Who is Paragon?
Our History
Paragon Clinical LLC is a medical management company creating, supplementing and managing the development of medical infrastructure for Skilled Nursing Facilities and Assisted Living Residences. Its leadership and team have been providing skilled nursing home care for over 25 years. Paragon Clinical LLC, formerly NP Care of Illinois, LLC, has provided services to patients in over 54 nursing facilities in Illinois and has over 25 employees.
Our Leadership
David Chess, M.D.
Founder and President
The Founder and President of Paragon Clinical, Dr. David Chess is a Board Certified Internist and Geriatrician. Dr. Chess is committed to creating medical care platforms which become the foundation for providing great patient care. As Principal of Starfish Clinical Innovations LLC., a healthcare new business incubator, Dr. Chess works with a team of passionate people to create meaningful applications. Driven by a desire to shape more improved and balanced sustainable models of care, he has created many next generation businesses and clinical approaches which are now mainstream.
Dr. Chess received his Medical Degree from Creighton University School of Medicine. He did his Residence at Albert Einstein School of Medicine in New York. He has 5 children with his wonderful wife Barbara Weber Chess, a pediatrician.
Robert Strnad, M.D.
Medical Director of Clinical Affairs
Dr. Strnad is a military vet with a biophysics and law graduate background who received his MD degree from The Chicago Medical School and post graduate training at The Northwestern and University of Chicago hospitals. He has had a private internal medicine practice with two active staff hospital affiliations. Since 1977, he has been a teaching attending physicians and served on ethics, impaired, physicians, utilization and disaster committees at these hospitals. Dr. Strnad is a member of The American Society of Internal Medicine, Illinois Society of Internal Medicine, American College of Physicians and America Medical Director Association. He founded a physician office timeshare facility and has been a medical director and corporate consultant to several skilled care facilities continuously since 1995. In addition, Dr. Strnad has been a hospice inpatient unit medical director, remains the medical director for a Chicago metropolitan hospice and palliative care company and has lectured on assessment of the acutely ill patient. As of 2007, Dr. Strnad has been on the board of directors for The West Suburban Senior Services of the council on Aging.
Cynthia Schwechter, MSN,GNP,FNP,WOCN
VP of Clinical Services
Cynthia has 35 years of nursing experience and has served as a primary care provider, educator, and mentor to both RNs and NPs. She has proven experience in the development of programs for patients with multiple health conditions through extensive knowledge of care management for the geriatric population in various settings including long term care, assisted living, hospitals and clinics. Cynthia received her Bachelor’s and Masters Degrees in Nursing from the University of Illinois and completed post graduate work for the Gerontological Nurse Practitioner program at Rush University, in addition to WOCN through Wicks Educational Associates.
Kara Norkus, BA
VP of Business Development & Operations
Kara Norkus brings 18 years of experience in sales and business development. She has worked in various industries including health care, telecommunication and information technology recruitment. Kara also started and managed her own company for several years. Kara has been instrumental in the expansion of our services through extensive account networking and her commitment to client satisfaction.
