Kiplinger Showcases GrandCare Technology to Help Seniors Remain in Their Homes

Kiplinger, a national financial news magazine, recently gave a shout out to GrandCare Systems in an article called “Technology Helps Seniors Remain at Home.” GrandCare was highlighted as a device to help seniors remain independent in their own homes.

“Most of us want to remain at home as we get older, but safety and health issues and social isolation can interfere with that plan.” The article praises GrandCare for being a technology that addresses both of those issues, and that enables seniors “to stay put indefinitely.”

The author specifically mentions GrandCare’s comprehensive health and wellness features. Using home health devices, such as blood pressure monitors, weight scales, glucometers, and pulse oximeters, seniors can take their readings at home, and those readings are automatically (and wirelessly) transmitted and recorded to the GrandCare System in the residence. Family members and caregivers can login in remotely to view the readings at any time, and identify trends. They can also set rules to receive email, phone, or text notifications whenever a reading falls outside of a chosen range, or whenever the senior forgets to take a reading. And they can take printouts of the readings with them to doctor appointments.

The article also commended GrandCare’s socialization and communication features.

“With an interactive touch screen from [GrandCare] Systems, you can look at a photo of a grandson’s Halloween costume or a video replay of his baseball home run. You can listen to music, play word games, read the news or surf the Internet. No need to know how to use a computer.”

The article quotes GrandCare customer Randall Schafer, 61, of Houston, whose 90-year-old mother has a GrandCare system in her home. Schafer said that he and his mother especially love the video chat feature of her system.

“‘My mom is in love with our dog, Daisy,’ Schafer says. Her ‘face lights up’ when she sees the schnauzer, he says.” The GrandCare system makes it so easy to do, that she can simply push a button to start the video chat.

Read the entire article.

The Connected Aging & Health Wave: Are you on Board?

Extensive Industry & GrandCare Implementation Training: July 25-27, 2016 at the CEDIA Training Facility in Indianapolis, IN

GrandCare is all about connecting. We connect seniors, their families, professional in-home caregivers, senior housing providers, healthcare systems, insurance providers, rehab/post-acute facilities, and end of life providers.

This July we are offering another way to connect with your customers. Please join us for a comprehensive three-day connected health and aging technology training at CEDIA headquarters in Indianapolis July 25-27.

Get Connected…

…in this deep-dive session, you’ll learn about the key aspects of technology implementation in the growing aging and disability market, with our mix of instructor-led sessions, roundtable discussions, and hands-on learning labs.

Connect your Caregiver Clients…

You will learn about medical, social and remote monitoring technologies; installation and support; sales and marketing; the hearing loss industry; easy computing for seniors; and more.

Connected Opportunities…

You can leave as an authorized GrandCare, ClearSounds and MyGait resellers from this one-time invaluable opportunity.

This training offers you a unique opportunity to brand your company as the go-to solution in the aging, disability and connected health technology space.

The training includes:

  • Practice installing and implementing the GrandCare socialization touchscreen monitor and all of the optional accessories including telehealth, HIPAA-compliant video chat, and activity monitoring
  • Building sales strategies and effective online marketing campaigns for this technology
  • New possibilities created by healthcare reform
  • Long-term care opportunities

This comprehensive and deep-dive training is open to technology enthusiasts, custom integrators/dealers/distributors, professional care providers, healthcare organizations and senior housing facilities.

Let us connect you!

Questions about the training? Contact info@grandcare.com or call 262-338-6147

Register for Industry & GrandCare Implementation Training at CEDIA HQ in Indianapolis, IN.

Additional Upcoming GrandCare Affiliate Training:
August 17-19 at GrandCare HQ in West Bend, WI

In the Spotlight: Ed Kmetz from Pure Sight & Sound, Inc.

Pure Sight & Sound provides design, installation, and consulting services for residential and commercial technology systems in Pennsylvania. Ed Kmetz, president of Pure Sight & Sound, has been a long time visionary, as one of GrandCare’s early implementation & integration experts in the senior and disability market.

