Tag Archive for: Laura Mitchell Consulting

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 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.

Screen Shot 2016-04-25 at 11.20.26 AMBeep. Beep. Beep. A page loudly rings through to four of the CNAs on staff at Greenwood Senior Homes. There’s a call on level two of the west wing. Help requested immediately. That’s the end of the communication. At this point, none of the caregivers know how urgent the situation is, any helpful details and most importantly whether all or none of them will actually respond to the call.

The most troubling issue with outdated pager systems is that everyone receiving the page might think: “I’m busy and far away. I’m sure someone else will get it.”

This is clearly a problem that can be resolved with better mobile technology like RCare Mobile.

“Senior housing facilities are still using pager systems, and we’ve seen up close how frustrated their staffs have become, especially with the lack of accountability,” said Myron Kowal, RCare’s CEO and founder. “Pagers don’t convey much information about a potentially urgent problem, and don’t allow for two-way communication. Where is the problem? What should I bring? How urgent is it? Who is accountable for it?”

Caregiving staff have admitted to this frustration and have adopted a work-around strategy of  resorting to their own personal smart devices to enable the two-way communication they need when responding to calls. This poses several HIPAA-related problems including a breach to facility security and patient privacy. It also poses an unwelcome distraction in the form of personal communications and the access to various social channels in a busy care environment.

“We knew there needed to be a better solution that was faster and easier to handle, that enabled professional messaging, but didn’t allow access to personal social media. We created a HIPAA-compliant mobile platform called RCare Mobile, for nursing staff to securely and quickly communicate and respond in real time to real issues, really fast.”

RCare Mobile uses smartphone-like handsets through which caregivers receive alerts as well as detailed resident information and location. They allow voice and text communications with other staff including the I Got It button, letting other staff know who is responding to the call.

Learn more about how RCare MobileTM can empower your Caregivers. https://rcareinc.com/products/rcare-mobile/.

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.

Long term care and senior housing communities around the world are finding their archaic pager systems to be ineffective and outdated. They’re coming to RCare Mobile™ for the two-way communication, and the “I Got It” accountability feature.

When healthcare professionals communicate about life and death emergencies, they need more than just a beep and a phone number. They need to know who is having the emergency, and what kind of emergency it is. They need to know where it is, what is needed, and who is responding. They need to know how urgent the matter is. Should they drop everything and run, or can they finish with their current patient first? And they need to know right away. That’s why it’s time for pagers to pack it in. Hit the road. Make way for more effective technology. Make way for RCare Mobile’s accountability.

Disgruntled nurses across the country are sending video footage of their hilarious disposals of the old tech. Check out the footage from the front…

But I know some of you are worried. When the war has been won, and health facilities are communicating with technology from this decade, what is to become of all those old pagers? If you’re like my grandparents, you’re thinking, those thingamajigees still have some good in them.

As the official RCare MobileTM War on Pagers wages on, RCare wants to help you figure out some good uses for these previously unusable items. There’s no need for them to go to waste. We’ve come up with 15 new and innovative uses for your old pagers. (Note that none of the new uses involve taking care of patients and residents or communicating with staff. That’s better left to RCare MobileTM.) Enjoy new ways to use your 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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RCare is taking to the road for the next few weeks,  introducing the Pretty Pretty Pendant at trade show and conferences around the country.  Looking for us? Check out LeadingAge Illinois, and ISC West.

About LeadingAge Illinois

LeadingAge IL Annual Meeting & Exhibition offers a premier forum to showcase products and services to an elite group of members that are interested in finding the most innovative solutions for their communities.  

Location:  Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center & Hotel, 1551 Thoreau Drive, Schaumburg, IL 60173

Dates:  April 5 – 7, 2016

Time:  Sessions begin at 7:30 a.m. on April 5 and conclude at 12:00 p.m.on April 7.

About ISC West

ISC West is the largest security industry trade show in the U.S. Meet with technical reps from 1,000+ exhibitors and brands in the security industry and network with over 28,000 security professionals.

Location: Sands Expo Center, 201 East Sands Avenue, Las Vegas, NV 89109

Dates: April 5-7, 2016

Time: Sessions begin at 8:30 a.m. on April 5 and conclude at 4:30 p.m.on April 7.

Will we see you at any of these conferences? Tweet us at @ResponseCare and let us know! For more information on RCare, please visit www.rcareinc.com or email info@rcareinc.com.

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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