Tag Archive for: Medication Management

GrandCare Systems Announces Changes to Executive Management Team, expansion to a larger office

WEST BEND, WI

GrandCare Systems, a leader in professional caregiving technology, announced today changes to their executive management team, a staff expansion, and a move into a larger office space.

3c6c370Wisconsin-based GrandCare Systems is on a growth trajectory and is slated to move into the Kreilkamp Building (formerly the Ziegler Building) on 215 N. Main Street in historic downtown West Bend. GrandCare was awarded a grant from the city to help keep the growing technology leader in West Bend. This January the company of 9 years brought on a new Chief Executive Officer, Daniel Maynard, to ramp up and scale the software company. Maynard has a history of entrepreneurship and business growth. In 1997, he started a health care software firm that through acquisition became Connecture Inc. Maynard held the Connecture CEO title until 2012. Charlie Hillman, previous CEO and founder of GrandCare Systems, will continue to drive the vision as Chief Technology Officer.

 

jerry_furnessGrandCare welcomes a new Chief Operating Officer, Jerry Furness. Jerry previously served as Vice President responsible for Operations, Product Development, Emerging Markets, Strategic Solutions, Innovation and Corporate Development at a Milwaukee Health Care IT Firm, Connecture Inc. On the transition to high tech innovators, GrandCare Systems, Furness commented, “I wanted to work with a company that is innovative and growing. GrandCare Systems was attractive to me not only because of the mature technology, but also because of the social message GrandCare spreads”. Dan Maynard, CEO of GrandCare said, “We are rapidly building and we needed to add solid experience to this already outstanding leadership team. Jerry is someone I have worked with for over 15 years and he has continually proven his ability to successfully drive channel partnerships, operating efficiency and revenues”.

 

Laura Mitchell, VP Business Development, GrandCare SystemsOriginal founding member and previous VP of Business Development, Laura Mitchell, has been recently promoted to Chief Marketing Officer. Maynard commented about Mitchell’s promotion, “Laura’s strategic positioning and marketing skill is one of the main reasons that GrandCare has such a strong brand presence and is understandably recognized as a clear leader in the industry.” GrandCare is balancing several large international contracts including Saga, the largest UK in-home care provider. In early 2014, GrandCare entered Canada with in-home care organization Proof of Care, and is working together with a large homecare franchisor in Australia. Multiple new US-based professional care clients have differentiated and secured a healthy return on investment using GrandCare including Lifetime Care at Home in Connecticut, At Home Independent Living in New York and Daybreak Services in South Carolina.

 

gaytha_traynorAfter almost 10 years, co-founder and former Chief Operating Officer, Gaytha Traynor Hillman, has announced her retirement from the organization. “It truly has been a remarkable journey. Charlie and I have started several businesses together, but our social mission for GrandCare really came from our hearts. I feel confident that our new leadership team will significantly grow the organization”. Lastly, Maynard said, “We thank Gaytha for all she has done and accomplished for GrandCare.”

 

 

About GrandCare Systems

System Comp HR NEW

GrandCare Systems, founded in 2005, combines digital health assessment, biometric readings, activity of daily living sensing, medication management, smart home automation, video chat and virtual touch-based communications into the most comprehensive and fully-featured technology in the private home market. GrandCare is designed for individuals seeking a caregiving solution for an aging loved one or for professional in-home caregiving providers. For more information, visit: www.grandcare.com or call 262-338-6147

Another Great Piece from Savvy Seniors’ Jim Miller

What types of new home technologies can you recommend to help me keep tabs on my elderly mother? She lives alone, about an hour’s drive from me, and I worry about her safety.

— Concerned Daughter

BRADENTON HERALD – Helping an aging parent remain independent and living in their own home has become a little easier in recent years, thanks to a host of new and improved assistive technology products. Here are some top rated options you should know about.

[…]

Monitoring systems

System Comp TRANS HR03-13

GrandCare offers a wide variety of sensors and devices for customers to choose from.

