Zach Papenhausen is the owner and CEO of Apollo Bath, the institutional bathing system manufacturer serving skilled nursing facilities, assisted living communities, memory care communities, and veterans homes across the country. He has spent his career in senior care, 11 years in various healthcare industry roles before acquiring Apollo Bath in February 2020.
Background in Senior Care
Zach came to Apollo Bath with direct experience across the senior care continuum. Before taking ownership, he worked in roles that put him inside long-term care facilities, understanding the operational realities that DONs, administrators, and care teams face every day. That perspective shapes how Apollo approaches every customer conversation: not as a vendor pitching equipment, but as someone who has seen the bath room from the inside.
Since acquiring Apollo in 2020, Zach has led the company through a significant strategic shift: moving Apollo’s positioning from a general bathing equipment supplier to the recognized authority in institutional senior care bathing. That shift includes a commitment to transparent compliance practices, documented sanitation protocols, and content that gives facility leaders the information they need to make good decisions.
Industry Involvement
Zach is an active member of the senior care community at the state and national level. Apollo Bath holds memberships in:
- LeadingAge, multiple state chapters and national
- AHCA/NCAL (American Health Care Association / National Center for Assisted Living), national
- NADSA (National Adult Day Services Association)
- Multiple state Director of Nursing associations
- Multiple state health care associations and long-term care associations
- The Executive Group, a peer network of business owners and CEOs (5 years)
These memberships are not checkboxes. They reflect a genuine commitment to understanding how policy, regulation, and care practice evolve in the facilities Apollo serves. When CMS updates F-tag guidance or a state association issues new surveyor protocols, Zach is in the room or connected to the people who are.
What Zach Believes About Bathing in Senior Care
Most facilities treat bathing as a logistics problem. Zach sees it differently. The bath room is one of the most personal, most vulnerable moments in a resident’s day, and one of the most overlooked opportunities to deliver genuine dignity and care. When a facility gets bathing right, residents ask for more baths. Staff take pride in the experience they’re providing. Families notice. That outcome is achievable with the right equipment, the right protocol, and a culture that treats bathing as care rather than a task to complete.
Apollo Bath has been building institutional bathing systems since 1978. His goal is to make sure the next 47 years are defined by that same standard, systems that work, protocols that hold up to scrutiny, and a service team that does what it says it will do.
Content by Zach Papenhausen
Zach authors Apollo Bath’s educational content on senior care bathing compliance, sanitation protocol, and bathing system selection. His writing draws on direct facility experience, national association engagement, and 47 years of Apollo’s institutional knowledge.
Topics he covers include F677 bathing compliance, F880 infection control requirements, nursing home bathing sanitation protocol, and urgent bathing system repair and replacement.
To connect with Zach or request a free Equipment Health Check for your facility, contact Apollo Bath here.