How Coastal Care Partners Built a One-of-a-kind Integrated Care Model (Amy Pierce)

#60 Amy Pierce spent more than 20 years as a nurse and saw firsthand how fragmented healthcare makes it incredibly difficult—especially for older adults—to navigate. In 2018, she and her husband Scott set out to fix that. They started with nurse-led care management, quickly growing to ~10 clients before expanding the team—and within just six months realized they needed to bring caregiving in-house to control quality and outcomes. About 1–2 years later, they added clinical oversight so they could handle situations like a 4pm Friday change in condition without sending clients to the ER.Fast forward 8 years, Coastal Care Partners has grown to 340+ employees and become the largest single-site home care company in Georgia, with an integrated team that includes physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, and therapists—even operating multiple primary care practices and specialty services. Their caregivers go through a 100-hour internal training program, reinforcing their reputation as “elite” providers in their market. Amy shares how they built this model step-by-step—“building the airplane while flying it”—why hiring and communication are everything, and how integration allows them to manage rising conditions like dementia, Parkinson’s, and heart disease more effectively at home. She also breaks down the operational lessons, leadership challenges, and why she believes integrated care is the future of aging services.Show Notes:Amy Pierce on LinkedInCoastal Care PartnersBook: The Aging Care Blueprint for Families by Amy PierceEOS—Entrepreneurial Operating System for businesses Sponsors:Mertz Taggart—Value Accelerator Program