Tag Archive for: Myron Kowal

Wander Management

Need wander management?  

We got wander management!  RCare is pleased to announce an integration with Accutech Security’s LS2400 wander management system.

wander managementAccutech’s solution is a low-cost wander system that provides resident ID, loiter and door-ajar monitoring, low tag battery as well as several other alerts without the need for a computer. It can provide resident ID and reporting capabilities at the door or nurses station with the optional touch-screen LCD display.  And now with the introduction of RCare integration, it is possible for communities to experience these capabilities directly from a browser or on their RCare Mobile nurse call handsets.

Long term care facilities can have multiple technology needs, but nobody wants to adopt three or four different solutions to address them all.  Technologies that work together, work the best.  Now your wander management can talk to your RCare nurse call system.

We think that’s the way it should be.

RCare’s Top 4 Tech Must-Haves for Seniors

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.

Celebrating American Heart Month

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RCare donates to American Heart Association for American Heart Month

It’s Valentine’s Day, a special day for celebrating love and romance. And with it comes the pink and red heart decorations, candies, and chocolate treats. A heart is symbol of passion, kindness and love. It’s a great way for us to show people that we care about them.

But maybe we should really be taking this more “to heart.”

This Valentine’s Day is a great opportunity to think more seriously about heart health. According to the American Heart Association, about 92.1 million American adults are living with some form of cardiovascular disease or the after-effects of stroke. Chances are, heart health will become important to someone close to you at some point in their life. That’s why February has been designated as American Heart Month.

Here at RCare we’re always looking for ways to provide better care for people as a whole, their hearts included. As a way of showing our love, and in honor of American Heart Month, we have pledged 5% of all February profits up to $25,000 to the American Heart Association. This donation will help the AHA carry out its mission of reducing heart disease and heart-related deaths through research, training, and advocacy.

“Heart disease and stroke remain the number one and number three causes of death in our community. That is why it’s so important Rochesterians unite during Heart Month and become part of the American Heart Association’s movement to live longer, healthier lives,” said Jason Stulb, Senior Director of Development for the American Heart Association. “We are very excited to have RCare helping us lead the way this year. It’s a huge step toward a heart healthy Rochester, and the funds they raise truly help our community.”

During this month of celebrating love, let’s keep the hearts of our friends and family in mind. As our CEO, Myron Kowal heartily states, “We are enthusiastic to support the American Heart Association this month. Their fight is our fight and we’re all in this together.”

RCare Showcases Revolutionary BCube at Environments for Aging Conference

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RCare showcases BCube at Environments for Aging Conference

Environments for Aging ConferenceCome see RCare’s CEO Myron Kowal at the Environments for Aging Conference in sunny Las Vegas, showing off all of our latest products and features.

EFA Event Location
Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas
Feb 26 – Mar 1, 2017

Drop by Booth 511
Tues Feb 28: 11:45am – 2:30pm and 5:00pm – 7:00pm
Wed, Mar 1: 9:45am – 1:00pm

Want to arrange a private demo?
Contact us at info@rcareinc.com.

The Environments for Aging Expo & Conference offers the latest strategies and ideas for creating functional and attractive living environments that meet the needs of our aging population. During this comprehensive three-day learning experience, attendees will network with peers while learning the latest innovations and best practices in senior friendly design for long-term and residential care settings.

In addition to RCare’s flagship RCube advanced nurse call solution, RCare is excited to introduce our newest BCube solution, designed, scaled and priced for small senior housing communities. All of the rich monitoring, communication and reporting features of the RCare products, at a fraction of the price. RCare will also be showcasing our Pretty Pretty Pendants and Patriot Pendants. Designed for beauty, sleekness and wearability.

#RCare #BCube #BestLittleNurseCall #EFACon

RCare Invited to Exclusive LTC/CXO Summit in Pasadena

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Best Little Nurse Call System

LTC/CXO Summit interviews Myron KowalRCare is delighted to be selected as a solution provider for the revolutionary LTC/CXO summit, an invitation-only forum for senior level executives and solution providers.

RCare CEO Myron Kowal featured on an interview by LTC/CXO:
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We’ve got some BIG news to announce at the LTC and Senior Living CXO Summit (LTC/CXO) in Pasadena. We will be introducing our all new, revolutionary BCube platform designed specifically for small campuses. Using all of the BIG monitoring, sensing and reporting features of RCare, the BCube is a more cost-effective, efficient and scaled design.

What makes the BCube so exciting?

It’s a big-featured nurse call system scaled and priced for small communities. Advanced wireless nurse call systems like RCare Mobile are comprehensive and robust, designed (and priced) for large skilled nursing and assisted living communities. With their smaller budgets, we’ve seen that smaller communities are often priced out of the market for the new technologies that make caregiving safer for the resident, and more efficient for the staff. So we went back to the design table and came up with a way to give you the great features of our bigger nurse call systems, at a smaller price. All of the big capabilities, without the big price tag.

What else is new at LTC/CXO? We’ll be sharing our revolutionary new technologies that make RCare the leading advanced nurse call system across the world. We will talk about our recent integrations with EMR giant PointClickCare, wander management leader Accutech and telehealth and socialization platform GrandCare Systems. We’ll be showcasing our custom-made, HIPAA-compliant RPhone handsets powered by RCare Mobile to ensure communications are fast, descriptive and secure. We are also showing off our new sleek Pretty Pretty and Patriot Pendants. These beautiful accessories are designed for ultimate functionality with elegant style.

LTC/CXO is being held February 9-10, 2017, at The Langham Huntington in Pasadena, CA.

LTC/CXO Summit

RCare is leading the advanced nurse call movement across the globe with professional installation, support teams throughout the United States, and distribution partnerships in Canada, Europe and most recently in Asia. Contact us: info@rcareinc.com to locate your local RCare representative.

RCare Mobile is Highlighted in National Nurse Call Research Report

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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…

RCare Mobile’s Secure 2-Way Communication

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 Now Back In Stock!

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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!

RCare War on Pagers: If Everybody Is Responsible, No One Is Accountable

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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.

Death to Pagers: 15 Uses for Obsolete Pagers (#8 Will Shock You!)

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.