Editor’s Note: The McKnight’s Senior Living Daily Briefing and McKnight’s Long-Term Care News Daily Update e-newsletters are profiling each of the McKnight’s 2019 Women of Distinction in July. For more coverage, visit the McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Long-Term Care News websites and read the August print edition of McKnight’s Senior Living and July print edition of McKnight’s Long-Term Care News.
Barb Masella has been serving the long-term care industry for almost 60 years.
After she became a registered nurse and earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree and licensed nursing home administrator certification, she worked in nursing homes for 10 years. Masella then spent three years as a nursing home consultant with the Ohio Department of Health.
It was in 1976 that she joined her final company, HCF Management in Lima, OH. She began as an administrative coordinator, and after a variety of roles with increasing responsibility, Masella became vice president of operations. She has held this role for more than 30 years.
Under her leadership, HCF has achieved 138 deficiency-free Department of Health surveys. The company also has 25 facilities that have earned the American Health Care Association’s Bronze – Achievement in Quality Award, six facilities that earned AHCA’s Silver Award and one that applied for the Gold Award in 2019.
HCF has taken notice of Masella’s dedication and in 2009 created an annual award, The Barb Masella Quality Award, to be presented to the facility that achieved the best clinical outcomes the previous year.
She has served on the Ohio Health Care Association convention task force as well as the facility standards and legislative committees. Masellas also has been an alternate for the OHCA District III board of directors, where she helped raise almost $1 million to go to the Education Foundation for OHCA, which provided scholarships to students planning careers in the long-term care industry. In addition, Masella has spent time in Washington, D.C., lobbying with AHCA on behalf of the long-term care field.
Masella retired earlier this year after 43 years with HCF.
McKnight’s Women of Distinction is a joint program of McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Long-Term Care News.
The McKnight’s Women of Distinction program’s exclusive Platinum sponsor is PointClickCare.
