“PERS – More Than a Button & a Box”?! May 3rd

Join GrandCare Systems Thursday, May 3rd
for the Aging & Technology Webinar.

“PERS – More Than a Button & a Box”?!
With guest speaker Bill Lyon

PERS should be both a reactive and a proactive service solution. PERS anticipates that living independently has ever-changing challenges, with many that may be easily managed by a consumer in combination with her family, her friends and her neighbors.

It is about taking control; it is about managing one’s lifestyle to maximize independence; it is about family connectivity continuously and not the PERS of the 80s that concentrated on those most at-risk and ignored the rest. It’s about broadly engaging the majority population while serving the chronic care consumer . . . this is the Care-Anywhere PERS services in the second decade of the 21st century.

Our Speaker

Bill Lyon is Director, Product & Business Development at LifeStation (a Top 5 M’Health Services Company).  As the President at Visonic Americas & VP Corporate Strategic Business Development, for 10 years prior to LifeStation, accomplishments included worldwide business development for their PERS brand family, with a concentration on the successful launch in the Americas.  His 7 years at LifeLine, as the VP Sales/Marketing (’86-’93), were the strategically formative years when PERS became an important healthcare business channel, expanding from acute care to senior living, consumer direct and at-home care segments .

Thursday, May 3rd 2pm ET – 1pm CT
GrandCareSystems.WebEx.com
Call in: 1-408-600-3600 Pin:665 632 100#
More information

GrandCare Software Tour

A webinar review of the latest and greatest in GrandCare software development.

This 45 minute session will take the viewers through a tour of the GrandCare vision, sensor offerings and capabilities. We will tour the online caregiver/user remote interface and see some live examples of case studies.

Thursday, May 10th 1 – 1:45pm Central 

Where: 

http://www.grandcaresystems.webex.com GrandCare staff will be available on the webinar for a question/answer session. This webinar will be recorded and available to the public.
All are welcome to join us!

About GrandCare Systems

GrandCare offers a senior friendly, internet enabled, private home touch screen system aimed at maintaining independence, controlling chronic conditions, and reducing hospital readmissions. It combines the technologies of smart home, activity monitoring, wellness monitoring, and social connectivity. The wellness aspect includes wireless physiological readings (weight, blood pressure, oximeter, glucometer), self assessment, and medication compliance with associated rule sets, alerts, and congregate analytics. The social aspect includes one button Skype, wellness videos, reminders, and other standard social media content aimed at reducing isolation, educating the patient, and influencing them to better self manage their health.

For more information about GrandCare Systems

-Visit grandcare.com

-Find us on Facebook

-Follow us on Twitter

Flagship Franchises of MN, Inc. Includes GrandCare to its Services

Minnesota entrepreneur, Deborah Delaney, has recently added the innovative technological product known as GrandCare to her company, Flagship Franchises of Minnesota, as a way to ensure that seniors are realizing the best possible quality of life.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PRLog (Press Release) – Apr 20, 2012 –
(Savage, Minn) – Minnesota entrepreneur, Deborah Delaney, has recently added the innovative technological product known as GrandCare to her company, Flagship Franchises of Minnesota, as a way to ensure that seniors are realizing the best possible quality of life. Delaney is passionate about the need for high quality care for seniors, the fastest growing population in the U.S. She recognized GrandCare as a new technology that can help seniors live a more fulfilled social life, safer home life, ensures through monitoring that health issues are taken care of, and provides family with peace of mind.

About GrandCare
GrandCare combines aspects of “Smart Home” automation, Internet communications, social networking designed for residents, tele-health assessment, ADL (activity of daily living) monitoring, cognitive assists, medication management and two-way video chat technologies into one flexible, user friendly, and affordable package. Available since 2006, GrandCare Systems offers the most comprehensive and fully featured aging & technology system on the market today.

