Telehealth and the aging population

How COVID-19 is Driving Rapid Adoption of Telehealth for Aging Populations

If necessity is the mother of invention, crisis may be the father of adoption. Nowhere has the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic been felt more strongly than on seniors and the disabled. The need for social distancing has made clear the value of technology for bridging that distance.

“COVID-19 has accelerated the need for family members, caregivers, and healthcare professionals to have remote access to seniors as well as the disabled,” said Laura Mitchell, CEO of GrandCare systems, a leader in the aging and technology industry. “There has always been interest in technology tools among forward-thinking senior communities and home health care agencies, but since the pandemic, we have been inundated with calls and requests for video chat, telehealth capabilities and activity monitoring. Suddenly the value of these tools for the well-being of seniors and disabled people has become very concrete, very measurable.”

Mitchell was interviewed by host Karen Jagoda on a recent podcast hosted by Empower Patient Radio. In the episode entitled “COVID-19 Driving Faster Adoption of Telehealth for Aging Population,” Mitchell discussed the effects of COVID on senior housing and care services, and the tools that can help residents stay connected with family and friends, engaged and active, and healthy.

Empowered Patient Radio is a series of podcasts that focus on the latest innovations in digital health and the changing dynamic between doctors and patients. The audience includes medical professionals, researchers, patient advocates, entrepreneurs, patients, caregivers, solution providers, students, journalists, and investors.

Listen to the podcast: COVID-19 Driving Faster Adoption of Telehealth for Aging Population with Laura Mitchell GrandCare
View the transcript: Download transcript 
Check out the entire podcast series: Empowered Patient Radio

Aging During A Pandemic

Aging during a Pandemic: The new opportunity for CEDIA Experts

COVID-19 has turned aging and senior housing on its head. Social isolation, lack of health care works, and the fear of going to the hospital are a few of the unexpected challenges faced by seniors during the pandemic. But there are tools that can help seniors stay connected and healthy during these challenging times.

“We have been inundated with calls and requests for video chat, telehealth capabilities and activity monitoring,” said Laura Mitchell, CEO of GrandCare Systems, a pioneer in the aging and technology market, and maker of technology for senior monitoring, wellness and engagement. She was featured on a recent podcast, to talk about best practices for seniors and their families, homecare providers, senior housing communities, and the impact of COVID on the aging industry.

Mitchell and co-hosts Ed Wenck & Walt Zerbe discussed these and other issues of aging in place, aging in congregate living, and how seniors can thrive even in this time of COVID. The podcast, called “Living in Place and the Pandemic,” is part of the The CEDIA Podcast series of roundtable discussion on issues surrounding new and emerging technology.

Listen to the podcast: Living in Place and the Pandemic
Check out the entire podcast series: The CEDIA Podcast

Three Ways To Increase Homecare Revenue–Without More Staff

What services do you offer to people who aren’t quite ready for an in-home caregiver? What services are you offering to people who could use more care hours but who can’t afford them? What services do you offer people who need care but you don’t have the staff to serve? If you answer “none” to any of these questions you’re leaving money on the table.

With the right technology you can provide remote monitoring, virtual visits, and telehealth to all of these customers, all without hiring an army of new caregivers. But you probably have questions.

What is remote monitoring or virtual visit technology?

How do I integrate technology into my existing caregiving services?

Which technologies are best for my company?

How do I package and price these new services?

To learn the answers to these and other questions sign up for our free webinar. You will learn what remote monitoring technologies are and how in-home care providers are using them to expand caregiving services without increasing staff. You’ll learn implementation strategies as well as how to package and price.

Join us: Wednesday, May 1st, noon to 1pm CST. Did we mention that it’s free? Sign up here! Can’t make it, but want to learn more? Contact us today: 262-338-6147 or email sales@grandcare.com

GrandCare at Moraine Park Technical College

GrandCare’s founding member and VP of Business Development, Laura Mitchell, gave a talk for nursing students at Moraine Park Technical College. The subject of her presentation was “Disruptive Technologies in Aging and Healthcare.” Both GrandCare and Moraine Park are located in West Bend, a city of 30,000 people in Southeastern Wisconsin.

Laura discussed the disruptive demographic of the “aging tsunami,” caused by baby boomers reaching retirement age, exacerbated by the rising cost of health care. That’s where technologies like GrandCare can help, by facilitating remote patient monitoring, providing secure video chat and medication management.

It was the last day of the nursing students’ first semester of study at Moraine Park Tech. “It’s encouraging how receptive and inspired these future clinical providers were with the presence of telehealth and telemedicine technologies,” Laura said. “Especially considering that technology will play a large role in the delivery of personalized, predictive and proactive care.”

