A new web-based platform for home care agencies is utilizing iPads/tablets, cell phones, and the latest software technology to help seniors live at home as long as possible. ClearCare connects professional home care providers with everyone else involved in a client’s home care, including seniors themselves and their family members, local and distant.
CEO Geoffrey Nudd founded ClearCare out of personal experience in 2010. “We faced the acute difficulties of caring for my grandmother from far away. Over 90% of seniors want to stay at home, and it’s the most cost effective approach. But with our family’s needs, all we could get was essentially caregiver staffing. The challenges my grandmother faced – and that we faced as family caregivers – were much broader, and we couldn’t get the help we needed.”
So he developed ClearCare, a comprehensive home care platform that is now available to home care agencies for $10 per patient per month. More than 150 agencies across the nation are now running their operations on the service.
For the first time, ClearCare provides agencies with real-time visibility to what the caregiver is doing in the home so that they can manage and oversee care. Additionally, family members near and far can log on for real-time updates on their loved ones. The point-of-care system integrates seamlessly into a comprehensive back office system for the agencies, which has ensured rapid uptake and usage. The system allows agencies to comprehensively manage their entire businesses as efficiently as possible while raising the standard of care.
According to Lucy Andrews, the system reduces administration and oversight costs by streamlining communication with her staff. “If a worker misses a shift, I know immediately, and I can instantly distribute a group text message to all of my appropriately-skilled caregivers requesting back-up for that shift. And it allows me and my staff to see instantly what’s happening in the home.”
ClearCare is growing rapidly today, due to its unique integration of professional home care providers with all other care partners, and the fact that it provides the kind of technology that is increasingly in demand by seniors and caregivers alike:
More than 43 million Americans serve as unpaid caregivers for adults age 50 and older, and nearly one in four say they have a difficult time coordinating care, according to a 2009 study by the National Alliance for Caregiving in collaboration with AARP.
A report published in 2008 by AARP showed that both seniors and family caregivers seek new technology products as way to keep themselves or their loved ones living at home as long as possible.
According to a 2011 study by UnitedHealth Group, technology to assist seniors and caregivers in the home is a rapidly expanding industry. The study found that there are three technologies that caregivers are most receptive to – personal health record tracking, a caregiving coordination system, and a medication support system – all of which are part of ClearCare.
