Rotary International Theme for 2015-2016 is Be a Gift to the World
“Everyone has something to give—whoever we are, whatever our place in life. We can give our talent, our knowledge, our abilities, and our effort; we can give our dedication and our devotion. Through Rotary, we can take these gifts and make a genuine difference in the lives of others and in our world.” These are the words of the newly installed Rotary International President K.R. “Ravi” Ravindran, the first Sri Lankan to serve in this capacity. Rotary International Presidents tend to be highly successful motivated and civic-minded individuals.
Ravindran is CEO and founder of Printcare PLC, Sri Lanka’s largest printing and packaging company, with a worldwide clientele. The business is highly successful, publicly listed and provides design-to-delivery printing, packaging, and digital media solutions. The company’s claim to fame is that it is “arguably the No. 1 producer of tea bag tags and sachets in the world”.
I have been a Rotarian since 1990, and was one of the first women to be asked to join the Louisville Rotary Club, the 26th largest club in the world. In 1998 I was elected the very first and only woman to ever serve in that capacity. Next year Alice Bridges, the second woman ever elected president will take office. And, in the past almost 20 years since I was president, there have been a lot of changes in the world, and many people have tried to be a gift to the world by volunteering their talents to make this world a better place.
The new leadership in my local Rotary Club has a great group of past presidents from which to get insight. The new leadership is bringing new insights, new energy, and new ideas to bear so that we can continue our social based work. Our local club is not suffering from the malaise that other clubs are finding an issue with dropping membership. Our club is maintaining its numbers, growing its local foundation base, serving up many man hours in local volunteer projects, contributing heavily to the Rotary Promise Scholarship Program that is guaranteeing college attendance for those who are disenfranchised, but willing to go to high school and maintain a good grade average and keep out of trouble. Our local Rotary Club is a gift to the world, and looking at the district leadership, Mike Kull and Stewart Alexander, we are continuing to give gifts by keeping that Rotary fire burning in our bellies, and working to make the world a better place.
Take stock this morning. Are you officially retired? If so, what are you accomplishing each and every day? Are you still working? If so, at what capacity are you working? Do you make the most of each and every day? Do you hone and work on polishing and enhancing your talents? What gift do you bring to the world each and every day?
Will you take the Rotary challenge and bring your talents to play by being a gift to the world? Think on that, and make it a great day!
Just finished writing my chapter for the latest addition of The Handbook of Geriatric Care Management published by Jones & Bartlett, and compiled by editor Cathy Jo Cress. As I was almost finished writing, I found out that the National Association of Geriatric Care Managers had decided, after careful marketing study, to change the name from Geriatric Care management to Aging Life Care. The professionals who provide this service will be known as Aging life Care Professionals, rather than Geriatric Care Managers. What do YOU think about this change?
What I think is that geriatric care management (aging life care) is a service that can work in tandem with home care to allow a person to stay at home, if desired, longer. Actually, it is completely possible to stay at home from frailty to the grave, and with an Aging Life Care Professional in the mix, the patient/client becomes the focus. The patient’s/client’s family is considered when working on a plan of care, as well as the ability to pay for services, the informal and formal support systems in place, and the community’s ability to offer some assistance when different services are needed.
Does this start to sound familiar? All the things that an Aging Life Care Professional does, are the exact same things that all the Transitions to Care folks are trying to learn. You see, the Aging life Care Professional first looks to the client and the client’s care team to make recommendations as to what kind of care is needed, and for how long. How to pay for that care is also considered, as well as who should be providing it. Communicating among professionals is a given, and keeping all in the loop is an expectation.
Because of the numbers of those aging, it is important that we get this right. In 2012 there were 39 million people over 65, and in 2014 there are 43 million, In fact, 10,000 people are turning 65 each day. Now, turning that magic age does not mean that care is immediately needed. In fact, most care is not needed until a person reaches 80. So, that means that, when the first boomers reach 80 in 2026, the onslaught for care will begin. Understanding what aging means in terms of frailty, functionality, and needs is at the heart of the aging life care profession.
Marketing has changed in the last several years, and, because of technology it is changing more. Marketing aging care is now, more than ever before, about being where someone seeking care is looking. And, furthermore, it is about having the right information when the person seeking care finds you.
