How to Create a Specialty Program—And Why You Need One (Laura Shaw-deBruin Pt. 2)

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Norwood Seniors Network

[ 00:01:55 ] Welcome back to Home Care U, brought to you by Careswitch. I'm Miriam Allred, your host. I'm really excited to be back today for part two with Laura Shaw DeBruin. Last week, we talked about the incredible journey of Norwood Seniors Network, a key home care brand in Chicago. For those of you that missed it or haven't listened to it yet, Laura is the Executive Director of Norwood Seniors Network. She's been in home care for 30 years, she's got great energy, lots of ideas and years of experience to share with us. So, I'm really excited to have her back with us. Laura, thank you so much for being here. Thank you, it's great to be back last week. Was a deep dive on your journey, your story, the incredible brand that you've built today.

[ 00:02:39 ] We're going to shift gears a little bit and talk about the specialty programs that you all have built. I think that's one of the pillars to your success. And like we all have, building specialty programs is a key part of standing out and differentiating yourself in the market. One of the things that I want to kind of call it out here at the start before we get into it is every provider says they provide great care you know; I provide exceptional care; we're premium quality; we're a boutique agency. I hear that every single day, time and time again. And home care is competitive and getting increasingly competitive. Saying that you're the best isn't good enough unless you can prove it.

[ 00:03:21 ] And I think one of the best ways to differentiate provide you know a unique value proposition is doing that through specialty services that drive tangible or quantifiable outcomes. So that's something that you've spent a lot of time on and built a few programs. So, today I want to cover the three programs that are in your purview as the executive director, and those are a mobile alert program, a meals program, and a transportation program. So, for those listening, we're going to kind of I’m going to dissect each of those programs that Laura and her team have built and we're going to learn from her as to you know what they are why they've built them the value they drive and some of the outcomes that have resulted in them as well so Laura if you're ready let's start with the mobile alert program why don't you start just giving kind of a general overview of what that program is absolutely so our mobile alert program is the technology we currently use is ClearCare technology

[ 00:04:19 ] and we have a contract with mobile health as our provider and what we but the great thing about us doing it versus the company itself Is that we take the intake, we go to the client's house, we speak with the client, we set up the mobile alert, we order it, we change the batteries, we install it, and we also get reports from the police, you know, the fire department, mobile health. If the battery is low, if they had to use it, if it's a miss-a-miss button, if they're not using it correctly. So, the same group, but it's of us who go to that client's house, so that's a that's huge compared to you know having the Life Alert people go because they can...

[ 00:05:17 ] oh, we'll go right away, we'll go that day, we'll go whenever they need us to go, and we know everything that's happening, with them. Small office, we could do that although all of us can are trained in installing the mobile help, we have one person that's dedicated to that so she does all the intakes and then sometimes we will share the responsibility of going and replacing the battery or testing it, so I think when we're selling it, that's that is the selling point is that you're not going to have a lot of strangers in your house; we care about you, we are trained and working with older people, you know it's a form of getting our client to know us and to trust us in our home, and as we talked about it, kind of it kind of gets us to have more businesses because we're in That person's home right and it's probably the least expensive of our services.

[ 00:06:24 ] And I often think it's probably one of the most important services we offer because 90% of our clients live alone. So, if they were to fall, someone would be notified, you know, and I think most of our clients have fallen once or twice and some are frequent falls, fallers. And I always say to the families, you should get one of these buttons. It's, you know, a dollar a day. You can't really place an amount on safety and falling, helping. So, I love this program. I wish more people would see, know the benefits, and understand the benefits of this program. You mentioned that it gives you an opportunity to get into the home. Is that the, is that the, is that the why behind this program or how, how did it come about and what's kind of the core driver of this program and how did it kind of stem from the home care business?

