Bettina Scales-Tara doesn’t believe in losing.
“You’re either winning or learning. You’re never losing,” she explains. “The more you fail, the more you learn, right? And so failure is just another opportunity to be great. That’s all it is.”
This philosophy is the bedrock of Bettina’s career—a journey that proves it’s never too late to reinvent yourself, find your true passion, and scale your impact to help countless people. Our Director of Behavioral Programs has navigated a winding road to clinical leadership, and every pivot has been driven by a fierce desire to solve problems and empower those around her.
The Catalyst for Care
Working in nursing was never a childhood goal. In her early adult years, it was never even an interest. Then Bettina’s diabetic grandmother was hospitalized, and she saw both the good and bad of healthcare firsthand.
“The nurses would come and visit because [my grandmother] had a wound. And I was just watching how compassionate this one person was,” Bettina says. She shares that this nurse even walked her through some caregiving routines, showing how to best care for her loved one.
But not everyone on the team held this same attention to detail. In time, Bettina noticed severe gaps in the care her grandmother was receiving.
“I caught that they were still giving her insulin, but not feeding her. She wasn’t eating. So then it caused her to go into a diabetic coma,” Bettina explains. “She ended up passing in the hospital. That kind of spurred my decision to try to go into healthcare to make it better for other people.”
Eventually. This career-pivot didn’t happen overnight.
Before she ever put on scrubs, Bettina worked as a corrections officer at a level-eight juvenile facility. Yet while she tried to help the youth she supervised, the system felt like “a vicious cycle” with no real reward at the end—an unwanted reality that further prompted her to make a change.
Encouraged by her godmother—who had always told her she would make a great nurse—Bettina went back to school and earned her LPN in 2011.
A Vision for Nationwide Care
Over the next decade, Bettina built a diverse clinical foundation. She moved from Florida to practice nursing in Los Angeles from 2014 to 2020, then took on an Assistant Director of Nursing (ADON) role in Minnesota from 2020 to 2023. And it was during this time up north that her ultimate career goal came into focus.
As an ADON, Bettina frequently interacted with state surveyors, picking their brains about the best practices they observed across different buildings. Inspired by their insights, in 2022 she created a vision board with a massive goal: Move beyond the walls of a single facility and help nursing homes across the country implement clinical best practices.
This vision soon paved the way for her introduction to MedElite in late 2023—where the alignment with her written goal remains undeniable.
“I do love what MedElite does. I love that the owners are passionate about the patients, not just the money,” Bettina says. “And I love that Dr. Bhandari really cares about her patients. So, I kind of bought into the mission and it’s become my mission as well.”
Designing the Work: The MedElite Journey
Bettina’s rise at MedElite is a masterclass in taking initiative. She initially interviewed for a Pod Leader position, but started on the forefront as a Care Coordinator. Instead of just clocking in and completing her assigned tasks, she jumped in to bridge a gap she noticed—the lack of formal training processes for new hires.
“I saw there was a need and I filled it, and I didn’t ask ‘where is the money?’ or anything. I just did it because I knew people needed it,” Bettina says. She took it upon herself to build standard workflows, develop a training drive, and record instructional videos to help her colleagues succeed.
The MedElite leadership team noticed Bettina’s proactive problem-solving and quickly promoted her to Pod Leader. And she soon had an aha moment, “realizing that I was no longer only completing the work in front of me. I was helping design how the work should be done.” So as she took on even more responsibility, her impact multiplied.
Tasked with managing the Behavioral Health Integration (BHI) and the Collaborative Care Model (CoCM) programs, Bettina didn’t just maintain the status quo; she dismantled and rebuilt the CoCM workflow from the ground up to improve efficiency and consistency. Under her guidance, the program doubled its output from 10,000 monthly codes to 20,000—in just three months. But she didn’t over-prioritize this output either.
For Bettina, the numbers are secondary to the people. When the CoCM program’s requirements shifted to heavier reliance on RNs, Bettina worried about the job security of experienced LPNs. So she took action, tirelessly researching compliance regulations until she found a pathway for her LPNs to earn the necessary certifications to stay on the team.
“That solution was beneficial to the organization, but it also protected employment opportunities for team members who had already invested in the program,” Bettina reveals. “I believe that was when I began to fully understand that leadership is not just about managing what already exists. It is about seeing possibilities, solving problems that affect both people and the business, and building something sustainable.”
Building Leaders From Within
Bettina is quick to highlight that her rapid growth—which included finishing her RN schooling while managing multiple massive programs—was heavily supported by MedElite’s leadership culture. She vividly remembers a pivotal conversation with Dr. Bhandari, our Chief Medical Officer.
“Dr. Bhandari brought me into the office and she said, ‘What are your plans?’” Bettina shares. “I told her I wanted to finish my RN because I really see a lot of growth opportunities—I found that this was my passion. She said, ‘If you go to RN school, I got you from there. There’s room for you here.’”
Bettina credits the open-door policy of leaders like Dr. Bhandari and Avi Mayer—MedElite’s President and Co-Founder—for giving her the psychological safety to experiment, pitch new ideas, and lead authentically. And she pays this mentorship forward in her current role as a Director. Rooting her management style in behavioral psychology, she leads with compassion and places a heavy-emphasis on internal mobility.
“I hire from within. I will never go outside to find someone to elevate,” Bettina says firmly. “I want everyone to know what it feels like to be in the position of the person that you’re managing. So, I pick those people, cultivate them, and mentor them. It doesn’t always have to be my name on something. I let them lead so that the owners can see them as well.”
Fulfilling the Vision
Today, Bettina oversees the BHI, CoCM, and Consent programs, actively building automated auditing systems to make her team’s work even smoother. Living out the goal she wrote in her vision board in 2022 by identifying care gaps and implementing best practices to protect vulnerable patients nationwide.
She offers this advice for anyone looking to build a long-term, impactful career:
- Take the initiative: Look for needs within the company and fill them without waiting for instruction.
- Remain a student: Read regulations, ask questions, and never assume you know everything.
- Use feedback as fuel: “Take feedback as gas in your engine to motivate you to move forward,” Bettina advises. “You can even learn from your enemy. Nothing gets thrown away—let it be useful to you for forward mobility.”
Because for Bettina, every piece of feedback is a tool. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn. Every lesson is a step toward a better standard of care. That’s why she’s always winning and learning, and winning because she learns.
Bettina Scales-Tara never loses.