Another more sophisticated technology for keeping tabs on your mom is with a home monitoring system. These systems will let you know whether she is waking up and going to bed on time, eating properly, showering and taking her medicine.

They work through small wireless sensors (not cameras) placed in key locations throughout the home. The sensors will track her movements, learning her daily activity patterns and routines, and will notify you or other family members via text message, email or phone if something out of the ordinary is happening. For instance, if she went to the bathroom and didn’t leave it could indicate a fall or other emergency.

You can also check up on her patterns anytime you want through the system’s password-protected website. And for additional protection, most services offer SOS call buttons as well that can be placed around the house, or worn.

Some good companies that offer these services are BeClose (beclose.com, 866-574-1784), which runs $399 or $499 for the sensors, plus a $69 monthly service fee if paid a year in advance. And GrandCare Systems (grandcare.com, 262-338-6147), which adds a fantastic social component – through a senior-friendly computer – to go along with the activity monitoring. GrandCare leases for $150 to $300 per month.

Medication management

Med Minder

MedMinder provides the only pill dispensers with their own, built-in Cellular connection.

If you want to make sure your mom is keeping up with her medications, there are medication management devices you can now rent, that will dispense her medicine on schedule, provide constant reminders, and even notify you if her medicine is not taken. Two products that offer this are MedMinder (medminder.com, 888-633-6463), which rents for $40 per month, and the Philips Medication Dispensing Service (managemypills.com, 888-632-3261) that costs $75/month.

Jim Miller, a contributor to the NBC Today show and author of “The Savvy Senior” book, can be reached at Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070.
Or visit www.savvysenior.org.

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2013/05/07/4514595/assistive-technologies-that-help.html#storylink=cpy

GrandCare Systems™ – May 2012 Software Tour

The recording of Thursday’s LIVE Software Demonstration is now available on YouTube.

http://youtu.be/yFShxGXTfOw

This software demonstration, covers system capabilities for in home use as well as a our caregiver menu and touch screen interface.

“GrandCare offers ‘peace of mind’ for the entire caregiving network, while giving the loved one independence, freedom and happiness.”

GrandCare Systems is considered a pioneer in the aging and technology industry. Available since 2006, GrandCare Systems combines digital health assessments, daily activity monitoring, medication management, smart home automation, and virtual communications for all ages into one easy, flexible and comprehensive solution!

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

Signs and Symptoms of Functional Decline

3 Common Signs of Functional Decline…and Technology Assists

In the article, Ryan discusses the common signs of functional decline, what to look for – signs to be aware of. He says “Studies have documented that functional decline, i.e., the loss of either complex or basic ADL functions is due to changes in one or more of six areas: physical, perceptual, cognitive, visual and hearing, falling and psychological…”

He focuses on the first three in this blog post (I expect another blog post to follow with the next three)

I am always interested in looking at common factors as we age, and how technologies like GrandCare and others on the market along with a combination of caregiving techniques and supervised care can help in ways to prevent, deter and treat.

1. Physical Decline

Obviously, this happens as we get older. I already notice that I am sorer after running or exercising, I recall a day when I didn’t even think of stretching before or after exercise and today I certainly feel the consequences if I fail to do the recommended body stretching. So, how does losing physical strength, balance, stamina and coordination affect us? It could make a fall more possible, it could prevent the exercise needed to maintain muscle strength, it could encourage more napping. So, what do we do?  Well, obviously, home modification is a big one. We can have wider accessible doorways and ramps, so it’s easier to get around if/when a walker is needed as well as a wheelchair. The inability to walk no longer makes us automatically a candidate for facility life.  We can have systems like GrandCare automatically turn on a light if/when we get out of bed during the night (to mitigate nighttime falls). We can eliminate floor rugs – eliminate the slipping factors involved.  We can set up a GrandCare remote monitoring system, to indicate to caregivers that a loved one may not be moving around as frequently, perhaps is sleeping more, not getting out of a chair the entire day, and even can indicate if movement stops (potentially a fall?)

