Great Tech Ideas For Long Distance Care Providers

July 22, 2021

Technology for the Long-Distance Family

Remote Technology to Help Long distance Care Providers

Remote technology like wearables, robotics, videoconferencing,are what an ALCA member or geriatric care manager need always and a way to navigate long distance clients to good choices for aging parents at a distance. Laurie Orlov’s blog, a fellow Geriatric Care Manager now very well known in the field of aging for her expertise in aging technology. This is what Orlov has to say about long-distance technology post pandemic. She can help with robotics , wearables such as smart watches and hearing aides . When these long distance care providers call you you might suggest one of the high-tech items expert Lori Orlov suggests a part of an older family member’s life. This is especially during the post pandemic when many restrictions are actually now coming back with the spread of the Delta variant among the unvaccinated.

These gero-technologies can help an older parent or relative shelter safely in place, avoid loneliness and isolation through connecting with others, age in place, and improve communicating with loved ones.

Videoconferencing

Videoconferencing is a great way to keep elderly parents connected and less lonely and isolated. It can also be a good tool for adult siblings who live apart to have chats or meetings about Mom or Dad. Free programs like Skype or another parent-friendly plus easy choice Facetime and the built-in webcams on many computers, make this easy on elders. Zoom has become the number one way that families communicate, during the pandemic. . For the holidays, birthdays or even a crisis, it is how we virtually gather now and has a free version.

Amazon Echo Show uses Alexa, by activating Amazon’s voice and can make calls to adult children or anyone, making it easy for seniors to talk to anyone including family. An older standard telephone conference service is still highly rated and still free, as well. Freeconferencecall.com

Med Dispensers

Here is a review of several med dispensers on the market

A device that is very appropriate for elders who have medication abuse problems is Hero Electronic Pill Dispenser

Alexa has a new pill reminder feature

A more modest choice is Electronic Pill Box with Flasing Reminders

Caregiver Video Cameras

Cameras like Google Nest can monitor an individual’s activities of daily living and provide caregivers with direct video feed on a smartphone, tablet app, or the Web to check on the status of a family member.

Monitoring sensors

Wireless systems. Cameras can be viewed remotely from a smartphone or computer. You may be able to get video motion alerts and the ability to pan and zoom

GCM Laurie Orlov at Aging Tech suggests many new 2020 sensor programs among them. Caregiver Smart Solutions

Canary Care. lets you place wireless sensors around the house to monitor the activity of an elderly parent who is declining, while the family is long distance. The information is sent to your Canary Care portal. The sensors are battery powered and the hub uses mobile data to send the information, so no need for a landline or broadband.

TruSense – can alert long distance or even local adult children if a probable fall occurs. An alert is triggered when TruSense detects that your loved one has not moved from high-risk fall areas (such as a stairwell or restroom) in an unusually long time. Other alerts include doors where the older person could wander.

Other Sensor Products

Sensor products can check a number of items within a house: motion patterns, stove on/off status, carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide levels, air quality, and presence of smoke or fire. They can also lock doors and control other items in the home remotely.

Daily activity monitoring. Activity sensors can be placed on the refrigerator, stove, door, and other objects around the home. Your relative may also wear a watch that monitors activity. You can allow caregivers and physicians to access the data. Set up notifications to be delivered by e-mail, text, or mobile app.: Live!y is a good choice

GCM Technology Guide

Technology moves in nano-seconds and changes almost as fast. Give clients and their families the updated information. For a totally overhauled technology chapter,” Technologies That Support Aging in Place “, by GCM Julie Menack and Berkeley’s head of the Center for Aging and Technology, David Lindeman Ph.D. Get the new Handbook of Geriatric Care Management 4th edition

Join me in my newest FREE Webinar August 25th

6 Smart TECH Solutions to Wire Your Care Management Business for Profit

WHEN Wednesday, August 25^th, 2021

WHAT TIME_2 PM-3:30 PM Pacific Standard Time

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Presented by Cathy Cress MSW – Handbook of Geriatric Care Management

We will Cover

Critical software programs that make care management information flow

with 1-1 interviews with CEO’s of 3 major care management software platforms Caretree ,IHealth Home My Junna,

What you need in a website

Why you need content marketing

With interview with Natasha Beauchamp who develops both websites and content marketing forALCA members

What are easy-to-use social media sites

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Critical Success for Start Up in Aging Care Management – Serve Top 10%

July 16, 2021

Why Top 10% Are Your Best Aging Life Customers?