We had the opportunity last week to sit down with Ed and really find out what drew him to GrandCare and explore his passion for helping others, particularly in the aging and disability space.

Q: Thanks for talking with us, Ed. Can you start by telling us a little about your background? How did you become involved in technology for seniors?
A: My background is all in technology. After graduating with a materials engineering degree from Drexel in Philadelphia, I immediately went into international sales and engineering, studying in Japan and working globally in Asia, Canada, and Mexico for 15 years.

About 13 years ago, I started my own company doing audio/video and automation in homes and businesses. I hadn’t thought of technology for the aging/disabled market specifically until I learned about GrandCare. I thought it was such a great idea and it fit right in with an initiative I started years ago called “The Grandma Guarantee.” This means Grandma will be able to operate everything Pure Sight & Sound provides, and with little to no training.

Q: Why did you choose GrandCare?
A: In part, because GrandCare started developing their software technology in 2005, clearly making them the pioneer. When I started working with GrandCare, they were the only company that combined the various protocol-driven home and activity sensors, telehealth devices and touch-based socialization platform into one complete package. As great as it was then, they’ve come a long way since. And the support has always been fantastic.

Q: Who is your target audience for selling GrandCare?
A: We sell our GrandCare Systems to two main groups of people. Our first target is the clients of home care agencies, and our second target is hospice (end of life care) facilities.

Q: How do you approach marketing GrandCare?
A: I have a wonderful international business network that I’ve built through the years in this industry. So of course, I leverage that. But it was also important to make closer, personal relationships with local homecare agencies and hospices.

Q: What’s one misconception about aging that you’d like to change?
A: That aging folks are intimidated by technology. Some are, of course, but for the most part, if we can get them touching the interface, we can get them comfortable in a very short time. We bought my mom a computer for her 75th birthday, and had to upgrade her hardware for her 80th!

Q: If you could tell everyone in the world one thing about GrandCare, what would it be?
A: We’ve had better support from GrandCare than probably every other vendor we work with. (And we work with a LOT of vendors!)

Q: What are you most passionate about?
A: I’m passionate about making sure that my customers are comfortable with, understand, and can actually use everything we supply.

Pure Sight & Sound provides design, installation, and consulting services in Pennsylvania, for home theater systems, smart home technology, audio, video, automation, and a variety of other types of residential and commercial technology systems, including GrandCare technology, for assisting seniors and the disabled population. For more information about Pure Sight & Sound, visit www.puresightandsound.com, call 570-992-2992, or email Ed at ekmetz@puresightandsound.com.

For more information about GrandCare, and our growing dealer/reseller/aging service provider network, visit www.grandcare.com or email us at sales@grandcare.com. Check us out on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Upcoming GrandCare Affiliate Training:
July 25-27 at CEDIA HQ in Indianapolis, IN
August 17-19 at GrandCare HQ in West Bend, WI

GrandCare’s Training at CEDIA Makes the News

GrandCare has made the news again. Residential Systems, a magazine for professionals in the home technology arena, featured GrandCare’s 3-day, deep-dive training workshop, which is being offered later this month at CEDIA headquarters in Indianapolis.

The training is a comprehensive, three-day connected health and aging technology training, especially valuable for custom home integrators interested in the growing aging technology market. It’s a deep dive that includes a mix of instructor-led sessions, roundtable discussions, and hands-on labs, “to help home technology professionals understand key aspects of technology implementation in the growing aging and disability market.”

The training will be held at CEDIA’s headquarters in Indianapolis, July 25 – 27,

“This training is an excellent opportunity for home technology professionals to learn more about the emerging home health market and how those offerings could be incorporated into their business plan,” said Luke Amos, CEDIA senior director of learning.

The bootcamp-style training will be hands-on, and will include installation and implementation of an actual system and peripherals, including Bluetooth health devices, integrated HIPAA-compliant video chat, and activity of daily living monitoring. The training also includes strategies for breaking into the market, a comprehensive sales and marketing session focused on sales strategies, effective online marketing campaigns, the competitive landscape, healthcare reform, long-term care opportunities, and how to brand your company as the “go-to” in the aging and health technology space.