The GrandCare System begins with an interactive computer box (no mouse or keyboard) along with sensors in the Resident’s home. Typically placed in a high-traffic area, the GrandCare System quietly listens to the activity and wellness sensors while providing a simple, intuitive interface (interactive touch and non-interactive TV versions available) for the Resident to receive social interactions from family, keep up with current events, play games, and receive cognitive prompts throughout the day. Using a standard Internet browser, remote Caregivers can go online to view activities, monitor vitals, send messages and designate rules as to when and how they’d like to be alerted upon unusual activity in the residence.

As CEO of Flagship Franchises of Minnesota, Delaney offers the GrandCare system through Flagship to her SarahCare clients and to anyone who could benefit from this innovative technology.

Delaney recognized that GrandCare ultimately allows the elderly to live more independently whether they are on their own or living with a loved one. Not only does the program monitor health and medication, it also allows seniors to maintain social connections; even participate in “real time” activities and events. When asked why she made the decision to include GrandCare in her services provided by Flagship, Delaney responded; “Many people are working full-time and have to run home on their lunch hour to check in and/or disperse medication, take blood pressure readings, etcetera. The GrandCare system provides not only a peace of mind, but respite for the caregiver.” This was an important to the home care part of her business.

About Flagship Franchises 
Deborah Delaney is owner and CEO of Flagship Franchises of Minnesota, Inc. Ms. Delaney founded the company in 2002 with the vision of creating and investing in companies that “connect people with premium care”. Its initial investment is SarahCare® a franchise specializing in providing superior Adult Day Care and Home Health Care Services. Community Based Services and the Elder Care Market are two of the most flourishing industries in the United States.

More About SarahCare
SarahCare© is a participant-driven program developed in 1985 by internationally renowned gerontologist Dr. Merle Griff, Ph.D. in Canton, Ohio. The unique program begins with the individual and reaches outward to involve the community as a whole. SarahCare© offers unparalleled assistance to the participant’s special needs, but more importantly recognizes the uniqueness of each individual. Beyond our professional staff of nurses and specialists helping with the daily tasks of living, SarahCare© seeks to share in the richness of the individual’s personal life and actually customize the environment to stimulate the client’s senses.

From specialty programs like our Men’s Club and Kitchen Crusaders, SarahCare® truly is a unique concept that is setting the standard for the adult day services industry.

Delaney opened the SarahCare of Savage, MN facility in 2004 as the first investment of her Flagship Franchises of Minnesota enterprise.

For more information about any of these services or to schedule an interview, contact Deborah Delaney
Office:  952-465-0555
Mobile: 612-810-9796
ddelaney@sarahcaremn.com

GrandCare on Age Friendly Tech Blog

“GrandCare making a difference for those wanting to live in their homes longer”


A recent news piece from Cold Spring Minnesota shows first hand the difference that GrandCare can make for those who wish to live independently and their families who may live a distance away.

GrandCare monitors health and the taking of medication but some would argue that keeping them in communication with their loved ones is as important…for better emotional health.

One touch to Skype can make a monumental difference.

GrandCare helps give families peace of mind by the way it is able to remotely monitor daily activities with sensors that detect and report both ususal AND unusual activities for families and caregivers…:

  • When pills are taken (or not taken)
  • When a door is opened or not opened (like a fridge)
  • When there is irregular activity (like getting out of bed during the middle of the night and Not getting back in …or Not getting out of a chair)
  • When there is more frequent or less frequent movement than normal (like wandering at night).

GrandCare monitoring costs around $100/month… Leasing options are available.

Note from GrandCare: Pricing varies but can be leased for as low as $99 per month with an upfront installation fee. Final pricing depends on activity and digital health devices deployed.

Original blog post by: Silver Compass Age Friendly Tech Blog

Forbes weighs in on Hospital Readmissions…

I wanted to share the article in Forbes on the healthcare crisis and the problem with Hospital Readmissions.