Your customers need to be in the top 10% economically and here’s why. That is how you will make money, stay solvent and thrive.Aging clients in the top economic bracket can afford you and the lower 10% cannot. To start a Geriatric Care Management business PLUS to write a major section of your GCM business plan, you must describe the customers you intend to serve -your market assessment or opportunity. That tells you and investors whether you will have enough customers to make money. The Concierge Client who is in the top 10% financially is the client you put in your business plan. Start your business plan and your intention to make money, with a definition of your ideal client. Example: Woman, 85 years old with chronic care needs who has an income or liquid assets of $500,000 or more.

Upper 10% Customer Needs to be Your Mission and Intention- Why

The why is that Medicare does not pay for geriatric care management or what comes long term 24 hour care .The average cost of home care is 4-6K A MONTH Only the wealthy can afford that , so they must be your ideal customer.

This cold financial fact has to be in your mission statement and deeply imbedded in your mind. So, make this your ” intention” because you are running a business whose very blood is cash flow.You have to have the cash from billing to pay your monthly bills. Without the profit motive and profit, your new business stands a major chance of failure and bankruptcy.

Ideal Clients and Third-Parties You Need for Success

How many of these ideal clients are in the area you wish to serve? You need to do an analysis of the age and income levels- income over 10%. Generally, geriatric care management customers are over age 85 or are disabled younger people with incomes in the range of the top 10% in your community. One gateway to your customers is the local overstressed adult children of clients, long-distance caregivers with family members who need help and live in your community, Another door is third parties, such as trust officers,elder -law attorneys, conservators, or guardians, who refer you to their elderly clients or adult children, as a trusted GCM’s,

If You Want To Start an Aging Life or Geriatric Care Management Business you need to know you can make money before you start.

You need to do market research to define the size of the market in the area where your business will be located (e.g., how many people over age 85 live in Modesto, California, how many third-party target markets such as trust departments are in the town?). This type of demographic information may be available from U.S. Census Bureau reports local Area Agencies on Aging, local chambers of commerce, local hospitals, and even members of the local media who have done their own surveys. You can use the Internet to retrieve U.S. Census data in your area, and in addition, you can Google your State Department of Aging, find your local Department of Aging, and then find all senior services that may have data on older people in your area.

You Need To Understand Billing and Cash Flow for Geriatric Care Management Success

You also need to know about billing and cash flow. You might be making good money as a small business but if your cash flow is not coming in to pay your bills and staff, you stand a new chance of failure. Care managers who are most often social workers and nurses, often have an ethical dilemma with billing and are filled with guilt. That guilt keeps them from billing every hour and leaving time billed off their timesheet to help a client. This leaves them mortally wounding their business and their bottom line over the short term – not being able to pay their bills and themselves each month. If this continues long term- the GCM is faced finally,like a slowly dying tree in a drought , death by bankruptcy.

