Tag Archive for: In-home Care Provider

elderly care monitoring system

GrandCare benefits all areas of elderly care

Caring for a loved one who is facing end of life is a difficult situation for all parties involved. Time or geographic constraints can sometimes prevent family members from being physically present, but modern technology is changing the way the nation looks at quality health care.

Knute Nelson, a nonprofit, Christian-based organization that specializes in senior care, has teamed up with local telecommunications providers such as Gardonville Cooperative Telephone Association (Brandon, Minn.) to offer an in-home technology solution that connects seniors and Hospice patients with their loved ones, caregivers and medical team.

Through the use of the GrandCare System, a simple touch platform enables in-home residents to view pictures, receive incoming messages, watch videos, listen to music and video chat with family. The system uses a variety of wireless activity and telehealth devices that also can alert designated caregivers by phone, email or text message if anything seems amiss.

Daphne Karpan, Knute Nelson palliative care manager, said the system has been particularly helpful and beneficial to the health-care organization’s Hospice clients, who generally have a one- to nine-month life expectancy. Being able to connect them with their loved ones at such a critical time has been a rewarding experience for all parties involved, she said.

Testing Out Telehealth Services

The GrandCare System requires an Internet connection to work. Because most of the affected patients are not existing customers, Dave Wolf, chief executive officer/general manager of Gardonville Cooperative Telephone, said that his team makes it a top priority to install the low-cost broadband connection “without a bunch of red tape.”

Karpan noted that Knute Nelson is only able to offer this service through the support of a Blandin Foundation grant. The private foundation is the state’s largest rural-based, rural-focused foundation that seeks to strengthen communities in rural Minnesota.

Karpan said hospice nurses are able to work with clients to set up Skype sessions and to upload pictures for families to share. In addition, the device can be programmed to monitor vital signs and activity. There are also sensors to alert caregivers if someone falls or needs to take their medicine.

“We have been proactively redefining the health-care paradigm over the last decade and have found great value in how technology helps to enrich the lives of our patients. With GrandCare, patients are able to become more involved in their own health care, stay living in their homes, and be connected to families and friends in meaningful ways,” said Mark Anderson, president/chief executive officer of Knute Nelson. “Partners and leaders in the field such as Dave Wolf … understand the value in delivering this technology. Making it available to their customers helps to spur economic development and vitality in our region—and, most importantly, adds significant value in the lives of our patients.”

Doing the Right Thing

Reflecting on the decision to partner with Knute Nelson on this initiative, Wolf said it was an easy decision to make despite the fact that it’s not a revenue generator. “These people are facing end-of-life,” he said. “It would require a one- to three-year triple-play package in order to break even at best. Everyone—the patient and their family members— is grateful and becomes loyal to the co-op for providing this service.

“There are 100 economic reasons not to get involved … but we have the means and the network already in place,” he said, explaining that Gardonville Cooperative Telephone is promoting the service as a low-speed data package that runs on 1 Mbps and doesn’t require those in home care or Hospice to sign a contract.

“Not everything has to be a slam-dunk,” Wolf said. “In this case, loyalty is a measurable outcome.”

 

By Tennille Shields, NTCA Senior Writer/Editor

high technology home care

Technology for In-Home Care: Show Me the Money!

Last week, we received a call from a guy who runs an in-home care franchise on the East Coast. He’s done a lot of innovative things with technology and now he was interested in GrandCare as an enabling technology for his company. We did a demo of the system and he was impressed. His following question was one we hear time and time again. “What’s the ROI?”

It seems obvious when you add enabling technologies that things become better, cheaper, faster and more efficient. Think about how far we’ve come with technology in agriculture, shopping and transportation. It only makes sense that adding monitoring technologies and video chat check-in technologies to home care would provide additional revenue options as well as a lower cost care alternative. But, where’s the proof? It got us to thinking.

We all know the statistics about the rising aging population, caregiver burnout and staff turnover–especially caregiving staff for home care providers. Companies are looking to technology to help. The question is not if home care technology can help. It’s how to implement it, how to price it, and how to make money with it. What is the ROI? We have thought a lot about this, and we have the answers you are looking for.

On Thursday, August 8th, we’re presenting an interactive webinar that will show you exactly that! How do you implement video chat, remote activity and telehealth technology into your current caregiving offerings? How do you price it? When will you see that Return On Investment? And how can you add new revenue models into your organization?

We think you’ll be impressed.

Mark your calendars and join us for this free 60 min webinar, sponsored by GrandCare Systems.

Register for Webinar

Thursday August 8th
9am PDT
10am MDT
11am CDT
12pm EDT

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