For Lori, Coworkers are Family

Lori Anderson graduated from Edgewood College in Madison, WI in the Spring of 1993 with a B.S. in Accounting. From her junior year of high school until she moved to western Wisconsin, she had a job at a local feed mill doing their bookkeeping and retail sales. After she graduated from college, she also had a full-time job in Madison as an Administrative Assistant/Accountant with a treatment foster care agency that worked with all the counties in Wisconsin.

It wasn’t until Lori got married that moved up to Menomonie/Hammond, WI. She had kept her accounting job for a short time until after she had her first child. From there, Lori started working in daycare for a few years. Eventually, some former coworkers at the treatment foster care agency started their own agency and asked Lori to come work for them.

“I did that from my home for several years while I had my other two children and stayed there until they were all in school. I was then let go and desperate to find a job.”

While searching for a new job, Lori did some substitute teaching and then found a part-time bookkeeper position for a church and position as a staff accountant at a CPA firm.  It was by chance that a position at the nursing home in Hammond came along.

“I had never been in healthcare and only had experience working with troubled youth. Otherwise, it was the perfect job for me because it was only blocks from my home! It was a very short commute, and my husband also works in Hammond, WI, so it enabled us to always be available for my kids if they needed me at school or there were school events, etc.”

Lori is not just the Business Office Manager at Hammond Health Services, but she is a jack-of-all-trades! She assists with IT, scheduling, staffing, Human Resources, receptionist duties, maintenance, and more. Lori is without a doubt a pillar of their team. 

Beginning her path into healthcare, Lori recalls, “I knew nothing about Medicare, Managed Care, Insurances, Medicaid so I just Googled it and learned from coworkers along the way and now I feel pretty knowledgeable about them. I have been at Hammond Health Services since Sept 14, 2009 so I have been through several company and industry changes.”

Along her path, Lori has found that she loves working in the long-term care setting. She enjoys being able to see hear the awesome stories of our elders and has fun working with their families and getting to know them better. 

“It feels like you have a huge extended family, especially if there are residents who were born and raised in this town with my relatives. I must say COVID has put a huge damper on all of this and it hurts my heart to see family members not able to see their loved ones, so I’m glad that things are slowly returning to normal.” 

Lori truly believes Hammond Health Services is an awesome place to work because they all work together as a great team and are always welcoming to new members.

“My daughter actually began working here as a CNA when she turned 16 and will continue to work here until she gets through college in her pursuit to become a nurse. Both of my sons worked here as well, one in dietary and the other in housekeeping, while they were in school. It’s a great place for young people and old alike! We are all one big, happy family!”