“We are enthusiastic about working together again with CEDIA and its members,” said Charlie Hillman, CEO of GrandCare Systems. “This training goes beyond a typical technical product training and educates on the extensive and fragmented healthcare, aging, and senior housing landscape.”

The event is co-hosted by GrandCare and CEDIA, and will include special guest speakers Michele Ahlman, CEO of ClearSounds Communications on hearing loss in the aging population and Jeff Hill, CEO of MyGait on easy senior computing solutions.

“This training goes beyond a typical technical product training and educates on the extensive and fragmented healthcare, aging, and senior housing landscape.”—Charlie Hillman, CEO of GrandCare Systems

Learn more or register online.
Or contact GrandCare at info@grandcare.com, or (262) 338-6147.

See the complete text of the Residential Systems article here.

 

Celebrate Independence with GrandCare

As we celebrate our independence today, we reflect on how truly important that is. At GrandCare we promote and enable independence in all facets of life. By allowing our family the freedom to live life to the fullest, wherever they choose to be.

GrandCare provides gentle assistance for seniors who want to live independently in their homes. Through daily prompts, it reminds seniors about appointments and daily tasks, and when to take their meds and vitals. It offers entertainment, music, news and health information on an easy-to-use touchscreen. It makes contacting friends and family through video chat as easy as pushing a button.

GrandCare provides peace of mind for family members who love and worry about their parents and grandparents. Activity and vitals are available on a web-based interface, letting you easily see that everything is OK. Alerts to your phone, email or text let you know when something is amiss. Face-to-face communication is easy, even when you can’t be right there.

GrandCare provides peace of mind for communities whose mission is to provide a positive quality of life, taking care of routine tasks, and freeing up staff for the personal contact that is so vital for the best quality of life.

GrandCare, celebrating independence for our nation and our loved ones.

 

Photo credit: Bayasaa

GrandCare Has 500 Reasons To Celebrate

Indy drivers race for 500 miles. Peter, Paul and Mary were 500 miles from home. And now GrandCare has over 500 Likes on Facebook. We thank you for each and every one of them. But like the Proclaimers–who famously sang in the 80s that they would walk 500 miles and then walk 500 more–we’re not done yet. We’re going to go out and get another 500 Likes. How? By doing even more of what we do best on Facebook.

At GrandCare we’ve always had a strong focus on community and the building up of the entire aging/technology industry. It’s why we led the famous aging/tech industry weekly Thursday webinars and conference calls from 2008-2011 and why we co-founded the Aging Technology Alliance (AgeTek) in 2010. It’s why we started the no-host meet-and-greets/mix-and-mingles back in 2008 at CES to encourage networking and movement in this space.

That’s the spirit that guides us on Facebook. Not only do we use the platform to inform customers and other industry insiders about what we’re doing at GrandCare, but we also use it to share information about what’s going on in the wider industry. We’re proud of our long history of community focus. And we think it’s why we’ve recently reached that 500 like milestone.

Five hundred may not sound like an astronomical number. We’re not Youtube (80 million Likes) or Samsung Mobile (40 million). But then again we’re not Youtube or Samsung. We’re a big fish in a growing but still small pond. We are a pioneer. A grandfather to this industry. This aging/technology community is getting bigger every day. We are proud that we have had a role in the building of its foundation. In that context, 500 likes in a largely B2B industry is something we’re proud of. We thank you for each and every one of them.

On to 1,000!

Will you join our movement to inspire and connect? GrandCare Contest

The GrandCare movement is changing the world…

GrandCare is leading a movement to change the world as we age.  View the movement video here: GrandCare’s Facebook page and just hit share on Facebook.  Two “sharers” will be selected as our Inspirational Movement Ambassadors and be highlighted by GrandCare AND will win a FREE GrandCare System on May 30th.

Here’s what the movement is about. Will you join us?

…Transforming and connecting

The simple touchscreen system, has big, easy to read buttons. It makes the connection with loved ones as easy as the push of a button.

