ComForCare has established a partnership with Connected Home Living to launch Connected Care, its remote patient monitoring (RPM) program for seniors.
“This is a transformative step for our business as we think about delivering comprehensive and compassionate care to our clients,” Best Life Brands CEO J.J. Sorrenti told Home Health Care News. “This technology is proactive care.”
Best Life Brands is the platform company above ComForCare. Backed by New York-based private equity firm Riverside Company, ComForCare is a home care franchise organization that has 270 territories independently-owned and operated in Canada and the U.S. ComForCare operates as At Your Side in Houston, Texas.
Connected Home Living is a RPM and telehealth services company with more than 400 home health, hospital, home care, and independent and assisted living clients operating in Canada and the U.S.
Through the partnership, RPM technology will be implemented in ComForCare and At Your Side’s care delivery model in order to monitor vital signs, alerts, medications, as well as the mental and physical state of seniors.
It will also help the company monitor a change in activity in the home, which can indicate a change in behaviors, according to Sorrenti.
“For example, if there hasn’t been any movement in a certain time in the morning, or in a certain room, that might be inconsistent with the client’s normal routine, all that gets monitored through this new system,” he said.
Connected Care will focus on improving care services through a number of key areas: fall detection, wellness monitoring, daily virtual calls and chronic disease management.
Fall detection, in particular, is top of mind at ComForCare.
“One in four older adults fall every year,” Sorrenti said. “The result of a fall can be physical, such as a hip fracture, and it can be emotional with the fear of falling again. Both of those can reduce quality of life. Falls don’t have to be a normal part of aging. No fall can be totally prevented, but there’s a lot that can be done to reduce the chances of it happening.”
ComForCare clients will now have access to a unique radar-enabled device, which detects falls without cameras or wearables.
The daily virtual call element also allows the company to deepen connection with clients.
On the chronic disease management end, the company utilizes bluetooth-enabled pulse oximeters, blood pressure monitors, weight scales and tablets.
“The seniors can record and track their own vital signs, and then put them into the system, ensuring that medical conditions are stable and not declining,” Sorrenti said. “I know there are questions about, ‘Can the senior actually do these things?’ With a little bit of training from our caregivers, we’ve seen success.”
While ComForCare franchisees at some of the company’s locations have utilized RPM as part of their care services, this is the first time the organization is implementing it across the larger franchise network.
“We saw it as an opportunity to provide a tech-enabled human touch to the services that we provide,” Sorrenti said.
Ultimately, ComForCare wants to ensure the continuity of care, and allow caregivers to be more proactive.
“It helps us monitor when we’re away, but it also gives the in-home service that we provide more tools to be more effective,” Sorrenti said.
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