People of PointClickCare: Murry Mercier

Introducing Murry Mercier, Industry Market Leader for Senior Care by day, rock star by night. That’s right, when he’s not spending time at his local senior living community or participating in a wide variety of speaking opportunities for PointClickCare, Murry can be found touring the country with his band! Keep reading to learn all about Murry and what makes him so unique.

So many interests, so little time

Senior Care specialist, rockstar, and a certified scuba diver, Murry likes to keep busy. “I’ve actually been certified since I was 14 years old and that’s because I grew up as a competitive swimmer. At one point I was top 30 in the country and swam on the same team as Michael Phelps.” These days, most of his spare time it spent with his band, Strange Americans. “The band has been together for 13 years now, we’ve released 4 albums, we’ve toured coast to coast, we’ve had record deals and managers and booking agents and I’m  lucky to have that other passion outside of my passion for senior living. Working remotely with PointClickCare since 2014 has really allowed me to do both.”

He has 65 grandparents

Murry doesn’t actually have 65 grandparents but says that growing up it sure felt like he did. “My grandmother was a nursing home administrator and when I was a child, on occasion I would go to work with her. That’s when my lifelong journey really began because to me, the people in the home were just my friends. They would give me candy and we’d watch tv together and they would teach me games, and I thought they were awesome. I had 65 grandparents when I went there and it was just such a loving community to grow up in.”

Lifelong advocate for Seniors

As a third-generation Senior Care worker, Murry’s journey to PointClicKCare is a big part of his lifelong goal to enhance healthcare for seniors. “I’m on a mission to change the industry for the better, as best I can.” Murry says that when he was a kid, he didn’t understand the processes behind what he was seeing at the institutional nursing home, but that experience gave him a unique perspective, because to him, they were all people first, and they were just living life as best they could.

Fast-forward a few years and while in college working towards degree in management for information systems, Murry said he chose to take Gerontology 101 as an elective because of his lifelong relationship with seniors. Through this course he visited a local assisted living community and seeing it now as an adult, he realized many things had changed, but there was still so much work to do. “I thought to myself, these people are vibrant, they have stories to tell, and I wondered what I can do personally to make their lives better. I felt that not only did we still have a lot to learn from them, but they had a lot to  give back themselves through engaging with the world around them.”

Industry Market Leader

As Industry Market Leader of Senior Care for PointClickCare, Murry’s main responsibilities are to uphold a deep understanding of market trend and analysis for all of long-term care and post-acute and also for the senior living side of the business. He says that this role involves speaking with customers, thought leaders, and partners to find out what their seeing and working on from a challenges  perspective in the industry. “I gather the information from the industry and then translate that back into PointClickCare, helping us take action on their challenges and create solutions via products, services, or marketing messaging.”

Why PointClickCare?

Murry sayswhenever someone asks him why he chose PointClickCare, he is reminded of the very first time he walked into the office. “Back in 2014, I walked in and through engaging with everyone, the first thing that caught my attention was just how intelligent everyone is and how they were directing that intelligence to serve a purpose of giving a voice to the most vulnerable population. The feeling I got that day very much aligned to my desire to advance senior living , and it hasn’t faded over the years.”

Another thing that Murry has always respected about PointClicKCare is its leadership. “The top leadership, the people who started this company, they are still very much invested in the day-to-day success. They are interested and they show up and they participate and they are there if we need them.”

Going back to Senior Care homes during the pandemic

During the height of covid, PointClickCare reached out to employees who had experience working in healthcare to let them know that if they wanted to return to the frontlines, they would have the support of PointClickCare 100%. “When Dave Wessinger told us if we had the skills to help those in need we could take that opportunity if we wanted to, I almost immediately reached out to a local memory care community that I had heard about in the news to see if they needed my help. They were really struggling with infection rates and deaths, and I was able to go in the next day to help them get back on track. With the support of PointClickCare, I worked both jobs for the next 3 months, and the best thing about it was it wasn’t for financial gain or anything else, it was simply because it was the right thing to do.”

Be better, not perfect

With over 20 years of experience working in senior care, Murry says the most valuable lesson he’s learned is “the objective of being better as opposed to being perfect.” He says, particularly in a long-term care living situation, which is what he identifies with most, the goal is to live life the best we can day in and day out, together. “In that way, the goal is being better, not perfect. Being engaged, not happy. Just understanding the outcome we are striving to achieve has probably been the largest and most valuable lesson for me and has helped me on my journey towards advancing senior care.”

Thanks for sharing, Murry!