What you should know…
As a patient care manager supporting several offices, Michelle helps equip care teams with what they need to deliver quality care in patients’ homes.
As a U.S. Air Force weather observer, Michelle Koester understood that pilots relied on her. Although her role was only one part of each mission, her observations were essential to mission readiness.
Now, 16 years into her career at AccentCare, Michelle still plays a similar role. As a patient care manager supporting several offices, she helps equip care teams with what they need to deliver quality care in patients’ homes.
Finding Her Niche
After graduating from nursing school, Michelle worked in hospitals, intensive care units and nursing homes. She learned from each job, but she still felt like something was missing.
“I was still kind of looking for that niche,” she said.
She found her niche by accident. Michelle thought she was applying for a hospice job, but the Hospice and Home Health offices were next to each other. She walked into the Home Health office by mistake, applied, and interviewed that same day.
What started as a wrong turn became the career she’d been searching for. Caring for patients in their homes brought Michelle new challenges, new relationships, and new opportunities to make a difference.
“It turned out to be the niche that I needed,” Michelle said.
One Piece of the Mission
During her time in the Air Force, Michelle learned that precision and responsibility matter because every role supports a bigger mission.
“Everybody’s piece came together to do the job.”
Michelle recognizes the same teamwork in AccentCare Home Health. Clinicians, schedulers, patient care managers, customer service representatives, and office teams rely on each other to deliver exceptional care. Their roles are distinct, but success depends on everyone working together.
For Michelle, teamwork remains at the heart of exceptional patient care.
“I’m one little piece,” she said. “They need me to do my job. I need them to do their job.”
Leadership Through Independence
Military service also taught Michelle the importance of personal responsibility.
In the Air Force, expectations were clear. Service members were trusted to understand their responsibilities and carry out their duties with professionalism and accountability.
That mindset translates naturally to Home Health.
Unlike hospital settings where large teams may be readily available, clinicians in the field often work independently while caring for patients in their homes. Success requires confidence, resourcefulness, and the ability to make decisions while remaining connected to the broader team.
Michelle believes that balance between independence and teamwork is one of the qualities Veterans often bring to civilian careers.
Advice for Veterans
Michelle has simple advice for other Veterans: never underestimate what you learned through your military service, including discipline, accountability, and a drive to help others. “It’s something you carry with you,” she said.
Michelle has seen first-hand how AccentCare values those strengths and offers Veterans real ways to use them.
Sixteen years after she first walked into the wrong office, Michelle knows she belongs. The mission may look different today, but the purpose remains the same: serving others.
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