Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | March 6, 2023 | Worcester Business Journal 21 H A L L O F F A M E F O C U S BY ISABEL TEHAN WBJ Staff Writer I n 1995, aer Chizoma Nosike picked Worcester as her destination aer emigrating from her native Nigeria, she was welcomed by a nor'easter. She asked herself, "What have I done?" Almost three decades, two children, and a self-designed home health agency later, Nosike does not have those doubts about the city any longer. "Worcester embraced me, and so we have never moved," Nosike said. Nosike opened her business, Acclaim Home Health Care, in 2005 aer an initial career as a physical thera- pist in England and her home country of Nigeria. She came to the U.S. on an H1-B visa during a shortage of workers with her experience. When Nosike's husband decided to get his MBA at Anna Maria College in Paxton, she decided she wanted to get one, too, and graduated from there with an MBA in healthcare administration in 1999. Degree in hand, Acclaim Home Health Care was born of working inside the home care in- dustry, where she began to notice things that did not strike her right, particularly as the immigrant population in the region increased and she regis- tered a need for care particular to cultural origins. "ere were many things I wanted to do dif- ferently, and I promised myself if I had my own business, I could do those things," said Nosike. Speaking patients' languages Nosike started with five employees in an incubator program at the Martin Luther King Jr. Business Empowerment Center, which has since merged with the South Middlesex Opportunity Council in Framingham. As she built Acclaim from the ground up, at the center of her work was a focus on the changing demographics in Worcester and empowering immigrant service-seekers through language programming. "Cultural competency was on my mind even as we started in 2005. It was always a key thing," she said. In practice, this meant Acclaim sought out freelance interpreters who spoke their populations' languages, and Acclaim offered these services free of charge to patients. is service, not reimbursed by private or government insurance in 2005, remains so today, but the costs to Acclaim are non-negotiables for Nosike and her business model. "To this day, I look at this as my contribution to Worcester," she said. ese contributions to the community are rec- ognized by patients and providers alike, said Judy Kenary, associate vice president for academic affairs at Anna Maria College. Kenary is a member on the board at Acclaim. "She is very involved in the community and knows the community. It is not a business from the outside contracted in. She knows them," Kenary said. Knowing her patients and her staff is a priority at Acclaim, even as it has grown from five employees to more than 40 at its peak before the COVID pandemic. Now the staff size hovers around 35, and addressing the landscape of hiring healthcare workers is the new- est hurdle for Nosike. While Acclaim has employees who have been fix- tures on staff since 2006, finding and recruiting talent in 2023 is a challenge: 10 times harder than before the pandemic, Nosike said. Despite this difficult environment for health care at large and home health care in particular, Nosike re- mains committed to the importance of Acclaim's work as providers and patients alike move to a system trying to reduce hospital stays. "Home care is the future of healthcare," she said. WBJ Hall of Fame Chizoma Nosike President and owner Acclaim Home Health Care, Inc. Company headquarters: Worcester Her birthplace: Lagos, Nigeria Residence: Worcester A different career path: Before she started schooling to become a physical therapist, Nosike as a teenager was in training to be a nun in Nigeria. Nosike pioneered cultural competency in health care W PHOTO | MATT WRIGHT

• Cover