And, since geriatric care management has been around since 1987 or so, and it is still confusing to many professionals, perhaps a name change is, indeed, in order. Perhaps an Aging life Care Professional is a more palatable name for someone who needs to be included in the care team. Whatever the name, the services and the business name must be communicated to a willing and receptive audience.
As the author of the marketing chapter in this important revised text book, my chapter covers:
· Marketing services to the aging population who need care
· Creating a solid marketing strategy that works for the person providing the service, and for their location and the mix of entities that are trying to find solutions
· Developing a strategic marketing plan
· Developing a brand that works in the new technology age
· Targeting marketing message to the right audience
· Setting aging care life professionals apart from the competition
· Using new technology and digital media as a core component to reach those who have a need
· Using education on issues related to aging to reach those in the first phase of the buying cycle
You do not have to wait and read the book, however. You can get some of that information now by just contacting us. If you are interested in having a team with in-depth aging care experience working with you or your business to better reach a senior care market, the experts at corecubed know how to do it. Just contact us and we will gladly assist you in better targeting your campaigns, branding your business for success, and communicating with those who make decisions.
The effect on home care by the Companionship Exemption Ruling is great
The home care industry has been actively fighting the Dept of Labor’s administrative ruling that prevented 3rd party employees (employees of agencies) to take advantage of the Companionship Exemption, a law that allows for payment taking into account the nature of the job, where a person is not actually working, but rather may be sleeping, or just “in attendance”. Copied below are two releases sent out last night, one by HCAOA and another by NAHC:
From the Home Care Association of America, “We are pleased to announce the federal U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia decision today in the case of the Home Care Association of America et al v David Weil, et al. Today’s decision grants the home care community’s motion for partial summary judgment and vacates the U.S. Department of Labor’s efforts to deny third-party employers access to the existing companion care exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). The Department’s rule, modifying the FLSA, was set to take effect on January 1, 2015. While a clear victory for the home care community, this decision does not vacate the entire regulation and does not resolve concerns with the Labor Department’s updated definition of companion care. In his decision, Judge Richard J. Leon states “Undaunted by the Supreme Court’s decision in Coke, and the utter lack of Congressional support to withdraw this exemption, the Department of Labor amazingly decided to try to do administratively what others had failed to achieve in either the Judiciary or the Congress.” Judge Leon further states “The language of the exemption provision is quite clear: ‘any employee’ who is employed to provide companionship services, or who resides in the household in which he or she is employed to perform domestic services, is covered by the exemption.” HCAOA and the home care community have long held the Labor Department’s regulatory actions in this area were outside the bounds of the law. Today’s decision provides hope to many who had feared they would no longer be able to afford home care services due to the Labor Department’s overreach. Please stay tuned for further information from HCAOA as we consider further steps and await response from the Department of Labor on this ruling relative to implementation on the remainder of the FLSA rule.
From the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, ” NAHC and all of the members of the home care community celebrated today when they learned that the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia struck down onerous new overtime rules promulgated by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL).
“What this means is that the rule, which would have taken affect January 1, 2015, will be set aside and that older Americans will once again enjoy access to personal care assistance in their own homes,” said Val J. Halamandaris, President of the National Association for Home Care & Hospice (NAHC), a plaintiff in the lawsuit. “This is a victory for elderly and disabled persons who rely on home care,” said Halamandaris.
The lawsuit challenged a rule that would prohibit the application of two overtime compensation exemptions: companionship services and live-in domestic services. It would have applied whenever caregivers were employed by anyone except the direct consumer of their services-90 percent of care would have been affected by the new overtime rule. This change would have created higher care costs that would have been borne by consumers and financially strapped government funding programs, such as Medicaid.
“This victory proves the value of industry unity,” said President Halamandaris. He commended the International Franchise Association and the Home Care Association of America who worked together with NAHC to file this suit against the U.S. Department of Labor. He also offered special praise for NAHC Vice President for Law, William A. Dombi, who managed and coordinated the litigation effort. “United, fighting on behalf of the elderly and disabled we cannot fail, divided, we cannot succeed,” said Halamandaris.
