Caris Healthcare CEO and Founder Norman McRae Featured Speaker at 2012 Inc. Leadership Forum

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. and COLUMBIA, S.C., May 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Norman McRae, CEO and founder of Caris Healthcare, an $81 million hospice provider, will address a national audience at the 2012 Inc. Leadership Forum on Friday, June 8, 2012, in Miami, Fla.  The session is entitled "How to be the Best Well Run Company in America" and features Terry May, founder and president of MESA Products as well as McRae, who will speak to the importance of strategic planning, customer satisfaction, workforce management and operations focus in leadership.

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120531/CL14992 )

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120131/CL44810LOGO-b )

An executive in the hospice field for the past 21 years, McRae founded Hospice of Hope in Maysville, Ky., in 1990. In 2001 he led a turnaround for Housecall Medical Resources, a publicly traded company operating in five states. McRae has served on the board of directors of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization and has published articles in periodicals including The Journal of Oncology Management. He holds a master's degree in public administration in healthcare from the University of Kentucky and a Master of Divinity from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

McRae founded Caris Healthcare in 2003, as a 50/50 joint venture with National Healthcare.  McRae's extensive hospice expertise has enabled him to expand the business to service the entire states of Tennessee and South Carolina with twenty-five locations.  A milestone for Caris was winning the prestigious Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence Award in 2008 and being a finalist for the National Baldrige Quality Award in 2010.

Caris recently acquired Solaris Hospice, a South Carolina provider of outpatient hospice services. Total annual revenue for Caris was $67 million, which increased to $81.2 million with the Solaris acquisition.

For two consecutive years, Caris has exceeded national scores in key performance indicators for symptom management of pain, nausea, dyspnea and anxiety by an average of 43 percent according to Strategic Healthcare Programs, LLC.

Caris believes in providing compassionate care to each and every patient it serves. Since Caris was founded in 2003 as a partnership between the McRae family and National HealthCare Corporation, it has touched more than 21,000 lives. This service has been possible because of Caris' strong commitment to its patients and families and to its healthcare partners.

MEDIA CONTACT: Laura Bower, APR
[email protected] / 865.524.5376

SOURCE Caris Healthcare