, the company has expanded throughout Southeastern North Carolina. 

Most of the customers, clients and patients of HealthKeeperz are usually people who have Medicare and are 65 years old and older. Typically, these customers need a knee or hip replacement or have several chronic conditions that need extensive care.

There is a small percentage of some of the customers that are under Medicaid, which is more income-based.

With COVID-19, it has been a rollercoaster trying to treat patients through HealthKeeperz. 

"In the beginning, there was a great deal of fear about someone coming into the patient's homes," Brooks said. "We had patients tell our nurses and therapists, 'We'd rather you not come,' which is reasonable and I understand that. On the other side, hospitals are bombarded with patients and are asking for us to help get people home."

As new variants continue to impact the world, HealthKeeperz will continue to see both sides of the dilemma, but the mission of the company stays the same to “care for all people for the glory of GOD.”

Faith has been a prominent aspect since the company's inception in the 1960s, with the idea that company seeks to honor God. However, even with faith playing a role in the company's core values, it does not force others to fall in line with the faith.

No one in the company is required to believe. Some people work or have worked at HealthKeeperz who disagree with the faith. However, they want to see good things happen and provide help to those who need it.

"We have this leadership philosophy that says this company doesn't flourish unless its people flourish. We all play different roles. I see my role as one in which it's my job to help create an environment where people can flourish," Brooks added. "If a nurse is here, and they are flourishing in their work, that's going to impact their life at home and their life in the community."

The efforts to see people flourish and the desire to have a beneficial impact is what HealthKeeperz refers to as “Barnabas Culture.”

Every quarter, anyone in the company can be recommended for the Barnabas Award. Workers within the company can nominate others and fill out a questionnaire about how the nominee has lived out the company's core values. 

At the end of the year, there is also a 'Big Barnabas Award' winner.

The idea of the Barnabas culture is to create awareness about what you know and what you're trying to achieve.

"We want to be compassionate, take ownership, be excellent in care and put family first," Brooks explained. "With all these things in mind, we want to recognize people who are living that out, and are good examples for us all to see." 

The concept of Barnabus Culture stems from the Bible. Barnabus was a biblical figure who guided the Apostle Paul and helped with missionary journeys. 

HealthKeeperz's goals for the foreseeable future are to continue being a part of something greater and to create something different in healthcare. 

It is heavily encouraged throughout the company to find joy in different forms – finding real joy, so that it will bleed over into one's personal life and their life in their communities or families, not just in a professional atmosphere. 

"I believe that we can do well, and I believe that we have in the communities we serve that ultimately have an economic impact that will also impact families and health care," Brooks said. "I believe that we can take this idea of flourishing, and the results will be huge. If at the end of my career, I look back and I can see that, I will be happy."