An improbable hooper provides an invaluable service for seniors.
Patrick “Mr. Healthcare” Collier didn’t pick up a basketball until he was 14, an age when many young athletes had already spent years playing organized ball. During tryouts, he was so out of his element that his coach pulled him aside and suggested he stick with the snare drum, which he played in the school band.
But Collier had other plans.
That summer, he tied his right hand to his body every day from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., forcing himself to strengthen his left-hand dribbling and shooting. The next year, as an eighth-grader, he stunned everyone at tryouts and made the team—only to be sidelined because his grades weren’t high enough.
By the time he reached Pasadena High School, however, Collier was playing and thriving. His basketball journey eventually took him to three colleges, including two years at Chaminade University in Hawaii.
He never made the NBA. But Collier found another calling—one that has allowed him to help hundreds of families navigate one of life’s most difficult challenges.
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From hoops to healthcare
Collier spent over a decade helping connect patients with skilled nursing facilities. But the job exposed him to a problem he couldn’t ignore.
“I was a clinical liaison marketer for skilled nursing for almost 11 years,” Collier said. “Patients would be referred from hospitals but couldn’t be accepted because they lacked a discharge plan home. Those patients still needed physical, occupational, or wound-care services. Some called me even after I couldn’t place them, crying, begging for help.
“Typically, the hospital will send them to a shelter, knowing that these individuals still need physical therapy or skilled nursing care itself. That just didn’t sit right with me. It didn’t sit right with my spirit.”
Collier prayed about it and began imagining a company that could connect patients with personal care homes or group homes capable of meeting both their clinical and financial needs.
Healthcare as ministry
That vision became Placement with Care Senior Service Placements, where he’s able to make successful placements regularly. But Collier’s mission extends beyond placements. His company also connects families with caregiver services, home health, pharmacy assistance, and information regarding Medicare, Medicaid, and SSI.
“Basically, I want to be the one-stop shop,” said Collier, for whom the work he does is more than business.
“I always say healthcare is ministry,” he said. “To work in this field, you have to be called.”
His approach has also helped him build a business through relationships rather than traditional advertising alone. Referrals have come from hospitals, social media, moments out shopping, elevators, and even hospital parking lots.
“Placements are everywhere,” Collier said. “It’s not just at the hospitals; they’re everywhere.”
Removing a financial barrier
One of the most significant aspects of Collier’s model is that families don’t pay him for placement services.
“It’s a free service to those who are looking to have their loved ones placed,” he said.
Collier is compensated by personal care homes with which he contracts after successfully making a placement. That arrangement allows families already facing the emotional and financial pressures of caring for an aging or ill loved one to receive assistance without adding another bill.
“I always say healthcare is ministry. To work in this field, you have to be called.”
Patrick ‘Mr. Healthcare’ Collier
Starting the business, however, wasn’t easy. Collier launched without savings or loans.
“My quote is, ‘I didn’t step out on faith to step back in on fear,’” he said. “But it was definitely not easy.”
Over 300 families and counting
For Collier, success isn’t simply measured by the number of placements.
“Knowing that I was able to put someone in a place clinically and financially, so that it doesn’t break the barriers of the family, is what matters,” he said.
In his first year, Collier has made 311 placements.
“I have lifelong relationships with whoever I place,” he said. “And I still am close with all 311 family members.”
That commitment has earned the trust of people who have witnessed his work firsthand.
“The tragedy of healthcare today is the lack of trust in the system,” said Carol Doe Porter, RN and co-founder of Kid-Care Inc.
She praised Collier’s compassion and willingness to make personal sacrifices, saying he approaches each situation with the question, “What if this were my mother?”
“He’s the real McCoy,” Porter said.
For Collier, the answer to that question appears to be the foundation of his work: Treat every senior, every patient, and every family as though they were his own.