[ 00:07:26 ] Yeah. I would not say that's the specifically the why; I would say the, why was it was affordable. And as we're going into people's homes for the home care, not everyone could afford the price of a home care, a caregiver coming in. And so, we determined that we need another option for people to remain safe. And, you know, the mobile help button is a good option, as you know, it keeps someone safe. So, that was probably our why. The second, of course, is to get into somebody's home where you could realize that, you know, this is great for them to use, but it's not going to help them. But there's a lot of food in the house. There's mail piling up, there's laundry to be done.

[ 00:08:23 ] You know, if you are living alone and you might not have a lot of family or friends nearby, you don't really know what's happening in that house. So, it gives us an opportunity kind of to see the lay of the land and see what they might need. And so, that would be the second probably purpose. But the first one is to, to have options. And I think that's a really important factor to consider when you're considering specialty programs; is listening to your clients, listening to the population that you're serving. And if cost is the issue, you know, or like a pain point, you know, how do you create options that, that are there to serve them? So, you're referencing, you're referencing the cost. I think you mentioned it. Do you mind sharing transparently?

[ 00:09:18 ] Yeah. What, what the cost is maybe to you all and to your clients? Sure. So, the cost, you know, it's not a money-maker, this program, I will say that, right? Because the cost of the units varies. It starts from $34 a month, like up to $67 a month. And of the $34 unit, we pay probably, I think we pay $25. So, it's a $9, you know, revenue. So, it's not a lot, but it's not really meant to be a lot. And then it goes up to $67, which are the more, the fall button and you have a wrist band, and you have a button as well. And it's a sensor detector. If you were to fall and had more voice-activated features.

[ 00:10:10 ] So one of the things that was really important to me when we were shopping for new technology was a few things, the ease, the ease of it for our clients. You know, if you have someone with dementia and have a life alert button on them, they're not going to remember to press it, so they might need the fall sensor, the detector of that one. If you have somebody with hearing problems, you might need someone with this voice activated. So, um, so there's the, what I chose was to you to select four different units from different price points and different levels of basic. You don't leave your home; you're aware of when you fall, and you just need to press that button to sensor detectors a little more bells and whistles for somebody who will need that or somebody who travels around the country, it works wherever you are, so you could just bring it and it's little.

[ 00:11:17 ] I also looked at this, is silly but people are embarrassed to wear some of these items so what is maybe a little bit cuter, what doesn't look so much like an institution, you know, so maybe it's a pretty watch band or a little necklace something that we're constantly getting not the best positive feedback. The weight of the pendants like if you're wearing that pendant around your neck, you know, we have to think about our population; a lot of those people are more frail, scalp you know they're they might have a little bit of curvature of the spine so adding a necklace is a little bit, you know, it's just it's heavy for them so I look at those kind of things and I we give options and then they could choose then it's an easy process you know they want it comes in 24 hours to 48 hours you know it's a little bit more complicated but it's a compact gift it'sな small and the print is I'm telling them that to be good you know and they like it because of the quality now S So U it's S U W

[ 00:12:42 ] U might never use it you don't know you know you hope you never use it but it's nice to have it um a lot of our clients sometimes were in the old units we were using were pressing it accidentally and was going off all the time just the way it was made and how it laid on your on your chest The new system we're using falls a little bit, falls more down, so they're not constantly pressing on it accidentally, and that was a big thing because again we respond to all those calls, you know. Another benefit for clients who have who have the Life Alert, and for us is if they were taken.

[ 00:13:26 ] to the hospital, we will follow them, so gives us an opportunity to check on the client, gives us an opportunity to say 'Hey, you don't have caregivers but maybe when you come home you might need some help, or you might need meals delivered.' So, it's twofold: we ask, we want to check to make sure they come back to us, and two, we offer maybe services to fill. Those voids when they are not maybe as stable as they once were, you know um so that's kind of the benefits that we have with the Life Alert one. Kind of quick question, this isn't really an area of my expertise, but it sounds like you did a lot of research on these units and vetted a lot of companies, you know saw what kind of options.