2. Perceptual Changes

Ryan discusses perceptual changes as “all the senses: vision, hearing, sensitivity to touch, taste – even smell. After all, each is important to overall well-being. If you can’t smell smoke, you may lose your life to a house fire; if your sense of touch is diminished by poor circulation, you may be burned by scalding water”.  So, the nice thing about certain technologies is being able to alert others of potential “hazards”. Technologies can alert family members if the temperature gets too warm or too cold in the home. A GrandCare stove detector could indicate to the Loved One (through alarms, phone calls, etc) that the stove was left on too long or could call a nearby caregiver or neighbor…

Ryan talks about medications sometimes being responsible for changes. Technology can be a great assist in not only medication management (GrandCare can make a phone call, email, text if meds are not taken), but also can give a bigger picture image of how medications might be affecting a loved one. A Florida GrandCare client recently called and tearfully told me that her mother was declining and it seemed as though she had “sundowners”. She knew this because of the GrandCare motion graphs that showed a lack of movement during the day, agitated sleep patterns, activity throughout the night (whereas her mother used to just get up one time a night and soundly sleep the rest). My Florida client took the print out of these motion graphs to a doctor to get his opinion. She and he were both shocked to make the correlation between a medication change (heart medication change) for her mother and the dramatic change in activity/sleep patterns.  He made a tweak to her medications and it made a world of a difference. This is what we’re talking about! This is what makes coming to work worthwhile for me — seeing a true change that technology can make for people, make their lives better, brighter and help caregivers making them into SUPER CAREGIVERS!

3. Cognitive Changes

Ryan discusses losing the ability to focus or multi-task. The inability to remember things short term. Well, I can say that as I’ve aged, I have experienced this a bit! I remember after having my first baby boy blaming my Mom-nesia for things. The reasons? Lack of sleep? Lack of attention (I was pretty focused on the present and making sure I did everything right, I didn’t have the time nor the care to focus on other things). I think this is pretty typical. We forget things as we have to focus on other things, we are compensating every day!  I use my alarm clock every morning, I use my google calendar to remind me of my daily activities – pretty sure if I didn’t have that I’d miss every appointment on my calendar. I use my colleagues, I use my family and my husband to continually provide cognitive assists for me, so I can remember to do things. The fridge still has shopping lists posted, so I don’t forget to grab them. We all need this.  Using technologies, we can provide these services remotely for our loved ones. Providing a TO DO list on a virtual “Bulletin board” makes a lot of sense.  Perhaps a display of today’s events. The thing we’ve always said about GrandCare is that it never gets tired of saying the same thing repeatedly. It never judges, it never gets irritated when answering a question for the nth time. GrandCare can give the time, date, weather reports, medication reminders. GrandCare can tell a loved one that it’s cold outside and remind them to bundle up.

 

Thanks Ryan for another thought-provoking article!

3 Common Signs of Functional Decline

by RYAN MALONE · 0 COMMENTS

in ALZHEIMER’S,ASSISTED LIVING

Functional Decline
Photo Credit: Flickr user e-MagineArt.com.
Everyone changes physically and mentally with age, but there are some changes that can really put a loved one’s safety at risk.  If you think that a loved one may require a transition to assisted living or elderly care, then you must first assess whether they are undergoing a true functional decline.

Functional decline is sometimes difficult to diagnose as individual symptoms often go unnoticed. Below is a list of symptoms of functional decline to be familiar with.

  • Misusing medication (over or under use and deviating from a schedule)
  • Reports of inexplicable behavior from friends, neighbors or family members
  • Poor personal hygiene
  • Unpaid bills
  • Changes in spending patterns
  • inappropriate clothing
  • Stains on clothing or upholstery from urine or feces
  • Forgetting how to use simple tools
  • Poorly cared-for pets
  • Repetitive questioning
  • Difficulty in communicating
  • Confusion
  • Unfinished tasks and chores
  • Spoiled or poorly-prepared food

Home health devices, mobile apps need to be connected to providers: FierceHealth IT