Check out my Online GCM Business Class which includes 10 modules on starting your GCM Business including two modules on financial management , billing and financial forecasting so you do not go under and lose your dream start-up

LEARN MORE ABOUT LEARNING GCM BUSINESS SKILLS WITHOUT GETTING AN MBA
Check out our affordable price or choose a monthly payment plan

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Skills you will learn in My GCM Business Class

GCM ALCA billing skills to develop a billing system that allows you to bill 85% of your time, control your cash flow, invoice promptly to make a profit
GCM financial forecasting skills to develop a 3-year financial forecast Excel spreadsheet to track your basic profit and expenses and to track the number of clients and billable hours needed to break even make a profit, pay back loans, hire new staff, and take a salary yourself
GCM organizational design skills to create your business flow chart and job descriptions, and outline how power flows down your staff to deliver gold standard care to clients
GCM marketing survey skills to pinpoint your area’s upper 10% clients and 3rd-party referrals to market, to make your business profitable
GCM competitive analysis skills to set the fee per hour your market will bear for your services and to gather information from each, to position your services vs your competition’s so clients will choose you
GCM timeline skills to identify and list (in a manageable, doable order), major tasks to complete before you open your business
GCM business planning skills to write a 13-part business plan to create a blueprint of measurable goals for your business’s financial success
GCM marketing skills to create a marketing plan to develop lead sources, conduct leadgeneration, launch social media and conduct content marketing to gain new customers
GCM sales skills to position your agency to sell your menu of services
through benefits to 3rd parties and clients through cold calling, 1-1 sales meetings, and inquiries, by knowing how to close the sale and sign the contract
- LEARN MORE ABOUT LEARNING GCM BUSINESS SKILLS WITHOUT GETTING AN MBA
- Check out our affordable price or choose a monthly payment plan
Find out More

Do You Need To Learn Business Skills to Start a Geriatric Care Management Business?

July 7, 2021

What Business Skills Do You Have To Start A Geriatric Care Management Agency?

Starting a Geriatric Care Management Agency does not take simply clinical skills but also business skills. Only 3% of geriatric care managers now have business skills because most are in the health field, nurses, and social workers. So it takes business skills you would get in an MBA to start of GCM business. What are those skills and how do you get them without an MBA?

GCM ALCA billing skills to develop a billing system that allows you to bill 85% of your time, control your cash flow, invoice promptly to make a profit
GCM financial forecasting skills to develop a 3-year financial forecast Excel spreadsheet to track your basic profit and expenses and to track the number of clients and billable hours needed to break even make a profit, pay back loans, hire new staff, and take a salary yourself
GCM organizational design skills to create your business flow chart and job descriptions, and outline how power flows down your staff to deliver gold standard care to clients
GCM marketing survey skills to pinpoint your area’s upper 10% clients and 3rd-party referrals to market, to make your business profitable
GCM competitive analysis skills to set the fee per hour your market will bear for your services and to gather information from each, to position your services vs your competition’s so clients will choose you
GCM timeline skills to identify and list (in a manageable, doable order), majortasks to complete before you open your business
GCM business planning skills to write a 13-part business plan to create a blueprint of measurable goals for your business’s financial success
GCM marketing skills to create a marketing plan to develop lead sources, conduct lead generation, launch social media and conduct content marketing to gain new customers
GCM sales skills
position your agency to sell your menu of services benefits to 3rd parties and clients through cold calling, 1-1 sales meetings, and inquiries, by knowing how to close the sale and sign the contrac

If you do not have all or some of these skills, check out my Online GCM Business Class which includes 10 modules teaching you all these business skills to start your GCM Business including two modules critical financial management so you do not go under and lose your dream start-up

Find Out More

CHECK OUT OUR GCM BUSINESS CLASS

6 Reasons You Will Benefit from a Geriatric Care Management Operations Manual

June 7, 2021

A Geriatric Care Management Operations Manual is absolutely essential. Watch this video to learn why a manual can boost your geriatric business, grow your marketing outreach, and support staff development!

Find Out More: My Geriatric Care Management Operations Manual

An Operations Manual needs to be comprehensive, useful, with all your services or products and procedures to deliver them. Here are 6 reasons why your business needs it.

The entrepreneur geriatric care owner’s brain is the system. Without the owner, the business has little or no value unless you have made a very large profit. What makes your business more valuable and sellable is to have well-designed, well-documented systems that almost anyone can operate successfully. Think of Starbucks or Macdonald’s who invented the operations manual and grew worldwide. The more your business looks like this, the less dependent it will be on the owner, and the more asset value your business will have.