These young, engaged students are a new generation of clinical caregivers. They aren’t afraid of technology. They expect it. Their older counterparts can often seem more cautious and less accepting of advanced technologies. When shown GrandCare, the Moraine Park Tech students immediately began to get excited and brainstorm implementation strategies.

Laura, who speaks all over the country on connected health, digital caregiving and aging, doesn’t usually get the luxury of working with organizations in her own back yard. “I love that we’re engaging local people and local organizations,” she said. “Innovation doesn’t need to happen only in Silicon Valley. We can obviously benefit greatly from technology interventions, especially here in the Midwest.”

Senior Cyborgs: The Rise of GrandCare?

“Cyborgs” makes you think of science fiction creatures. You probably picture people whose abilities are extended beyond normal human limits by technological enhancements built right into the the body. Or maybe you think of Arnold Schwarzenegger trying to save Sarah Conner.

But what if it’s true? What if we could help people overcome their physical limits using enabling technology? What if the elderly and disabled could extend their independence, live in their homes, stay healthy and active, simply using technology?

It’s not a far-fetched, sci-fi fantasy anymore. People really can, and do, use technology to improve lives and not just to help with superhuman feats, but to assist with everyday tasks, and to maintain independence.

What’s even better is that the technology doesn’t have to be built into their bodies to be effective.

“There are strong forces against changing established business models. It’s hard to change what’s been working for businesses.” – Charlie Hillman

GrandCare’s founder and CEO Charlie Hillman was among a panel of experts on aging, healthcare, and technology, who talked about exactly that topic last week at the Louisville Innovation Summit. The presentation, called “Senior Cyborgs and the Rise of Digital Health,” was a discussion about the types of technology currently available to help seniors live better lives, as well as the direction the industry is moving, and how to motivate those who care for seniors to see the possibilities.

Other experts on the panel included Laura Mitchell, founder of Digital Health & marketing firm Laura Mitchell Consulting, Norrie Daroga, founder of iDAvatars, and Richard Staynings, cybersecurity expert at Cisco.

The panel was covered by the publication TechRepublic, which asked the question: “If we know the tech works, why isn’t it seamlessly integrated into senior living facilities, hospitals, etc.?”

It’s an important question, because the powerful assistive technologies can only help seniors who use them.

“If people don’t embrace it,” Hillman said, “it’s likely to fail.”

Of course, seniors can only use the technology if it’s available on the market. And sometimes the issue is that the technology, even when it exists and is proven, isn’t made available.

“There are strong forces against changing established business models,” Hillman said. “It’s hard to change what’s been working for businesses.”

The article also quotes Staynings, who suggested that the US is behind the rest of the world in how it approaches healthcare payment. As a result the incentives for assistive technology aren’t as strong as they should be. The health providers who could be recommending technology to their patients don’t have a strong incentive to do so.

“The US is about 10 years behind the rest of developed world in [its] approach to telehealth and telemedicine,” said Staynings, “which is a more efficient way to deliver care to older adults.” The payer model, he said, is “1940’s based–very out of date.” Pay-by-performance, in which doctors are rewarded for having their patients reach certain health goals, rather than simply by the visits or procedures performed, is not yet widely implemented.

As powerful as the technology is, the panelists all agreed that healthcare will never be about the technology, about the next cool invention. The technology isn’t important for its own sake. “It’s about providing value to patients.”

Read the full article.

Going DIGITAL: all your homecare organization needs to know

Esther Taking BP and Skype

Last week GrandCare Systems presented a 35-minute webinar with real case studies and examples proving that you can save money, reduce staff burdens, and secure new revenue streams.

If you are providing in-home care services, you cannot afford to miss this opportunity to learn how caregiving technology can improve your top and bottom lines, make your team more effective, more efficient and enable a larger geographic reach.

 

LISTEN TO THE WEBINAR

 

What was covered in the webinar?

  • The HUGE opportunity
  • What is GrandCare? 1 Stop Caregiver technology
  • Your New and IMPROVED marketplace
  • The truth about PERS and why it isn’t enough
  • Team-based approach
  • The GrandCare HomeCare Advantage
  • Office Staff advantage
  • In-home caregiver advantage
  • Client/Family advantage
  • Competitive Differentiation
  • GrandCare Implementation Story
  • Sally Roger’s story
  • Assured HomeCare’s GrandCare implementation
  • Cost vs. Profit: Return on Investment

Featured Presenter:

Laura Mitchell, VP Business Development, GrandCare Systems

Laura Mitchell, Chief Marketing Officer, GrandCare Systems

Laura is a founding member of GrandCare Systems and was responsible for bringing GrandCares’s product to market in 2006, while aiding in the creation of the “Digital Health” and Aging & Technology industry. She specializes in channel partnerships, growth hacking, and non-traditional marketing and social media. She was featured in Forbes for her social media strategies and has been recognized by several industry media outlets, including Connected World Magazine’s 2014 Top Women of M2M, a nomination for the 2012 WEGO Health “Trailblazer”, 2012 Dealerscope’s 40 Under 40, 2012 “Young Turk of CE” by Custom Retailer Magazine, and the 2011 Mary Furlong Flame Award.

