Artis Baker has been in home health for more than 40 years. Even more unusual, many of those years have been dedicated to caring for the same client.
Beker joined BAYADA Home Health Care in 1984 as a home health aide, but her resume goes back further. Since joining BAYADA, she has logged over 55,000 hours of service providing care and compassion for her various clients.
Baker has one special relationship that most home health aides can only imagine. Baker began caring for her client (who will be referred to as L. to protect her privacy) when she was just 8 years old, homebound and living with her grandmother and great grandmother. L. was a particularly complex case as she was unable to communicate, feed herself or walk. Baker began working with L. seven days a week, rarely taking a vacation, and over the years, Baker taught L. how to feed herself, express herself through her own communication needs and even to enjoy taking a shower.
L. is now 42, and her relationship with Baker is stronger than ever.
“She sits here at the window and looks out the window, and if I take off for vacation or whatever, they told me she constantly looks out the window because she’s looking for me,” Baker said.
Baker’s dedication to L. is just one example of how she goes above and beyond in her work.
“Artis is the embodiment of professionalism,” Rachel Ali Permell, director of the BAYADA branch in Wilmington, Delaware, wrote in Baker’s nomination. “She always represents BAYADA well with her clients and in the community. Artis was one of the first employees of BAYADA. She speaks highly of BAYADA, takes pride in her work and in our organization. She is a true role model and a professional in every aspect.”
“Artis goes above and beyond to demonstrate BAYADA’s core values of compassion, excellence, and reliability in her work,” Permell continued. In fact, Baker has been previously honored by her employer as part of the company’s formal Hero recognition program, as a Division Hero and as a National Hero of the Quarter at the enterprise level in 2021.
But Baker isn’t one to sing her own praises. While she describes herself as compassionate and dependable, she shows a humbleness that speaks to her character. She credits her own children and the effort it took to juggle her professional and family caregiving roles with helping her learn to walk the tightrope of a work-life balance.
“It was surprising because you know you go to work every day and you don’t think about winning an award or things like that,” she said. “My patients depend on me and I raised three kids and explained to them we’re going to have to all work together. I think it only made it easier because of my kids. When I sat them down and explained to them we were going to have to work together, they understood.”
“Thank God for Crock-Pots,” she added.
Despite her primary focus on one client, Baker most loves getting to meet new people. She’s even been called upon by BAYADA directors to help take care of their ailing parents over the years. At the end of the day, Baker said one thing truly matters—her patients.
“My main concern is their safety and their care,” she said. “A lot of my clients have family that works during the day, so you have to be there to support them until their families come in. There’s a lot of people out here that need our help. There are some family members that just put elderly people in their homes and leave them because they don’t have the time. They just need help.”
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