Editor’s Note: McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Home Care are profiling the McKnight’s 2023 Pinnacle Awards honorees daily in April and May. For additional McKnight’s Pinnacle Awards content, visit this page.
Every day, Barry “BC” Carr and his Ignite Medical Resorts are dedicated to “extinguishing the stereotype” by reinventing the short-term rehabilitation industry.
Gone are the stark, semi-private rooms and outsourced therapy. Instead, Carr and his co-founder and business partner, Tim Fields, have created luxury hotel-like experiences for their residents while providing rapid rehabilitation with in-house therapists.
The pair have adopted the motto, “Vision without
execution is hallucination.” Clearly, neither is hallucinating.
In less than five years, Ignite Medical Resorts has expanded to 18 locations in Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin. The company has received broad attention for its creative business model and aggressive growth, especially with it occurring during harrowing pandemic years.
At the same time, Carr launched the nonprofit Ignite the Way Foundation, providing financial resources to employees struggling with problems such as cancer, domestic abuse, house fires, tornadoes and more.
Judges named Carr an “Unsung Hero” category winner in the 2023 McKnight’s Pinnacle Awards.
The University of Michigan alum began his healthcare career in 1987 as a nursing home administrator for NuCare Services. Eventually, he became the president of the company.
While with NuCare, he bought Forest VIlla Nursing and Rehab in Niles, IL, in 2001. Later, he rebranded it to Avanti Wellness & Rehabilitation Center. In 2012, he left NuCare to focus on running the Avanti community independently with his son, Jared, before the pair joined Ignite.
The McKnight’s Pinnacle Awards program is jointly administered by McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Home Care. Honorees were recognized March 7 at a gala banquet and awards ceremony in Chicago. The program’s Platinum sponsor was MatrixCare. Omnicare was a Silver sponsor, and additional sponsors included Pinnacle Quality Insight, HealthDirect and Sentrics.