…Empowering and soothing

Vitals and activities are recorded automatically. Peace of mind for the people far away who worry. Peace of mind of the senior, who knows loved ones can check in easily, and are alerted automatically if something isn’t right.

…Entertaining and informative

A wealth of information, connection, and entertainment easily available. Just push the buttons for news and weather. Games. Old-time radio. Videos. Family photos. The Internet.

…Friendly guidance

Messaging. Calendar and event reminders. Daily To-do lists. Medication reminders.

…Pure joy

Isn’t it time to inspire with GrandCare?

Will you join us to inspire and make your loved one’s life better? You have the power! Enter our Facebook contest.

How?

Visit GrandCare’s Facebook page to view our video. Then share it with your Facebook friends. Everyone who shares will be entered into our contest. Two winners will be selected to win a GrandCare System on May 30th. ‪

Inspire, motivate, influence someone special today! Join the GrandCare movement.

GrandCare hailed as “Granddaddy of all Tech Tools for Seniors”

GrandCare was back on TV.

In a feature on ABC News 19 (WXOW in La Crosse), GrandCare was highlighted as one of five tools recommended to keep seniors living safely and independently in their homes as long as possible.

The segment, called “Making Technology Work for You,” which aired on May 3, described the technology available today to help seniors and people with disabilities live more independently and enjoyably as impressive. “As people are living longer, technology is only getting better.”

The segment featured Stacy Mitby, Service Coordinator for Western Wisconsin Cares, a nonprofit that provides long-term care services in the western region of Wisconsin, with the mission of  keeping members as independent as possible. It operates under a contract with the Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

One of the things Mitby liked about GrandCare is that, “it’s programmable, so you don’t need to go through an agency. It can alert your family or your friends, your support system, if you need help.” She also praised how easy it is to use. “It’s technology I can use, without having my children teach me.”

GrandCare was described as the “granddaddy of all tech tools for seniors.”

“The systems cost $699, plus $49 monthly subscription fees, but they pack in a lot of features. The GrandCare System has many of the same features you’d find in other tools, such as smart watches and medicine dispensers, plus it can be used in any setting and can record blood pressure, weight, pulse, blood glucose and temperature. It’s a communication, care management and activity sensor all wrapped into one touchscreen device.”

The Connectivity Obstacle: Solved, With Help From An Unlikely Source

GrandCare delivers the best technology for telehealth, activity monitoring, and socialization. But the system relies on Internet connectivity to work. That’s a problem for some customers, especially in rural areas. If you’re a home health agency or a GrandCare dealer serving private homes, how can you overcome this obstacle? Partner. Here’s how.

Find the smallest telecom organizations serving your area. You’ll often get the best results approaching the smaller guys. Offer to do a GrandCare demo for their board of directors, and get them excited. Offer to be a referral source if they offer discounted service in return. Desirable terms would include no minimum contract, no installation fee, and a low monthly charge like $19.99 a month. You may be surprised at how willing these organizations are to agree to this kind of arrangement. Remember, these are customers they would not ordinarily have access to. And the data usage is quite low.

As a bonus, they may want to do a joint press release on the deal, which makes everyone look good. Best of all, this kind of partnership can bring GrandCare to the people who need it the most.

GrandCare to Be Featured on USDA Website

GrandCare Systems is proud to announce that we will be featured on the USDA Target Center website beginning in early-to-mid May. What is the Target Center? According to the USDA website

“The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) established the Technology & Accessible Resources Give Employment Today (TARGET) Center in 1992 to utilize the power of technology and provide impactful services related to improving accessibility and contributing to the complete employment experience of individuals with disabilities.”

The video, which shows how GrandCare helps make it possible for seniors to age happy and healthy in their homes, is being included as part of Older Americans Month, as the USDA seeks to “…highlight disability-related [technologies] that enhance the Department’s employer of choice capability for individuals with disabilities.” GrandCare is honored to support that mission.

Watch the GrandCare video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viLjutnGWFU

To find out more, please contact GrandCare at info@grandcare.com or call us at (262) 338-6147.