[ 00:14:11 ] they have just curious in your research how many companies were you vetting are we talking maybe five companies or 25 companies I'm just curious of like if providers that are going to go down this path how many companies are out there that are providing these types of uh this technology a gazillion I mean, a lot. I found it funny you said five, because that's exactly what I took. I took five [events]. Okay and some of them I actually went to as I do a lot of my research. I go to different conferences so there are conferences where there's only technology so I will go to that whether it's software or life alerts or how to do technology with meals better, how to do different software’s for meals for life alerts.

[ 00:14:56 ] Um, so I did five and I picked out five and then I went to three and then I went to one. Um, and one of the reasons why we chose the Clear Art was the customer service of it. You know, we developed a relationship with them. I had known some of the people who worked there. prior in another company they worked for they knew their stuff and they heard us this is what I needed different units I needed different price points they were not aggressive with oh you should just have this one or just this one you know um and again I didn't want to I could have had 10 options well I’m not going to give an older person in their family 10 options it's not fair right I don't think it's fair it's overwhelming

[ 00:15:46 ] you know but if you get what you think you need then that's the options, I took um, and it was a very seamless transition they did a lot because we had another company, so we had to get out of that contract We had to transfer all our clients. We had to speak with all our clients. They gave us really good marketing materials, and they also made a lot of money. And they made a lot of money. And they made a lot of money. And they made a lot of money. And they made themselves available if families or the clients wanted to speak with them directly. So it was, you know, it was probably a year in from start to finish, um, but it was it's been worth it. Yeah, that's great. Great context for people who you know may be considering going down this path or you're educating them for the first time.

[ 00:16:33 ] Just some of these kinds of quick questions are really useful, I. Want to talk about the people that are using this service, are they the same demographic of people that you're providing home care to? And is that something a factor you consider, I mean, you know we want someone who, maybe needs this service that can then transition to home care? Or is this demographic of people using this service pretty different than your home care demographic. Great question. Um, of the people that are using our mobile health alert system, 25 percent of the people that are using our mobile health are our clients right now, like they are they're also getting caregiving. You know the other 75 percent are not yet, not sure that will ever be the demographics.

[ 00:17:25 ] Don't really change, but what changes is they're probably a little farther out in our meal’s demographic or so some of our caregivers. We have a client in Rockford which is like maybe an hour and a half away from us, and we have a client in Rockford which is like maybe an hour and a half away from our office. We have some in the western suburbs even though we um have caregiving out there, we don't have a lot, but we have more Life Alert clients there. Um, so we're reaching a different distance because when they call companies, so if they call Mobile Health, we Are a provider, so they will give them our name, so that's how we get referrals as well, is from Clear Arch, is referral system or the main major hospital groups.

[ 00:18:18 ] So, sometimes we'll get the call like maybe an hour away in a western suburb and they're like, 'We know you're far, but I'll go out there; we'll install it because there's very little labor for us, unless it's constantly dinging for some reason or not, you know, we might have to go back to make sure the battery is on okay or something. But it's low labor, high results, and those are good for us and our little group of people, so we reach and I'm not really sure what the difference Is of somebody again, they probably will need home care eventually, but I just think it's an option that is you know, less expensive, not intrusive. They might have caregivers with a different agency, but again, that agency doesn't offer life alert systems, we do, again, that's what makes us apart a little bit.

[ 00:19:17 ] And not that we would vet their caregiver, but they know that we also do that. They know that we could, you know, do the life alert it's interesting because of the people that we service, a life alert that don't have our caregiving probably 15-50 of those people do have some sort of caregiving, but they Heard about our Life Alert and different way I think it's really interesting. What you mentioned at the start is it actually broadening your coverage area, you know, like you said, you're actually providing this service to people that live further away, which is you know, obviously a great opportunity. And if you're willing and able to you know make that work,

[ 00:20:01 ] you know, obviously that takes different resources and time but then it gives you an opportunity, say you have you know maybe five or ten Life Alert clients, you know, in a further suburb, you're going to go and you're going to go and consider you know, maybe you know, opening up Like a satellite office or sending more caregivers out that way it gives you, gives you a way to kind of test the waters in a new market or a new zip code with a relatively kind of low-cost option so I think that's really interesting. I want to ask about hidden challenges now that you've been providing this program for years, you know what are some of the things that you've learned along the way that have presented themselves as maybe issues or challenges?

