Tag Archive for: Family Caregivers

smart technology for seniors

Smart technology for seniors? Yes, it does exist.

Proactive versus reactive care is something that unfortunately too often becomes a hindsight 20/20 revelation for some elderly patients and their families. “If only we had known…” they would say. The truth is technology these days is not just good, it’s really good.  Better than it was even just a few short years ago. The thing about technology is that it is always changing, evolving, and getting more sophisticated. That’s not to say that it is getting more complicated necessarily, in fact, in many cases the technology is actually getting easier to use. More hands free. Requiring even less for the user to do manually, with the advent of voice recognition, smart watches, and even artificially intelligent computers.

I mean, just a few years ago, it would have seemed unfathomable to think that you could talk into your phone, tablet, or computer to ask it a simple question and actually expect to get an intelligent response. Today, we can ask something as simple as “do I need an umbrella today?” and our technology device will actually give us a resonable answer related to our local weather report.

The same holds true for technology advancements in healthcare with virtual care services, and personal health/fitness monitoring devices. But did you know that there is even more advanced technology out there that is designed to help prevent hospitalizations, manage chronic conditions, and track daily activities, all to keep the elderly and disabled living independently for as long as possible in order to postpone the need for long-term care?

 

Introducing the grandCARE system. We provide a technology solution that benefits seniors, family caregivers, and professional senior care workers alike. It starts with our innovative touchscreen interface which has been carefully designed with the end-user in mind. It features large, easy-to-read icons and can be fully customized to include as few or as many menu options as desired. The platform is so intuitive to use, that no previous computer experience is required to enjoy.
The touchscreen can be use as key source of socialization, entertainment, and communication for the senior user with our integrated family Facebook photo sharing, video chatting, games, websites, news, weather and more available options.

Next, our passive activity and motion monitoring is an effective and unintrusive way to analyze patterns of behavior to become more aware when something isn’t quite right. Our sensors can detect when there is too much, too little or no motion, and alert when something out of the ordinary occurs. The alert rules can be established to send out a message by phone call, text, or email to one or multiple designated parties.

At grandCARE, we believe in not only helping seniors stay independent, but strive to enable them the ability to proactively manage their own health and wellness too. This is why we have available digital medical devices to take important health vital readings digitally using our innovative system. The data is captured on the system, and stored on our secure servers making the information accessible at anytime to a family member or professional care manager using our online based care portal. The information can be reviewed in report or chart format, and even exported as a PDF to send to a professional health care provider as well.

A recent article by Maryalene LaPonsie, featured in the U.S. News and World Report provides more support for the benefits that technology can have with seniors, families, and those in the long-term care industry.

For those who want to maximize their peace of mind, Gomez says the Cadillac of virtual long-term care is a remote-monitoring system like that offered by grandCARE.

With this system, activity sensors are placed in a senior’s home. To use grandCARE, Managed Senior Care first evaluates what a typical “good day” looks like for a senior and sets alerts accordingly. For example, if a senior typically has breakfast by 9 a.m. and the refrigerator hasn’t been opened by that time, an alert may go out to a caregiver.

As with Banner iCare, seniors using the grandCARE system are set up with a tablet. In this case, it’s an oversized tablet that can be remotely activated. If a caregiver needs to check on a senior, he or she can open Skype which will activate the camera and microphone on the tablet. At that point, the caregiver can look for the senior and call out to him or her to determine whether help is needed.

“One of the reasons we like this product is because it’s respectful of the senior,” Gomez says. “You know when people are watching. There is no secret monitoring.”

The article goes on to show how virtual care services are having an impact with both cost savings and patient outcomes:

“We save over $4,000 per patient per year and avoid hospital visits and readmissions,” Herzog says. From 2013 to 2014, Banner Health tracked the outcomes of newly enrolled Banner iCare members and compared that to claims data from the year before their enrollment. They found the program resulted in an overall 27 percent cost savings of $788 per patient per month. Hospitalizations also dropped from 11.5 per 100 patients per month in the year prior to enrollment to 6.3 per 100 patients per month six months after enrollment.

So, going back to where we started…”if only we had known.” Well, now you do.

GrandCare Systems debuts new website

You may recall that late in 2014, we announced our new brand logo, identity, and new color schematics as GrandCare Systems looked to modernize and give our brand an updated and refreshed look. Expanding on what we started, we are aligning our new brand identity to our completely redefined sales and marketing strategy in the hopes to better target our product solutions to the various customer markets we serve on our newly redesigned website: www.grandCARE.com.

Introducing: Our all new grandCARE program solution strategy featuring Professional Care, Community Based Care, and Family Centered Care programs. While our product and its capabilities haven’t really changed, what is different is the way we are presenting it to each of the individuals and organizations our product is designed to benefit.