Laura speaks throughout the country at industry events and radio shows on Digital Health, Mitigating Hospital Readmissions Using Technology, Social Media, and Go-to-market Strategies in the Aging Industry. Venues include CES, Digital Health Summit, Mhealth Summit, M-enabling Summit, LeadingAge, AgeTech West, AARP, Connected Health Symposium, and others. She has authored several publications and whitepapers for industry magazines, internet publications, blogs, and books. Laura has consulted for major cable, aging service, and in-home care providers, and has mentored fellow start-up innovators. She was a key organizer in the early days of the EHX and CEDIA Future Home Pavilions, and created the first industry-wide Aging and Technology webinar series in 2008, which flourished for years. Laura was co-founder of the Aging Technology Alliance, an organization encouraging co-ompetition amongst the Aging in Place Technology industry.

Laura is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin in Madison and lives in Wisconsin with her husband, two sons, and two dogs.

 

Interested in reading more about GrandCare?

Visit GrandCare Systems or watch a short Testimonial Video

Why your Homecare organization needs to go DIGITAL

Join GrandCare Systems® for a 45 minute webinar 

Thursday, July 17th, 2014 | 2:00 – 2:45pm CT (3pm ET)

Esther Taking BP and Skype

If you are providing in-home care services, you cannot afford to miss this opportunity to learn how caregiving technology can improve your top and bottom lines, make your team more effective, more efficient and enable a larger geographic reach.

Using real case studies & examples, GrandCare will be hosting a webinar that will prove that you can save money, reduce staff burdens and stress, while securing new revenue streams.

REGISTER HERE for your chance at winning a Fitbit® wearable fitness tracker!


Agenda:

  • The HUGE opportunity
  • What is GrandCare? 1 Stop Caregiver technology
  • Your New and IMPROVED marketplace
  • The truth about PERS and why it isn’t enough
  • Team-based approach
  • The GrandCare HomeCare Advantage
  • Office Staff advantage
  • In-home caregiver advantage
  • Client/Family advantage
  • Competitive Differentiation
  • GrandCare Implementation Story
  • Sally Roger’s story
  • Assured HomeCare’s GrandCare implementation
  • Cost vs. Profit: Return on Investment

Presenter:

Laura Mitchell, VP Business Development, GrandCare SystemsLaura Mitchell, Chief Marketing Officer, GrandCare Systems

Laura is a founding member of GrandCare Systems and was responsible for bringing GrandCares’s product to market in 2006, while aiding in the creation of the “Digital Health” and Aging & Technology industry. She specializes in channel partnerships, growth hacking, and non-traditional marketing and social media. She was featured in Forbes for her social media strategies and has been recognized by several industry media outlets, including Connected World Magazine’s 2014 Top Women of M2M, a nomination for the 2012 WEGO Health “Trailblazer”, 2012 Dealerscope’s 40 Under 40, 2012 “Young Turk of CE” by Custom Retailer Magazine, and the 2011 Mary Furlong Flame Award.

Laura speaks throughout the country at industry events and radio shows on Digital Health, Mitigating Hospital Readmissions Using Technology, Social Media, and Go-to-market Strategies in the Aging Industry. Venues include CES, Digital Health Summit, Mhealth Summit, M-enabling Summit, LeadingAge, AgeTech West, AARP, Connected Health Symposium, and others. She has authored several publications and whitepapers for industry magazines, internet publications, blogs, and books. Laura has consulted for major cable, aging service, and in-home care providers, and has mentored fellow start-up innovators. She was a key organizer in the early days of the EHX and CEDIA Future Home Pavilions, and created the first industry-wide Aging and Technology webinar series in 2008, which flourished for years. Laura was co-founder of the Aging Technology Alliance, an organization encouraging co-ompetition amongst the Aging in Place Technology industry.

Laura is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin in Madison and lives in Wisconsin with her husband, two sons, and two dogs.

 

 

How do we shift the technology care delivery model to a pure outcome based solution?

The Digital Health Summer Summit was a success!  The team from GrandCare was there, showcasing the latest and greatest GrandCare System, designed for patient socialization and engagement, enhancing the patient experience, while enabling professional caregivers to turn their “man on man” caregivers into “zone caregivers”, providing better, more efficient, more cost-effective care.  Watch GrandCare’s chief medical officer, Laura Mitchell as she describes the shift in market traction and why our solutions should focus on the outcomes and not on the process.