[ 00:20:43 ] Challenges that have come up so I think one of the challenges were the biggest challenge that I had um and hope to never have again was our past Life Alert company we were using in the sense of it wasn't proactive it wasn't reactive it was hard for our clients to get a hold of them um and then making that switch and telling the families oh we're going to switch and they we were using that other company for like 10 years but I wasn't happy with any of it and um so that was a challenge in the fact that our clients would call and say you know I keep calling them they're not responding my pendant keeps going off I’m um you know they don't have me in the system or they didn't like you know they don't have me in the system or they didn't have me in the system or they didn't everything goes through us and then We pass it on to the to the mobile health or whoever we're using at the time, and sometimes it was not documented so it was very frustrating.

[ 00:21:54 ] Billing was frustrating for them, everything was frustrating, so that was our challenge. Now my biggest challenge is educating the clients to make sure that they charge their balance. I know that sounds silly, but we get a lot of like low battery, low battery, low battery, or we get a lot of low batteries. This unit is great, but you have to charge it every so many hours. So, I was on the phone with them our representative a few weeks ago and I'm like, 'Work on longer battery times for our clients.' Even though I think it's four days if you're wearing it, it's four days. I think it's seven days if you're not wearing it, which people don't wear it. Um, how can you make that life battery longer?

[ 00:22:49 ] That would be something you know. I've learned so when I'm shopping um and next time if I shop again that would be something I would totally look at because I thought four days was a lot because the other unit we were using it was not even 24 hours, they were losing their battery lights so I was happy with four hours but you know again if you're alone without a caregiver without a family member, you might not remember to charge that battery. When you have a caregiver, a family member or we're reminding you, you know as you know the last episode we talked about that we're affiliated with a nursing home and we have several clients in the nursing home that use them because the nursing home, in general, doesn't use those; the memory care uses it, you know more of an underbrace bracelet but they don't have to use them for the fall so we provide those.

[ 00:23:45 ] And I can't tell you how many times that I've gone over there and it's in the care plan and I'm asking people to make sure they're charging; and there's not hundreds of people around, so it shouldn't be it shouldn't happen, but it happens. you know that people are not charging so that's probably my biggest frustration now and it's not our client's fault they just don't remember um if they don't have someone to charge them so they don't have someone to charge them so they don't have someone helping remember but I think as the technology progresses I would like to see the battery last a lot longer that would be my you know maybe I could invent something it's probably there you know again you don't always want to change what you're doing because the changes are enough so it's not like I’m going to go change that but going forward if something comes up and they know very well if there's another unit that has a longer life battery I’ll put that in the mix because I would try to really sell that because that's a big one

[ 00:24:47 ] specifically for our clients who are out and about our clients that are more homebodies it's not such a big deal for our clients that are out and about and traveling or going to the stores or doing activities if their battery dies while they're doing it they have to go back where the base of the battery is so that's you know and I don't know if I thought about that like I thought it would last forever I thought people would automatically charge their batteries yeah that's What I was going to say this is really useful information, it may seem kind of you know basic or fundamental to you that have been through it, but hearing you know anyone hearing this for the first time, it's really useful.