This editor’s article is absolutely on the money!  There needs to a continuity between hospital providers and in-home health care providers (hopefully with the tech solution as that bridge). It’s so difficult as we tech providers bring these enabling solutions to market with our hands tied. Obviously, the use of remote monitoring and socialization technology will provide enhanced care and enable a caregiver to more information than he/she might have had. It can also remind, record and track vitals remotely and doctors can check in on these (obviously going to be a better indication of overall trends)…  In order to get this off the ground, changes do need to be made. Doctors need to be reimbursed for their time…in this day and age it doesn’t always HAVE to be in office visits. There are several times when I can chat with my family doctor over email or phone with just a few questions, no office visit required. Imagine a SKYPE visit that would not make me have to leave bed with 103 degree fever, just taking my vitals (doc accesses them immediately) and diagnoses me. People need to be encouraged to care preventatively for themselves at home…going home (previously coined discharge, now coined transition) should be JUST that…a transition and there should be a technology involved that can still keep the doc and healthcare staff in the loop, provide instructions for the Loved One (perhaps on the TouchScreen), Web Chat opportunities, medication prompts and reminders, as well as track daily activities (eating, drinking, sleeping, etc) and alert a caregiver if anything seems amiss. This is all part of what GrandCare has been building for the past 6 years (avail on the market since 2006)…and with some changes, we will see some big savings & better care!

July 24, 2011 — 9:27pm ET | By 

Read more: Home health devices, mobile apps need to be connected to providers – FierceHealthIT http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/home-health-devices-mobile-apps-need-be-connected-providers/2011-07-24#comment-1582#ixzz1T9ZGgxgP
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Home healthcare, an essential ingredient of post-acute care, can help people recover from injury or illness faster, which ultimately can prevent relapses that leads to an emergency room visit or hospital readmissions. Increasingly, home devices are being used to monitor the health status and vital signs of patients; at the same time, there also has been an explosion of mobile apps that can work with such devices, smartphones, and/or tablets to aid consumers in managing their own health. Both of these developments hold promise for improving post-acute and chronic care.

Unfortunately, the guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on mobile apps and the report from the National Research Council on flaws in home health devices–both released last week–failed to address one of the main problems in health IT for home use: a general lack of connectedness between home and provider information systems. To really apply the new technologies in ways that will prevent readmissions, doctors must be online with their patients and their caregivers, and must receive relevant data from both in a way that’s easy to use.

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Today’s approach to remote monitoring has not progressed far beyond that of a decade ago: patients in a disease management program for, say, congestive heart failure, still receive telephonic support from nurse case managers. In some cases, the nurses might be able to monitor the patients’ weight online via digital scales, and patients might be able to answer questions about their symptoms and diet through a web-connected device.

Despite evidence of home monitoring’s efficacy, payers that cover it are few and far between; so, unless there’s a financial reason for hospitals to pay for home monitoring, as there is with heart failure, it may not be done at all. For example, a 2008 article in Managed Care Magazine notes that most insurers don’t cover blood pressure monitoring at home, even though it’s been shown to be more accurate than in-office measurements. As for connecting digital blood pressure cuffs directly to an electronic health record in a physician’s office, we’re talking about the impossible dream. Even if health plans paid for the technology, physicians would not be reimbursed for keeping tabs on patients at home.

Home care nurses are actually more likely to use an electronic health record than physicians, partly because of Medicare documentation requirements. But physicians usually don’t hear from these caregivers unless a patient has a serious problem, or needs to have their medication adjusted.

Connecting home care records online with ambulatory-care EHRs is still the exception, but at least one prominent healthcare organization has made progress. A few years ago, the Cleveland Clinic interfaced its discharge planning software with its home care application–both of which happened to come from Allscripts. By 2010, Cleveland Clinic had also found a way to send the home care data into its Epic enterprise EHR so that physicians caring for patients could view it.

