Local business leader honored

Sunday, April 18, 2004

POPLAR BLUFF -- Sikeston businessman Don Bedell has won an award from two professional organizations representing nearly 12,000 nursing homes.

The American Health Care Association and the National Center for Assisted Living have named Bedell as one of four recipients of the national Joe Warner Patient Advocacy Award.

Bedell is founder and chairman of Sikeston-based Health Facilities Management Corp., which operates 33 nursing homes across the United States.

Bedell's award is named for Joe Warner, former president and Chief Executive Officer of Illinois-based Heritage Enterprises and an advocate for America's elderly and disabled.

The award is given annually by the AHCA/NCAL to affiliates who have worked to educate members of Congress about the needs of long-term care recipients and have worked to advance quality in the long-term care profession.

In addition to Bedell, recipients of this year's Joe Warner awards were Phil Chase, a principal of a group which manages five skilled nursing and two residential care facilities in California; Terry Kuzman, president of the Connecticut Association of Health Care Facilities, and Dixie Taylor-Huff, owner of four health care companies in Tennessee.

In addition to supporting numerous community activities in Southeast Missouri, Bedell is a member of the Board of Directors of Three Rivers Community College Foundation. The non-profit TRCC Foundation is separate from the college and has its own budget and administrative structure.

Its purpose is to create perpetual funding sources for TRCC's development, including general endowment and special projects that fall outside the college's operating budget.

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