[ 00:25:25 ] You know a really important factor is you know charging the batteries, obviously, that stems from like educating the family and the client themselves and that's a whole piece of any specialty program is making sure you know they understand the why, the how, the value, the needs of the specific program so I think that's really great. Um, I do want to kind of transition into our next program, that was a great. Synopsis of that program, I think we learned a lot. I want to talk next about the meals program. This is you know maybe one of your core differentiators that you know is more unique um that I've even heard so I want to talk about this meal/meal's program and you may have to kind of reference some of what we talked about last week, kind of the core structure and the nursing program etc. but why don't you start by giving an overview of what you're doing and what you're doing and what you're doing and what you're doing and

[ 00:26:10 ] this these meals program absolutely so our home delivered meals program stems from the nursing home kitchen where all the meals are made so they're made fresh every day, five days a week. And in the Meals program, there are two meals: a hot meal and a cold meal. You could order as many meals a day as you want, and some people do if they know, some people order two meals a day, three times a week. You know? Um, you could do what you want in the selection of the meals. There's a menu that comes every month with two hot, two entrees that you could choose from, and then a dessert you could choose. And then, every day, you get a hot meal and a cold meal.

[ 00:27:04 ] Most of our clients who get the meals eat the hot meal during the lunchtime and save the other meal. For the evening, because then it's hot and it stays hot. Our meals... our meals program is run by a manager that I spoke of last episode, and he does the menus and inputs all the menu choices; does all the billing; and then does all the routes, and then goes into the kitchen every day for a couple hours and oversees the um, the putting together of the meals. And he's a big part of that the kitchen the night before does the cold meals, or the morning early in the morning puts the cold meals in a lunch bag; and then our hot meals are done right at like I would say 11:30, and all the meals are out by 10 minutes to noon, so they're done pretty quick.

[ 00:28:04 ] Or, yeah, so, and then they're dropped off, and everyone has a route. So, we have volunteers who do, who do our routes, and we have about...it depends how many meals, so we could have as low as 34 meals a day delivered to up to 90 meals delivered, really depends on the day. Monday, Wednesday, Fridays are our biggest meal days; Tuesdays and Thursdays for some reason are our lower meal days. Um, and then on Fridays, I would say probably 20 percent of our meal’s client orders more than one meal for the weekend. The meals are pretty good size, so if you're living alone, you could probably have you know get three meals a week, and then it'll probably last you.

[ 00:28:51 ] five days um there's a milk option if you want milk that comes with your meal we'll do that there the meals are considered heart healthy and we don't really change anything you could put if you don't like bologna then you could put in you don't like bologna and then we'll give you turkey or ham or you know um and the meals are cycled every season so that's important to know so they're not always the same meals and then like the colder months here we have more comfort food you know and then in the summer months they're lighter options on Fridays there's always a fish option whether it's lunch or not there's always a fish option And then there's you know, there's you know, there's the menu is varied, um, and if you're getting meals five times a week, sometimes some of the meals might become monotonous because it's a rotating basis, but for the most part people really enjoy the options.

[ 00:29:58 ] And if they're wanting something we will bring it to the kitchen or if they're liking something, I'm getting a lot of calls also compliments, you know, it’s usually desserts, I'm not going to lie, they'll find this one dessert that they love it. And then they'll put it on the menu more. The menu is dictated through what they're serving at the nursing home. And then we have input in it. So, we meet as a team, and we see what the menus are. Neil, my meals manager, and I sit down, and we look at what's repetitive, we'll try to change some days to other days. So, if you're getting your meals all always on Monday, Wednesdays, Fridays, you're not getting in the same rotation. So, we've tried to change that.

[ 00:30:40 ] And then the desserts to desserts are very important to our clients. So, we try not to over duplicate them if they're having the same dessert every Monday, Wednesday, Friday. The kitchen, you know, we have kitchen help. And again, we contract a portion of our budget and pay for the kitchen staff, the supplies, um, the oversight, but the brunt of the labor is done by our meals, volunteers. Yeah, you're taking that in the right direction. I was I'm curious about how this program is funded. Like you say, you know, the nursing home is so instrumental that kitchen having access to that, you wouldn't probably be able to do this without that. So, break down the finances a little bit further as to you know, where the costs are coming and going and who kind of has ownership over what the staff is going to be doing.