With bundling and accountable care organizations looming on the horizon, I wish I could say that other healthcare systems are following Cleveland Clinic’s example. But frankly, I haven’t run into much of it, outside of St. Vincent Health System in Indianapolis and Partners HealthCare in Boston. This is a big hole in enterprise health information exchanges, and one that will have to be filled sooner rather than later. – Ken

Read more: Home health devices, mobile apps need to be connected to providers – FierceHealthIT http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/home-health-devices-mobile-apps-need-be-connected-providers/2011-07-24#comment-1582#ixzz1T9YwDnP3
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Breaking News – – Reminding people to do stuff, helps make them do stuff…

I always am happy to read articles with yet more proof that we are all exactly in the right industry and on the right track! Medication Compliance is one of the leading drivers to assisted living. Any months that we can save of supervised care can save thousands of dollars. We must, as a country, embrace enabling remote monitoring technologies to save money, encourage independence and prompt health/wellness and good decision making.  We use technologies every day (I certainly use an alarm clock to get up in the morning) and my google calendar sends me text message reminders about my appointments so I don’t miss them. All we need to do is provide this information to the seniors and individuals that need these prompts/reminders in an effective and user-friendly format.  It sounds like Memotext has hit the nail on the head!

GrandCare Systems is also working towards this common goal, to help individuals help themselves.  To maintain independence, encourage healthy choices and keep them socially connected to family (video chat, emails, reminders, calendar appts, pictures, videos, music, games, etc.) in a user-friendly format (no computer skills necessary).
GrandCare can prompt a Loved One (via their TV screen or telephone) to take meds, eat, take vitals (BP, Weight, Pulseox, glucose), perform activities, etc. and also alerts family members if certain parameters were met (meds not accessed, door opened during the night, excessive motion, wandering motion, someone didn’t return to bed during the night, vitals were not taken, etc.).

Thanks Mobihealth News and Memotext for the below article: http://mobihealthnews.com/11146/automated-dosing-reminder-study-finds-increased-adherence/

Automated med reminders boost adherence

By: Brian Dolan | Jun 8, 2011 12:34pm EST
Tags:  |  |  | |  |  |  |

Amos Adler, President, MemotextAmos Adler, President, Memotext

Glaucoma, the world’s second leading cause of blindness, has a number of effective therapies to help those afflicted. Despite these solutions, non-adherence rates for those treatments are reported to be between thirty-seven and fifty-nine percent. Luckily, mobile health professionals are working on ways to solve this issue. One such company, Memotext, has been developing adherence technologies and may have proof that its solution will improve those statistics.

Memotext and Microsoft’s recent study (funded by Microsoft and conducted by Johns Hopkins University) measured the efficacy of using the Memotext adherence solution combined with Microsoft’s personal health tracking platform HealthVault. Patients received some combination of text message reminders and IVR messages to remind them about their medication regimen.

When patients used the combined technologies, researchers found adherence to daily glaucoma therapy increased from fifty-one to sixty-seven percent. The control group, with no intervention, saw no change in adherence. The preliminary results from the automated dosing reminder study, which followed 429 patients, were presented at the March 2011 annual meeting of the American Glaucoma Society, as well as at the 2011 Mobile Health conference held in May at Stanford.

Of course, glaucoma isn’t the only disease where patients need help adhering to therapies. According to a recent study by Express Scripts, Americans might be wasting as much as $258 billion annually by not taking their prescribed medications. Another study, by NEHI, found that poor adherence is causing problems that cost $290 billion in unnecessary spending each year.

Last week, MobiHealthNews reported that two members of Congress introduced bills to allow Medicare reimbursement for more increased adherence solutions like text message reminders.

For more on Memotext’s study, read the full release: http://mobihealthnews.com/11146/automated-dosing-reminder-study-finds-increased-adherence/

 

 

 

Question/Answers from today’s Home Health Tech Webinar: NAHB/CEDIA

Thanks to NAHB & CEDIA for allowing me to speak on the webinar: Home Health Technology: A $20 Billion Industry”. We had 150 signed up, an amazing amount of interest! Thanks to all who attended!

Below are some questions I received after the webinar – I wanted to share with everyone!