The system is a vehicle behind a successful care delivery model, while putting the patient firmly in the center and emphasizing continuity and seamless transition throughout the whole care network (family, professional caregivers, healthcare providers, patient) and encouraging patient self care (chronic disease management), socialization with family and friends and virtual professional caregiving through HIPAA compliant video chat, medication prompting and check-in video visits.

GrandCare can better care delivery outcomes for:

– Professional In-home Care providers

– CCRCs without walls (Long Term Care Providers)

– HealthCare Providers (Hospital to Home Transitions)

– Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs)

– Hospice/End of Life Care

skype

Private Consumers can purchase direct: http://store.grandcare.com/category-s/1821.htmSystem Comp HR NEW

 

GrandCare chosen as featured speaker at June 3 InControl Wisconsin event

GrandCare Systems’ Laura Mitchell has been selected to lead a discussion exploring how digital health technologies (activity, medication management, telehealth, socialization) can enable seniors to remain safer, happier and healthier wherever home is. It also engages multiple levels of caregivers, who can better and more efficiently care for an aging client or loved one.

Stop by GrandCare’s booth to experience why GrandCare is a leader and pioneer in the digital health and wellness industry.

 

Laura Mitchell, VP Business Development, GrandCare Systems Topic: Senior Cyborgs & Technology powered “digital caregivers”

This course is an exploration of how digital health technologies (video chat, activity, telehealth and medication monitoring) will empower the aging and chronic disease mgmt population while providing caregivers and health providers with BETTER information, eliminating the “noise” and enabling proactive, predictive and preventative care.  With the backdrop of the affordable care act, health providers are being penalized for cost of readmissions within 30 days.  Meanwhile, this society is faced with a huge disruptive demographic: the aging population. One can hardly discuss the aging tsunami without addressing the rising cost of healthcare, typically more is spent in the later years in life.  Everyone is looking to provide more cost-effective care where we turn caregivers into “zone players” vs. old school man on man.

Living a Self-Determined Life: A Conference on Empowerment for Older Adults

June 3, 2014

8:45 am – 4:00 pm

Glacier Canyon Lodge Conference Center at the Wilderness Resort Wisconsin Dells

The Living a Self Determined Life conference brings together people who are committed to the notion that older people should be empowered to live the life they choose.

Who should attend:

 – Senior Population

 – Professional Caregivers

 – Geriatric Care Managers

 – Long Term Care communities

 – Healthcare Providers

Register Now

 

Digital Caregiving? Why would we ever do that?

Have you wondered how you can use new technologies within your existing in-home care business while ensuring a return on investment?

FREE Webinar: Why Digital In-home Caregivers will win with a proven ROI

Learn practical knowledge of what caregiving technologies are available, what services you can’t afford to not offer and how technologies can improve your bottom line without disrupting your current service model

This free 45 minute educational session cover how innovations in digital caregiving can redefine productivity and customer satisfaction for home care and hospice providers.

Hear directly from one homecare provider that has successfully used GrandCare and other technologies to improve client care, leverage a bridge to new clients and differentiate from the competition.

Make sure to Register below for a chance to win a Toshiba Tablet!

Thursday April 17, 2014
1:00 PM to 2:00 PM CDT
Event information

Do you ever wonder…

  • How to set yourself apart from the hundreds of in-home caregiving service providers?
  • How do you leverage technology and make money?
  • How to ensure client/family peace of mind?
  • If a crisis pendant is “peace of mind” enough?
  • How to improve staff and family/client communication?
  • How to PROVE the integrity of your staff and organization?
  • How to make your caregivers more efficient for less cost?
  • How to build new client channels without having to add more staff?
  • How to provide “zone caregiving” vs. man on man?
  • If you answered yes to any of these, this webinar is for you!!

Presenters

Laura Mitchell, VP Business Development, GrandCare SystemsLaura Mitchell, VP Business Development, GrandCare Systems
Laura is a founding member of GrandCare Systems. A significant part of her initial role was to bring the product to market in 2006 through the development of a nation-wide distribution network. She travels nationwide, providing educational presentations on digital home health, social media, using technology to mitigate hospital readmissions, and go-to-market strategies. She has also authored various magazine articles on the digital health market and go-to-market strategy. Laura is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Karpan, DaphneDaphne Karpan RN, BS, BA, Palliative Care Manager, Knute Nelson Home Care
Daphne is the project coordinator for GrandCare with Knute Nelson. Her previous experience as a home care nurse, home care branch manager, ER nurse, and inpatient staff nurse, as well as her volunteer work as IT manager for a family business, uniquely qualifies her to address the aging client’s medical and technology concerns. Daphne is a member of the national and local chapters of the Hospice and Palliative Nurses Association and Sigma Theta Tau Nursing Honor Society. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from St. Cloud State University and a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies with an emphasis in Jewish Studies from Hamline University.

Contact

GrandCare Systems
262-338-6147
info@grandcare.com