Tag Archive for: Digital Caregiving

With each passing year, technology is playing a more significant role in improving and enhancing the lives of our aging population. Not only do these devices combat isolation and depression by increasing communication, they also enable loved ones to regain their independence. At RCare, we believe in holistic senior empowerment, and we feel technology plays a critical role. We have come up with four vital segments of technology to provide seniors with the most bang for their buck.

  • Wireless Internet Access

Wireless Internet (or WiFi) has arguably become as essential to any  american household as running water or electricity. Everything can be accessed online or through a smartphone “app”, eliminating the need for a stationary personal computer at all.  Many family and friend communications, photo sharing and information exchanges happen on websites and social media networks.   Not to mention, many remote monitoring and alert services (think alarm, security and pendants) rely on WiFi connectivity. Without wireless Internet access, our senior population may feel disconnected and disengaged with the world around them.

  • Socialization Platforms, Smartphones & Tablets

Now that we’ve done away with the traditional stationary computer, adding a tablet, simplified communication device or smartphone into the residence of a senior is a great way to reconnect. Seniors can listen to music, read books, play cards, view photos, track their health, and even play games to promote brain health.  Choices range from your typical iPad/Samsung tablet manufacturers to devices specifically targeted to connect and engage seniors with their family and caregivers (e.g. www.grandcare.com)  Wow!

  • Wireless Remote Monitoring

For seniors wishing to secure more independence, wireless remote monitoring and crisis management systems like RCare can really save lives. Technologies ranging from motion detectors to door sensors to push pendants can monitor the activity patterns for signs of an emergency, without violating privacy.

  • G4 Advanced Locating Protocol

For a patient who may have wandering tendencies or memory loss, wearing a advanced location pendant and push button can be essential. While other systems may only give caregivers a general idea of a pushed pendant location, RCare allows care facilities to pinpoint nearly the exact location, and in a fraction of the time.

Want to learn more about the technology options available for Senior Housing? Contact us to learn more about what we do, or read through our FAQs and client testimonials.

RCare giving thanks

It’s Thanksgiving, and we’re counting our blessings. What are we thankful for? We are thankful for you.

We are thankful for caregivers, and we are thankful for everyone who helps and supports you, so you can do your important work. Why? Because we have family and friends who rely on you. We have parents, grandparents, and other loved ones who depend on your every day. And one day–just like everyone else–we will need you, too. We’re grateful that you’re here, that you’re doing what you do best, and that we know we can count on you to be there for us, now and in the future.

There is no higher calling than caring for others in need. It’s why we strive so hard to serve you, to make your work easier and more effective. And by “you” we don’t mean only the people who show up in mom’s room if she pushes her nurse call button. We mean all of the people who are necessary to make senior living communities work. From executives to food service to facility managers, we thank you.

When we designed RCare wireless nurse call systems, we were thinking about all of you. We were thinking about caregivers, who get good information and great communications. We were thinking about decision-makers, who get top-notch reporting, and the information they need to make the best decisions. We were thinking about facility managers, who need to keep the place running, and running safely. At RCare we know that everyone in your community plays a part in it’s success. Our job is to make each and every person in your community successful.

And we’re thankful that you entrust us to do so. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.

Happy Labor Day from RCare

“The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary.” – Vince Lombardi

For most families in the U.S., Labor Day symbolizes the end of summer. We celebrate with barbecues, parades, picnics with our families, and we maybe even squeeze in one last summer vacation. But do we take the time to appreciate why we have this holiday, and what we’re truly celebrating?

Labor Day was created in late 1800s to pay tribute to American workers. It became an official federal holiday in 1894, to honor working people, their achievements, and the contributions they make to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of the country.

So, as you celebrate this Labor Day, as you enjoy the last 3-day weekend of summer, RCare invites you to reflect with us on the daily contributions of the many workers who care for our elderly, our disabled, and our sick population. We’re truly appreciative of the amazing work these compassionate and hard-working people do for the weakest, and most vulnerable of our citizens. We rely on these workers to heal, support, care, and yes, clean up, as they go about the messy, challenging, rewarding, and difficult work that comes with any kind of caregiving.

RCare exists because we’re passionate about helping long-term care communities. Our mission is to empower these caregiving staff members. We know their frustrations, and we’ve created tools to help make their work more efficient, more effective, and a little bit easier. We want to help, as they strive to make their communities a better place to live, to visit, and to work. We do this by helping caregivers feel connected to each other, connected to residents and connected to management. RCare empowers professional caregivers to make better decisions and allow them to track success. We know why caregivers go to work every day and it’s to offer the best quality of care possible. RCare strives to assist in that mission.

