Healthcare Staffing Agency Opens its Doors in Center Valley

BrightStar Care, one of the fastest growing home healthcare and staffing providers in the country, announces the expansion of its caregiving network and opening of its newest location at 3477 Corporate Pkwy in Center Valley.

Owned and operated by Jim and Marilyn Long, BrightStar of the Lehigh Valley provides residents in Lehigh and NorthamptonCounties with adult and elder homecare and childcare, as well as supplemental healthcare staff to corporate clients such as hospitals and nursing homes.

“We are incredibly excited about our arrival to the area,” said Shelly Sun, Co-Founder and CEO of BrightStar Care, which was recently featured on CBS’ Emmy nominated reality television series Undercover Boss. “As specialists in the rapidly growing healthcare industry, we empower our owners to live our values and provide compassionate care and service, anytime, anyplace.” 

The expansion into the area is part of a national growth initiative that has BrightStar Care prepared for an aging population that will likely require varying degrees of healthcare and caregiver support over the next several decades.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the demand for primary care services is likely to increase in the coming years as the baby boomers continue to age and are expected to live longer and healthier than preceding generations. In fact, census projections call for a 36% rise in the population of seniors age 65 and older by 2020 and 120% increase by 2050. And the number of those 100 and older will skyrocket, rising 71% by 2020 and 661% by 2050.

“There comes a time in everyone’s life when they need a helping hand to overcome the challenges life throws at them and I knew that the tools and systems BrightStar Care already had in place would allow us to provide the high-quality level of care to my community and the surrounding areas,” said Jim Long, who came out of retirement to launch this business with his wife. For the past six years he was a stay at home dad taking care of their daughter with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy due to the inability to obtain regular, reliable and quality nursing care for her.  “We couldn’t be more excited to start meeting the challenges and needs of those in the community.”

Parents of triplets who were born at 26 weeks, all weighing less than two pounds and one diagnosed with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy, Jim and Marilyn Long have been consumers of home nursing services for their daughter for 19 years. Additionally, Marilyn managed long distance homecare for her mother with Alzheimer’s. 

“We have a unique understanding of the clients’ perspective that we believe will be invaluable to our business,” said Marilyn Long. “Our dear friend and passionate nurse for our daughter is coming along to join the business with us, so when we say we are sending you caregivers that we would have take care of our family, we mean it!”

Today, the Long’s BrightStar Care provides the full continuum of care, from private homecare for all ages to medical staffing service for healthcare facilities. While senior citizens make up the majority of the company’s private duty clientele, BrightStar Care also works with children, workers’ compensation cases, long-term care and Veteran clients, as well as private trust and public guardian payers.

“Our mission is to give ‘peace of mind’ to our clients by providing the highest quality healthcare staffing solutions,” Marilyn added. “We are closely involved with the families we serve and support our clients and staff with every means possible. We are people who care about people.”

BrightStar of the Lehigh Valley can be reached by phone at (610) 814-7300 or by emailing Jim.long@brightstarcare.com.