Halamandaris said that he and other members of the coalition are looking forward to the next phase of the lawsuit which will be designed to fully restore the companionship exemption which has survived in federal law for almost 50 years. A related goal is to make it possible for agencies to once again provide live-in care for those seniors who need it.”
This is a major victory for many home care agencies and those who receive care at home and comes at a time that allows for agencies to continue providing uninterrupted service to those who so need it.
It took a Facebook posting by an old high school friend to remind me what a full and exciting life I lead. You see, I have a passion for aging care and that passion takes me to some very interesting places and includes me in some futuristic planning meetings. The upshot of all this is a professional life that is action packed and that allows me unusual insight into where we are headed as we boomers age. The home care and health care world is struggling to figure out how to handle the onslaught of aging people that are soon to be not only on the horizon, but upon us, After all, we are in to the boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) era of turning that magical number of 65, and as the years move on, so do those aging boomers.
I’ll just cover a week in time, but, this week will showcase a trend for us as we age in place. First, the Saturday all day meeting with the University of Maryland, Baltimore Campus (UMBC) was a workshop on home health and hospice technology (H3IT). There are actually many folks that are focusing on how to leverage technology to assist in our aging dilemmas. And, not only telehealth or eHealth or telehomecare, but also communication, and standardized processes for interdisciplinary teams to keep the patient and his or her needs at the center of the care. Telehomecare (or whatever you want to call using devices, even smart phones, to communicate on care issues) are seen, not only as monitoring or data collection devices, but also as a way to extend the care. Currently care delivered at home is one-on-one care. Telehome care should allow less one-on-one care so that less staffing can accomplish what we do now with people. Less staffing, but not less caring is the idea. Extending the care through technology, communication with the patient and the care team, and intervening when necessary and appropriate. After all, it is the disparity in available caregivers and the need for them that poses the greatest risk for a focus on in-home care. This is a subject for a sales webinar today, if you are interested.
The issues of caring for frail folks at home seems simple. However, think of the workforce- it is distributed (not provided at one location like a hospital, but rather in a location that someone calls home), and it is largely unsupervised. The practicality of having the right person at the right time at the right place is hard enough without another person needed to supervise the sole care provider in the home. Technology can help. The location and time that care is delivered can be verified. The care given or provided can be monitored, and the tasks can be verified, with all accomplished remotely through current technology. Soon we may also have affordable video monitoring for all agencies to allow for sporadic checks on the tasks provided and some quality checks on the caring and kindness provided as well. After all, the way care is delivered should also be an integral part of the job.
What happens if the designated caregiver cannot get to the patient? Or if there is an emergency that keeps anyone from coming? Technology can at least proved some communication and assurance, and a check that meds are taken and food is consumed. Technology can also be used to monitor the effects of new meds or to check on a patient just home from the hospital or nursing home. Just having someone who knows what should be done for care and what events are outside the norm for that health situation will help a newly frail person to start regaining independence. Telehomecare can also provide some safety checks that may not be present currently.
Some of the issues with current technology systems stem from accumulating too much non-prioritized data. What is most important from a care standpoint oftentimes gets lost in the reimbursement and documentation regulations. Critical to care is determining what needs to be checked, with some alert for any changes in condition that would be an alarm for potential health or safety dangers. Right now we are trying to get every system talking to each other in the same terms, and until that happens there is little chance of getting meaningful, summarized data. We do need to decide on standards and adopt some common language that spans the clinical and the non-clinical.
The H3IT conference had attendees from Jordan, Ireland, Russia, Canada, and Mexico as well as almost every aging focused university in the country. It certainly is a great way to identify what is important in development of systems that will assist in our world’s efforts to solve some of our troubles before they become overwhelming. The side conversations at the breaks were almost as meaningful as the presentations and poster papers presented.
Monday brought a meeting at CHAP that also was focused on technology. How do we assist the agencies that seek to achieve quality and maintain it? How can we assist the surveyors tasked with pulling random records and assessing processes do their job better? Can the in- home technology be leveraged to expand on providing better patient care? Can we identify best practices by analyzing processes used by home health agencies that are at the top of the quality curve? What role does technology play in quality care, and how can that be proven? There are several accrediting bodies that service the in-home care industry, and quality is definitely one of the keys for future success. State regulations vary and there are few national regulations that govern in-home care, so the wise agency will focus on quality improvement and ways to maintain and improve quality with some way to verify that. Technology should play an important role in verifying that quality measures are, in face, in place.