This Labor Day while we enjoy the company of our friends, neighbors and family members, let’s remember to give praise to our nation’s workers. And join RCare in giving an extra dose of appreciation to our nation’s hard-working caregivers, to the health professionals in the trenches, giving the day-to-day care, to their hardworking administrators, and to all of those unpaid family caregivers who devote endless time and dedication for their loved ones.

We appreciate you and we thank you!
Happy Labor Day!

RCare was delighted to be highlighted and called out for their advanced location protocol featured in a recent Nurse Call System research report by Grand View Research, a San Francisco-based market research and consulting firm.  

RCare Mobile's "I got it" feature on ensures caregiver accountability and lets multiple caregivers know who will be responding to any given alert.

RCare Mobile’s “I got it” feature on ensures caregiver accountability and lets multiple caregivers know who will be responding to any given alert.

Nurse Call System Market Worth $1.8 Billion By 2022: Grand View Research, Inc.

This study found that the global nurse call market is expected to reach 1.8 Billion USD by 2022. This number will be driven by reimbursement coverage reductions, hospital readmission penalties and the increased expectation for digital health in long term care.

RCare is a market leader with a global footprint throughout the United States, Europe and most recently in Asia with their latest Malaysian distribution partner.

The report singles out RCare for its innovative “I Got it” feature on the RCare Mobile and the Advanced Location Protocol (available for senior housing communities in the United States).

Wireless communication equipment is expected to witness rapid growth. With the increasing healthcare complexities, the need for integrated nurse call systems and electronic health records is driving the industry players to launch advanced solutions. InNovember 2015, RCare launched its G4 technology with Advanced Location Protocol (ALP) for senior living facilities. The “I Got It” button provides a state-of-the-art solution to allow staff to pinpoint locations with the aid of RCare pendant.”

Read the entire release

Screen Shot 2016-04-27 at 5.34.15 PMSomeone in your senior housing community needs help and triggers your nurse call system. Pagers go off, telling your staff that assistance is needed.

Did you spot the problem? It’s not enough for the CNAs to know who needs help. They still don’t know what the situation is. Nor do they know which of them is to respond to the call.  When you replace your pagers with RCare Mobile™, caregivers are empowered with information: the caller’s name, photo, location, important medical facts, even personal preferences. And they can know which of them is responding.

Not only is your CNA going to show up with the right resources and equipment with no duplication of effort, the quality of contact is transformed. Receiving assistance from someone who not only knows you by name, but also knows that your grandson got married recently, makes a real difference. That difference will be reflected on your resident satisfaction surveys.

Information empowerment isn’t just for CNAs. Community managers and directors of nursing will know a whole lot more with RCare Mobile, too. Which caregiver responded? How long did it take? How long were they there? Which services were provided? Detailed reporting leads to new insights, helping you better manage staff and increase efficiency community-wide.

There’s never been a better time to ditch your pager system. RCare: winning the #WarOnPagers, one community at a time.

Pretty Pretty Pendants are back in stock, order yours today!

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We know seniors can sometimes resist having to wear those bulky, ugly PERS pendants.

This led us to pose the question, “why do pendants have to be ugly?” Turns out, they don’t! It isn’t an actual requirement. (We checked).

Our Pretty Pretty Pendants have been a Pretty HUGE success!  Needless to say, we’re Pretty excited.

While we knew at least some seniors and senior living facilities would be interested in our new Pretty Pretty Pendants, we didn’t realize just how interested they would be and we sold out immediately. Don’t worry, we made more! We now have our Pretty Pretty Pendants back in stock and they are already going pretty fast!

Don’t wait, contact us to get yours now. Please visit https://rcareinc.com/contact/.

Screen Shot 2016-04-22 at 11.30.17 AMThey said Beauty lies within.

We say Flaunt it!  

They say Liberty is within us.

We say Wear it proudly on your chest!

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Shouting “Call 9-1-1” to a crowd of onlookers in a medical emergency doesn’t work. Instead, it’s better to identify a specific individual to make the call. Why? Because if you don’t, the call might not get made. Scientists call this the “bystander effect” or the diffusion of responsibility. When everybody is responsible, no one is accountable.

This is one of several reasons why pager systems are inadequate for senior housing communities. When a resident needs help, every pager goes off. Who’s accountable for responding to that call? No one knows.

With RCare Mobile, accountability is guaranteed. When the call for help goes out, the nearest available staff member responds using the “I Got It” feature to let other staff know that they are handling it. Now you know who is accountable, every time.

Find out more about RCare Mobile and RCare’s War on Pagers.

Why privacy matters with the latest and greatest nurse call systems.