[ 00:31:35 ] So, so, yeah, so we contract from the kitchen, a percentage of our budget for the meals. But the meals manager's salary is out of our budget. Um, as is all the supplies, the, you know, the kitchen service comes out of our budget. However, it's nice to have a big kitchen. It's nice to have a nutritionist who checks. The meals who do the heart healthy meals program, so it's kind of comes from their budget even though its very small amount compared to our budget, every year there is an increase I'm not because of inflation of the food; this has been a couple um higher years than we've ever had with the inflation. And even not only the food but the containers that they come in - I mean, there's a lot of you know they keep warm so it's a special container that they keep warm.

[ 00:32:33 ] The container is in three parts, so we're not overlapping food; you know, we're very careful of what we're transporting. I know this is a side note, but we can't transport soup, everyone though wants soup, but we can't it doesn't transport well, you know. So, we have to look at that and when we have to look at the aesthetics of it when we're closing the cover does it look clean; and we're you know, you don't want to get a meal with gravy coming out I mean, it has to look presentable, so we take a lot of time with that. We do though um apply for two pretty significant grants every year for our meals program um to offset some of the cost of the meals, and then our volunteers do this from the you know from their big hearts.

[ 00:33:24 ] And, but at the end of the year or Christmas time, we do provide them with gas cards. I usually try to write a grant for that with our foundation's person, so we write a grant for that. We just recently wrote a grant this past week/last week to apply for some more home deliverer's meal money, because the margins are so low, you know it's not really again a big revenue maker. Um, and we really don't try to increase the cost of the meals. I've been here seven years, and we've increased the cost twice which I think is really good considering inflation. Has gone up every single year and it was $0.50 and $1.00 so it wasn't even very, very expensive and as I talked about in the last episode, it's more than just a meal, so we're doing actual physically checking on these clients making sure they're okay,

[ 00:34:22 ] making sure they're safe, so it's you know, it's a great program and I couldn't, we could not do it without our volunteers, there's no way we could do it, yeah. I wanted to, I wanted to ask about that, I love that this program is driven by volunteers as amazing that it, that is, it is also probably a challenge, you know, maybe to find volunteers to find reliable volunteers, how has that? Process gone of you know finding these people and then relying on them to show up every day, and yeah, well, that's a great question. So, we're part of our umbrella from the nursing home is our volunteer program, which is called Norvolution, and they probably have I don't know 300 volunteers total that help out with this organization.

[ 00:35:10 ] The meals program has 55 ongoing, loyal, dedicated volunteers to the program; they've been with us for a long time. So, I'm going to ask you a question, and it's going to be a long time. I mean, some come and go, but there's a group of them that have been volunteers since I've been here, so at least seven years, right? They have probably volunteered about almost 6,000 hours a year. They have driven over 22,000 miles to deliver the meals. I mean, we are grateful to have those volunteers, so we have a foundation's volunteer director, Carrie, who is in charge of getting us our volunteers, and she oversees them; but they, the volunteers, they'll report to us if there's any issues, or Neil and Carrie work together if some of our volunteers call in, which happens, and then one of us will deliver the meals, so whether it's Neil or my company, we're able to deliver the meals.

[ 00:36:17 ] So, we're able to deliver the meals. Myself, and I actually love to do that because a couple ways, I want to see how the program's going, I want to check on some of the clients how they're doing, it's good to have a face-to-face with somebody to see how they're doing. Um, so I couldn't imagine we've, we have been so blessed to have like these great volunteers. I think I might have mentioned the last one that during the pandemic, they did not take a break; they delivered all those meals every day without fail, no one stopped delivering meals. Um, I mean, we did contact less, but they still checked on the person; they just still made contact with that person. Um, I don't think it's that difficult to get the volunteers.