For years the physicians were at the low end of adopting technology to do their job better. Now that EHR is a mandate for physicians, it is the home health agencies that are lagging. Many of the programs used by the larger established systems are legacy (programmed on old code) and not equipped to be as flexible as needed in today’s world of global interoperability. Early telehealth equipment is large, cumbersome, complicated and not very user friendly. Technology needs to be easy to use, integrated into the home environmental and easily converted to monitoring as needed. And, once again, a summary of important data is needed. All of that monitoring and all of that data collected is not important if it is not analyzed for actions. Is the patient out of normal functions for some readings? Has behavior changed? Have sleep or eating patterns changed? Has there been rapid weight gain or loss? And what does that all mean? Then, take this back to providing quality care and how can we assure that, with all this intervention and care at home that the patient is getting the best quality? Lots of unanswered questions, but good questions to create a path for success for the future.
On to a meeting at the FDA to showcase how GPS can be used to verify visits in home care. Because there are no diagnoses stemming from the information transmitted from the home to the office for electronic visit verifications (EVV), the EVV systems are not FDA regulated. However, they are very interested in the technology as a platform for the future. The API interfaces available and at the fingertips of the home care aide or nurse while in the home, opens up a whole new world for the patient in the home. Verifying that a visit takes place and having the patient sign off that the nurse or aide was there is just ones component of technology used in the home. Access to teaching guides in many languages makes the interaction meaningful if the patient needs to know how to treat a wound, or how to best exercise following a stroke. Access to resources for making life at home easier is available through technology. With the right technology, one can even order and schedule any equipment needed in the home.
Just entering into the FDA building was an adventure. It seems that Clinton made requirements for every federal building to be ultra secure following the Oklahoma disaster where access to a federal building was easy. Photo IDs were scanned, questions asked about the info on the ID and the collection of those visitor passes post visit assure that no one could represent anyone else, remain in the building undetected or enter with any weapon, pretty impressive system itself.
All in all, the action packed three days in the life of a home care futurist is not a typical three days. However, it does showcase the variety and interoperability needed for a successful future in home care. That future will have technology at its core, and quality as its mantra. I have to say thank you to my friends at AXXESS for allowing me the flexibility to travel to the important agency meetings and then to listen to my suggestions for how their technology can continue to be state of the art.
corecubed is a Healthcare Advertising Award Winner for 2014
Team corecubed wins the trifecta from the 2014 Aster Awards for the nation’s best healthcare advertising. We went for the gold and got it with a calendar designed for Lighthouse Healthcare. Each page has a lighthouse themed photo accompanied by some thoughts by which to live, making each day a wonderful day for the viewer. This year’s silver award for Home Health website was garnered for design and development of Regency Home Care’s new website. Regency serves northern Atlanta including Buckhead, Dunwoody, Marietta, Sandy Springs, Vinings, Alpharetta, and Roswell. Regency Home Care is also a member of corecubed’s unique turnkey home care marketing program, MOST, which helps with their SEO as well, since we update and post regularly with relevant industry information. Our sweet spot!
To round out the trifecta, we won another silver award for Independence-4-Seniors, a Chicago based home care agency run by a husband and wife team who have been with our MOST Program for many years, with their agency growing and outpacing the competition through a combination of excellent service provision coupled with incredible marketing. The silver award is for patient education in a series of tip sheets.
Winning awards really makes us feel proud of our team. However, the bigger award comes from the results that our clients get from working with us. We love partnering with home care agencies to bring marketing, branding, and strategy expertise in a partnership relationship. Our best clients (and these three for whom we won awards, fall into that category) work in tandem with us to create marketing campaigns and ongoing touches that deliver results. And, what results are we delivering? Lead generation from the website and direct mail, reputation building and brand extension through community presentations, and personalized communication so each inquiry feels special and knows that the home care agency understands what issues are important for that inquiry for his or her loved one or client.
Check out the MOST Program, if you have not, and see if it would work for your agency. There simply is no other marketing solution that is specific to home care, utilizes the best strategy and gives your agency a partner who understands the industry and can deliver results.