1. An operations manual will develop a “gold standard” throughout the growth of your business.

Most entrepreneur business owners start their businesses because they believe that they can do a superior job at what they do. Their intent from the beginning is excellent products and/or customer service. However, as a business grows and new employees are added to the mix, the quality often diminishes. If the owner gives a customer one experience but the employees give that same customer a bad experience, it lowers the customer’s opinion of the business. A written operations manual will help give you and your team the discipline to do what it takes to maintain excellence as the business grows especially when the business is caring for someone’s mother.

2. An operations manual is the best tool for training new employees.

Unfortunately, most entrepreneur business owners do not have a strong process for training new employees. They typically walk them around the place of business showing them where everything is. They then tell them what they need to do and then expect that new employee to intuitively do what they were told with excellence. Often the new employee is a disappointment to the owner.

If there is a manager responsible for the orientation and training of the new employee the results can be even worse. A well-written operations manual will set the standard for performance. It will also give detailed procedures (how-to’s) on the critical functions of the tasks the new employee is responsible for. Mentoring is always a great idea, but an operations manual is essential as both a standard and a reference tool.

3. Operations manuals free up valuable time for the owner!

Most entrepreneur small business owners feel like they do not have enough time to do the higher level, more strategic functions of their business. They lament that they do not have time to plan and think strategically. Time gets consumed putting out fires and solving problems. This typically happens when the company does not have a good operations manual. Operations manuals, once written, are a tremendous time saver to give the owner time to do the higher level, more strategic functions of their business.

4. An operations manual makes your business scalable.

If you as the owner have to do everything for it to be done right, your business is not scalable or able to grow up that steep cliff of growth. It cannot grow beyond the time that you as the owner have to “do everything.” You must create systems that are documented in an operations manual for your business to grow in a healthy, sustainable way.

5. You Can Easily expand your GCM Business to a second office…

A fine fiscal reason for having a documented operations manual is to add market value to your company by duplicating it .You can expand your business to another site because your operations manual make it a turnkey purchase. A Manual gives you a template to expand your territory

6. An operations manual can help you sell your GCM Business for twice the amount.

The entrepreneur geriatric care owner’s brain is the system. Without the owner, the business has little or no value unless you have made a very large profit. What makes your business more valuable and sellable is to have well-designed, well-documented systems that almost anyone can operate successfully. Think of Starbucks or Macdonald’s who had the first manual. The more your business looks like this, the less dependent it will be on the owner, and the more asset value your business will have.

Check Out my Geriatric Care Management Manual Class

Find out what other geriatric care manager entrepreneurs have said about my Geriatric Care Management Manual

Do You Want a new Affordable Geriatric Care Management Manual ?

March 18, 2021

New Low -Cost Way To But GCM Operations Manual

Introducing my new affordable subscription model , giving entrepreneurs and professionals who want to start a care management agency for elders a low-cost way to begin.

You can now purchase my Geriatric Care Management Manual in its 5^th edition at a low-cost monthly price. You can pay a small amount monthly and access the entire manual online to learn how to deliver 15 key geriatric care management products services step by step

The Features of MY GCM Operations Manual include
15 Care Management Services or Products
A separate Forms Manual with 54 integrated forms
Electronic PDF so you can edit

Check out my cost-effective subscription program which allows you to pay $100 a month for 10 months and access the entire manual online

6 reasons why your start-up business or restart GCM/ALCA business needs this.

1. The operations manual will create and maintain the highest quality of gold standard service /products in your business.

2. The operations manual becomes the primary tool for training your employees.

3. The operations manual creates more time for the owner, by giving you written procedures for your business.

4. The operations manual makes your business scalable thus performing well as it grows.

5. You can easily expand your GCM Business to a second office as the Manual gives you a turnkey guide.

6.With an Operations Manual, You Can Sell your GCM Business for Twice the Amount.

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