“When I first came on board, I started to evaluate our website immediately, because it is the most highly visible sales and marketing tool we have. In most cases, our website presents the first impression we make to our customers. My goal when redesigning the site was to take the new branding and color schemes and build on those ideas by developing very distinct program solution paths for visitors to take based on their specific personal or business needs,” said GrandCare Systems Marketing Analyst, Amy Schwengels.

Who We Help_pg 1Selection Guide
Along with an all new look and feel to the site, the new website includes two new sections to help users decide which program solution is best for them: Who We Help and Selection Guide.

“We wanted to create a more straight-forward approach to how we engage visitors on our website. We feel that by creating the color-coded program solution paths along with useful selection guide tools, we are able to better communicate with our customers and make sure that they are able to find more meaningful content on our site,” added Dan Maynard, GrandCare Systems CEO.

Additional information, questions, or comments regarding the new website can be directed to Amy Schwengels, Marketing Analyst at 262.338.6147, or please visit www.grandCARE.com and drop us a line on our Contact Us page. A media kit and other marketing materials are available on our website.

GrandCare Systems listed by AARP blogger as a top technology must have

GrandCare is honored to be listed by AARP blogger, Sally Abrahms as one of the top 9 technology must haves.

9 Need-to-Know Technologies for Caregivers

“Can you say the Jetsons? Increasingly, family caregivers are getting a helping hand through high-tech products and services.

Bone up on these trends:

GPS safety technology provides the location of the wearer: devices can be used on the wrist, as a clip-on, or on a pendant. Some cars and smart phones have them – enabling you to speak or touch your desired destination – and see or hear turn-by-turn instructions.

With some devices, the caregiver sets the parameters of where the recipient can be – sometimes referred to as ‘geo-fencing’. If the person goes outside those areas, the caregiver is alerted via phone, text, or email. At any time, the caregiver can log on to a website and track the location of the elder

Personal emergency response systems, known as PERS, also contain GPS technology. It’s the Medic Alert model—if in trouble, the wearer can press a button and be connected with a call center that can dispatch help and notify caregivers. Many PERS devices only work at home, but a few allow the wearer to get help wherever they are—on the golf course, in the car, around the block.

Other safety technology includes wireless sensors around the house (in the bathroom, on the bed, door, or refrigerator, for example) that that let caregivers know if there is activity out of the ordinary i.e. not leaving the bathroom. A fall, perhaps?”

GrandCare, on the market since 2006, is a fully-featured care management platform designed to solve the healthcare crisis and aging boom. 

The GrandCare solution is the most comprehensive system available today, combining 6 technologies into ONE system with extensive remote caregiving capabilities.

Read the whole article HERE

Join our 3-31-11 Webinar- The 50/50 Rule: Solving Family Conflict

We invite you to join in GrandCare’s aging/technology industry webinars. All are welcome to join us!
Date: Thursday March 31st 2011
Time: 2pm EST (11am PST)
Room: Go to http://grandcaresystems.webex.com
If you would like to call in but you do not have access to a computer, call: 1-408-600-3600 access code: 668 422 850

NOTE: If you are new to using Webex and you have questions, please contact us at info@grandcare.com. Some of the initial kinks have been fixed, so please try again. You may opt to ONLY dial in (number listed above) We appreciate your patience!

Topic Description: The 50/50 Rule: Solving Family Conflict

This webinar is designed to help adult siblings and their aging parents deal with those sensitive situations that ariseamong brothers and sisters as their parents age and need assistance. Our speaker will cover a variety of sibling caregiving topics such as: How do you divide workload with your sister? What’s the best way to build teamworkwith your brothers? How can you reach agreement as a family on important topics to avoid family conflict?

About our speaker: Cathy Majkowski from Home Instead

Cathy Majkowski is the Community service Representative for Home Instead, where sheprides herself in being called a senior care advocate. Her first association with working with seniors was her small business “Catherine Tours- Motorcoach rours for Seniors”.Beyond her work with Home Instead, she serves on Board of Directors for the West Bend Senior Center,she was a founding  member of the Caregiver Coalation in Ozaukee County, and she serves on the planning committee for Ozaukee County Senior Conference and the the Washington County Aging Concerns Network Group.Cathy is an amazign community partner in West Bend, Wisconsin, where she resides with her husband, Rick and 2 children.Her passion for seniors and families is sure to come through as she shares what families need to be successful and independent.

Webinar Objectives:

Webinar Objectives- Get ideas on how to work through family conflict

– How to ease the caregiver/family into technology conversation

– Opening the doors to communication in a complicated family situation