The North Star is the star that the earth's axis points toward in the Northern sky. For thousands of years, explorers and travelers have used the star as a navigational aid to chart the direction of their travel. And over time, many cultures have created fascinating folklore honoring the brightest star in the night sky that seemingly stands still as a steadfast beacon of light.         

PANPHA has created a vision of long term care and senior services that will serve as a guiding light for its members directing them towards a bright future of providing excellent life long care – that vision is our North Star.

The culmination of an intensive 10-month visioning process, PANPHA’s North Star incorporates feedback from PANPHA members and stakeholders to create a compelling vision for the preferred future of long term care and aging services for the Commonwealth.

PANPHA’s North Star Vision is not a strategic plan with goals, objectives, benchmarks and time tables. It can, however, be used as a guide to assist organizations in shaping their own strategic planning processes by offering a guiding light towards which strategies are directed.

“Navigation markers” offered throughout the eight components of the North Star Vision provide examples of benchmarks or “sign posts” that show how organizations are advancing along the path towards their preferred future. The special “North Star Vision Checklist” can also be used to identify your organization’s progress within each point of the North Star.

We urge you to share PANPHA’s preferred vision of a bright future in the field of long term care and senior services with your colleagues, board members, resident councils and employees. Hard copies of our final North Star Vision are available via e-mail or phone request to: Jennifer@panpha.org or 717-763-5724. Or, you may download the document from this site.

A special thanks to our PANPHA member Thought Leaders, PANPHA’s consultant for the North Star Vision, former PA Secretary of Aging, Dr. Linda Rhodes, and the Hirtzel Institute on Health Education and Aging for their participation and contributions to the development of our North Star Vision.

If you have any questions or comments regarding PANPHA’s North Star please feel free to contact:

Ron Barth
PANPHA President/CEO
1100 Bent Creek Boulevard
Mechanicsburg, PA 17050
717-763-5724
ron@panpha.org