[ 00:37:05 ] Because it takes maybe an hour, and we don't have them, you know. One of the reasons why we don't have the volunteers is because they're not. We only go our meals program, only goes a five-mile radius, and that's really driven by two things: the temperature of the meals, keeping them fresh and hot. And we don't expect the volunteers to be driving all around creation, and then that's why sometimes if we have 70 meals a day, we might do seven routes, so you have 10 meals to deliver, and again it's in a five-mile radius, and we have a software that manages our route, so it's like how it makes sense. And then they get a route sheet, some of them.

[ 00:37:47 ] Put it in their navigation, but we do paper routes because some of our volunteers don't do the navigation, so they have a choice they could do the navigation, or they could do the paper route. Then it will say the name and the number, and then we go from when they're dropping off, how vital it is that they're actually dropping off and they're actually checking in with the clients because sometimes something's going on, and if it wasn't for our volunteers, you know our clients something could have happened. Yeah, you've said multiple times this phrase of 'it's more than a meal' and offline, you shared a story with me about quite literally. A life saved through one of these meals, do you want to take a minute and just share that story briefly?

[ 00:38:32 ] Sure, sure. So it was this past winter, um, it's a very, very cold day; it was probably it was very cold, and we have a volunteer who happens to be a volunteer who's been a lot around for a long time, and he rang the doorbell for this client, and he didn't come to the door so you wait a little bit, you know sometimes people take a little longer to get into the door; they don't hear them; they're in the bathroom, whatever. He waited, then he called us and said he's not answering the door, so we called the emergency contact people that are on his emergency. Contact list, what happens to be an amazing neighbor, but the neighbor wasn't home, but he did answer his cell phone and he said, 'Well, I haven't seen him, but I don't always see him.

[ 00:39:22 ] But I'll come home, you know, I'll get there, I'll go, I'll get home, and to help you guys out.' And then we called the son who's in Wisconsin, and he's like, 'Okay, let me try calling my dad.' And we call, call, call to no avail. So, we call 9-1-1. They went into his house; he was found unconscious. The paramedics think he would probably have fallen that the night before, so he was probably on the ground at least 12, maybe 15 hours. He actually turned off the heat; it was less than 50 degrees. His house, you know, he was in his pajama bottoms and a t-shirt, unconscious. So, he actually saved his life because he could have just dropped off the meal, put it between the doors, put it somewhere, and not seen this client, I mean, so it's more than a meal actually do a physical look, you know, say hello, see if and this volunteer um always, I guess it's his last stop, so it was this gentleman's last stop.

[ 00:40:25 ] So, I guess he always makes sure he's doing okay. They have a little bit of a conversation. So, the paramedics came, took him away. So, the volunteer went into the house, turned on the heat, cleaned some of the dishes, got everything kind of settled. um talked the neighbor came home and he said I don't know if he's okay the neighbor you know made sure that everything was okay this client actually gets a caregiver but four hours later a caregiver comes from 4 to 8 p.m. so we know this client fell after 8 p.m. so and uh so we sent the caregiver instead of his home to the hospital and that's where you know he stayed and um he stayed for you know he's in re you know went to rehab but the paramedics came to the hospital and they took care of him and they took care of him and he's still alive and I think that's really important that he would not be alive if it was that far our volunteer finding Him, yeah, thank you for sharing that story.