Regardless of what happens, our healthcare system needs to change. The statistics Forbes shared are overwhelming. Healthcare consumes 17% of our GDP and as a society, we have been known for paying for pounds and pounds of cure. We need to shift our mentality to start paying for those ounces of prevention. The in-home care service is critical to help support patients as they transition from hospital to home. But, that is only one piece of the puzzle. The hands on care is necessary and can help to relieve loneliness, isolation, provide transportation support and act as a helpful resource. But there are more things at play. Many cannot afford round the clock care and may not want someone living with them all hours of the day. That’s why a combination of digital health technology tools, in-home caregiving services and medical provider support is necessary for successful transitions. We just wrote a whitepaper called “Healing in Place”, which explores the successful transition piecing together the home health providers, technology, hospital staff, family and patient to seamlessly provide care and make sure they remain happy, healthy and safe at home. GrandCare is passionate about helping to provide the digital health technology (activity of daily living remote monitoring, digital health/vitals monitoring, medication reminders/alerts, socialization/webchats, touch-based resources & instructions).

 

FORBES:  A Low-Tech Business That Can Prevent Hospital Readmissions

by Zina Moukheiber, Contributor

I cover health IT and Middle Eastern billionaires.

One of the provisions in the Affordable Care Act that is likely to remain untouched by the Supreme Court is linking Medicare payments to hospitals to a patient’s outcome. According to a 2009 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Medicare’s fee-for-service program, nearly 20% of Medicare patients discharged from a hospital were readmitted within thirty days, and 34% were rehospitalized within 90 days. Hospitals are now scrambling to comply with the new rules that go into effect this year, and that includes making sure older patients are looked after following discharge.
 Lily Sarafan sees an opportunity—and it’s at the opposite spectrum of the smart home as envisioned by Intel’s Eric Dishman. “We’re positioning for post-hospitalization,” says Sarafan. The 30-year-old is the president of Palo Alto, Ca.-based Home Care Assistance, which is in the very low-tech business of providing expert caregivers by the hour or as live-ins. Their non-medical tasks include assisting with walking, making sure patients take medications on time, driving them to doctor appointments, and cooking healthy meals. (Home Care Assistance posts on its site a testimonial from famed MIT linguist Noam Chomsky who praised it in helping his late wife).

The help is not cheap. Home Care charges between $20 and $30 an hour, and up to $300 a day for live-ins. The company generated $50 million in revenues last year, and Sarafan says it is profitable. Anthos Capital, a private equity firm founded by former Goldman Sachs partners invested an undisclosed amount…

To read the entire article go Here

First National Medicare-Medicaid Payment Incentives and Penalties Summit

Medicare compliance Medicare RAC recovery conferenceThe Leading Forum on Recovery Audits, Readmissions, Value-Based Purchasing, HACs and Never Events, and Managing to Medicare Margins

May 30 – June 1, 2012
Hyatt Regency Crystal City
Washington, DC

Online at
www.medicaremedicaidpaymentsummit.com

Conference Theme II: Healing in Place™ — Using Technology to Reduce the Risk of Hospital Readmissions  is scheduled for Thursday, May 31, 2012, from 4:45pm-5:15pm. Featuring Laura Mitchell of GrandCare and Dr. Erick Eiting.

EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION DISCOUNT
– SAVE UP TO $400 –
Register by Friday, April 20, 2012 for
Early Bird discount and save up to $400.
Click here to register.

TOPICS TO BE ADDRESSED
– CMS Updates on Medicare and Medicaid Initiatives
– Hospital Compliance Programs
– Recovery Audit Contracting in Medicare and Medicaid
– Reducing Hospital Acquired Conditions and “Never Events”
– Proven Strategies to Prevent Unnecessary Readmissions
– Key Legal and Regulatory Issues Ahead
– Employer Demands for Value
– Total Revenue Cycle Management
– Instituting a Culture of Patient Safety
– Making Value Based Purchasing a Bonus not a Penalty
– How Patient-Centered Care Improves Quality and Lowers Cost
– Managing to Medicare and Medicaid Margins
– The Board’s Role in Quality and Safety
– How Baldrige Winners Meet the Triple Aim