RCare with shadow

Our customers know RCare as the industry leaders, the head innovators. Usually that means a helpful new technology, a new thing that goes beep. Not this time. Today we’re leading the industry in an entirely new way: privacy.

We realize that this might raise a few industry eyebrows. But nurse call systems are no longer the simple, one-dimensional products of 20 years ago. The ever-increasing need for interoperability and integration with EMR and population health systems necessitates a more secure approach. And while all that new functionality helps deliver better care, it also demands additional responsibilities from companies like ours. That’s why we at RCare have decided it’s critical to ensure that all our solutions are HIPAA-compliant.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) regulates, among other things, the use and disclosure of protected health information. That is, it establishes guidelines for keeping private medical data private.  It’s an important issue for our customers and so it’s important to us, too.

Turns out that becoming HIPAA-compliant isn’t a small thing. In fact, people familiar with our plan often asked us why we were even bothering, since none of our competitors seem to be doing it. The answer is that we want to be proactive, to get out in front of these issues. Taking a “wait and see what happens” position struck us as an irresponsible approach to privacy and security. We know where the industry is going. We know because we’re taking it there ourselves. So why wait until a crisis occurs? Why wait until someone’s medical data is not safe and private? We think now’s the time to address HIPAA compliance.

Our customer facilities already know all about HIPAA, but to make sure RCare matches their level of compliance we had to take a careful look at a lot of different areas, from the way we design our products to our own internal practices. We now have policies on how to secure client data, like making sure protected information is encrypted at every stage of use. We have performed risk analysis and mitigation. We have rigorous policies about breach notifications, so our customers will always know exactly what is going on with their data. On top of all this we have done extensive training to make sure that everyone at RCare understands these policies and practices–including how important they are.

Going forward we want all our customers to know that even as their care models are being enhanced through our newest and most innovative features, their privacy and security are guaranteed.

You’ve always known that RCare’s got the most advanced nurse call solutions. Now you know that RCare’s also got your back.

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Response Care, Inc. (A.K.A. RCare), is honored to announce they have been awarded the Rochester Business Journal’s 2016 Health Care Achievement Award Honorees in the Health Care Innovation category.

The Rochester Business Journal chose 21 individuals and two organizations (RCare being one) for its 14th consecutive year of awards celebrating the impact of healthcare innovation in the Rochester community.  The Health Care Achievement Awards recognize excellence, promote innovation and honor the efforts of individuals and organizations who are making a significant impact on the quality of health care in Rochester. The awards honor the best that Rochester has to offer.

RCare’s Myron Kowal, a veteran attendee of this exclusive awards ceremony, was delighted to learn his organization had been selected.

“I have been attending this ceremony for years and am delighted that I will be able to be on stage with some inspiring innovators in the Rochester area,” said RCare CEO, Myron Kowal. “I am proud of the RCare Innovative team for honing and releasing the latest in Nurse Call technology, the G4 Advanced Locating Protocol. This new, ground-breaking technology is ultimately what secured us the award.”

Since 2006, RCare has been devoted to improving the lives of elders around the world. Beginning in the Rochester, New York area, RCare continues to flourish and now serves facilities throughout the United States, Canada and most recently into Europe.

The honorees in all categories will be featured in the Health Care supplement in the Rochester Business Journal.

For more information on RCare, please visit www.rcareinc.com or email info@rcareinc.com

G4-ALP

Recently, rumors have been circulating that the newest version of the iPhone is set to debut save one crucial feature–the headphone port. Created in the early part of the nineteenth century, this audio connector was popularized when telephone switchboards were still widely used.

A staple feature of nearly every MP3 player, stereo system, and phone, if removed, all non-bluetooth headphones and speaker systems will become obsolete. We see this trend with other Apple devices as well with each new Macbook being released with a brand new charger.

Isn’t it frustrating when companies make changes that aren’t backward compatible? It leaves the customer holding the bag, expected to throw away previously purchased hardware and re-purchase new hardware. It doesn’t seem very customer-centric, which doesn’t sit well with us here at RCare.  We design our product with the caregiver and customer in mind. We want to create the most seamless and easiest tech transitions. As always, we will continue to grow and innovate, adding on new technology features to make our system even more comprehensive.

But, here’s the good news: you don’t ever have to worry that we will leave any of our valued customers holding the bag.  That’s why we made sure that RCare’s new G4 Advanced Locating Protocol works with all existing RCare transmitters. When we upgrade our systems, we take that extra step to ensure that our new technology works with our old technology. It’s that simple. 

Interested in joining our satisfied senior housing customers and become part of the RCare family? See a video testimonial about how a Wisconsin customer successfully improved the way they provide care for their residents using RCare.

Contact us or visit us at rcareinc.com.