1. Are there any systems on the market that identify through some sort of floor sweep that someone has fallen. Sometimes clients are not able to push the button. There are some “smart floor” applications that are out there. These can be costly solutions. Sometimes motion detection can pick up things like this. For example, excessive motion on the foot of the stairs, got up during the night & didn’t return to bed within a given parameter. There are all sorts of ways that we might know if something is “amiss”

2. I own MJW Home Modifications for Boomers & Beyond which modifies homes to allow clients to remain in their homes independently and safely and I want to add assistive technology to my offers. Who do I contact for more info at GrandCare Systems? Contact info@grandcare.com or call 262-338-6147 and we can absolutely have someone get in touch with you about becoming a reseller or pair you together with an existing dealer/integrator!
3. How do you become a dealer?/em> Contact info@grandcare.com or call 262-338-6147. Dealer process is different for some of the other technologies. To become a GrandCare dealer, dealers must attend training, sign the dealer documents & purchase their 1st demonstration system. GCHQ will be hosting a dealer training at CEDIA on Tues Sept 21, 2010 from 930a – 5p. Contact us for more info!

4. Do you have any advice about how to discuss the term monitoring and big brother watching? Remote monitoring & smart systems in general have wireless motion/temp/door sensors that can assess the overall activity in the home. It is as intrusive as a security system. It simply alerts a family member or caregiver if something is amiss. Senior/Loved One compliance is very important and we recommend that they absolutely understand that this is an enabling technology that can help them to remain independent, while giving their children “peace of mind” knowing they are safe, happy & healthy at home. GrandCare has a LARGE socialization/cognition/communication component that really helps us to overcome this. With GrandCare, grandma gets to video chat & receive incoming communications…if the family is involved, this featured OVERRIDES all else…

5. Sounds like most of the info is in the east or mid states, is there info in the west? I am not sure I understand what kind of information you are referring to. We have dealers throughout the entire United States, Canada and Australia. All sorts of organizations are doing this kind of technology – really everywhere. The technology that I showed in the presentation ranged from Europe to the East coast, midwest with products also on the west coast being shown.

6. Have you seen any web sites or web services that are bringing this all together? AgeTek Alliance (www.agetek.org), CAST – center for aging services technology, we try to help our GrandCare dealers by providing educational opportunities on how to partner with other organizations & provide a suite of products. We have weekly aging/tech conference call webinars open to everyone in the industry, we also host a monthly webinar for our GC dealers on marketing/sales, tech questions, etc – and have a dealer chat room and forum for dealers to communicate, cooperate, share information, ask questions, and access our documents/ppts/pics, etc

7. What are the franchise opportunities for the products? Many offer dealer programs. Those you will see at CEDIA have dealer opportunities available. Some have sales reps. Contact the specific company to find out details

8. What is the best way to jump start an AIP business and come up with prospects to talk to about systems for their loved ones? Make sure whichever program you join, they offer adequate training and materials. I know that some of our distributors offer a full range of “getting started” materials such as website options, sales/marketing & getting started training.

9. How can we demo your products?
What’s the best way for HH care companies and ESC’s to work together… so both can profit? What have you found to work the best? Contact the companies you are interested in and see if you can see a demonstration. Many have recorded demonstrations you can watch – or attend CEDIA to see them LIVE in action, touch them, try them, ask questions. If you come on to our weekly aging technology industry call – you can ask questions on the public chat, network and learn more about the industry. Much of this is also covered in your training program.

10. When providing a system, what should we say is a basic or approximate cost? This really ranges on what you are selling. If you are selling a Personal Emergency Response System, that’s going to be a much lowered cost, vs a fully featured Smart Home/Communication/Tele-wellness System. Some systems have a high upfront cost and lowered monthly cost, some go for a lower upfront cost and higher monthly, some are offered with rental/leasing programs.

11. When you provide this presentation get a copy of the list of manufacturers and products–pictures were displayed but no mention of the products. Many of the products that are shown on the ppt were mentioned, but I did mention a few too that did not have a picture shown. If there’s anything specific you are looking for, just contact me: laura@grandcare.com and I am happy to get you the information!