[ 00:41:19 ] I think that just so perfectly illustrates you know more than a meal going above and beyond that face-to-face interaction for these people that may not see anyone throughout the day, you know what? Just the value and the weight that a simple meal and that meal delivery and that interaction can have on someone's life, I think that's so powerful. I think that's a perfect place maybe to wrap up this one. I want to make sure we have time to get to this last program which is your transportation program. So, this is the third one that we want to cover. Give us a quick overview of this transportation. Program and what service you're rendering so our transportation program is that we have a vehicle, we have one vehicle, it's this, it's kind of like a sit between a station wagon and a as you know a utility vehicle, um, we have one, it's wrapped,

[ 00:42:11 ] I think I bring up that point because I think it's important that when we come to the door, you know, it's us, it's our car, it's wrapped. There's, there's definitely identifying marks on it. Who, you know, there's five of us in the office that drive, we are the drivers. You know, we will pretty much go anywhere within like Cook County, you know, which is, it's big, it's large, but most of our clients are probably within a 10-mile radius. Since we do charge by mile, I think one of the challenges is that we lose some clients because we charge by mile and its round trip. So, before they even get to their destination, it might be too costly for them. But for the people within the neighborhood, we are busy every day.

[ 00:43:10 ] We have transportation every single day. Before the pandemic, we had a designated driver who did all the driving. Since everything shut down in the pandemic, we lost that person. And we didn't have a designated driver and it took probably 2022 for people to get back in our cars. Even though, we put up a screen, we did everything we can to make the person safe, but it was still, I mean, again, you're dealing with an older population who wasn't leaving their homes, you know? But people do have appointments and they do have, you know, dialysis and chemo. So, some people had to do it. So, we try to make it as safe as possible. And again, it's the same people. So, we're coming to your door, right? And we're doing door-to-door transportation.

[ 00:44:13 ] I think that's really important too. You just don't meet us at the corner unless you want to, but we go up, we get the person. I would say 80% of the clients that we have some type of mobility issue, whether it be using a cane or a walker or just unstable on their feet. We, you know, and a lot of our clients live in single-family homes with five stairs coming down to the, to the driveway, you know, or to the parkway; so, we do that. And then we drop them off at their destination and we take them in wherever they need to go. Some of our clients will say, 'Oh, I'm fine.' Then they're fine to go into the doctor's office themselves. Most of them are not.

[ 00:44:56 ] So we will take, we will take them door-to-door. Literally, we pick them up and then we bring them back home and make sure they get in safely. It is so valuable that we do that. Even though it takes a lot of time sometimes, honestly, the drive is less time than it takes us to walk somebody up and down their stairs. And we make sure they're staying; we make sure they get into their house. We make sure everything is okay. You know, an Uber can't do that. They don't do that. I mean, I think they have a separate part of Uber now that does that, but our staff are trained, you know, they're trained in older care. They're trained in CPR. What to do behaviors. You know, if something were to happen, we would take care of it.

[ 00:45:46 ] A lot of our clients who were taking to get like dialysis or radiation or something sometimes have to stop in the middle of the trip, and we have to stop and find a bathroom so they could use the bathroom. I'm not sure you're going to get that with other transportation, you know, and we will do that. Are most of these transportation clients also receiving home care or what percentage would you say are. I would say maybe 20% are receiving home care because if you're receiving home care, you could have a caregiver who ha who drives. So, if you're looking for someone to take you places, then you get a caregiver that would drive. If we can get a caregiver that drives, and we'll take you places.

[ 00:46:33 ] The other 80% probably don't have caregivers or they don't have people who drive them. Them, yeah, I would say about 80% are now non-caregiving, now doesn't mean they can't become one point or come to be a caregiving client. You know, we have a caregiving client, or we have a transportation client who recently signed up for meals. She didn't know about the meals program, but on our wrapped car, it says 'home delivered meals.' And then the conversation she was asking about the meals program. So, she signed up for the meals. So now she has two things. Yeah, that's part of why I asked the question is to my understanding, you know, caregivers can also be a piece of.

[ 00:47:16 ] Kind of a pivotal piece in that transportation, but there I'm assuming, you know, this was another need born out of clients, you know, the community that, you know, need transportation services, but don't necessarily need home care. It's kind of that similar concept of a service that was born out of, you know, just listening to people and providing that service. And caregiving, you know, tech, you know, traditionally caregivers don't drive, especially if you're near a city like Chicago where public transportation is abundant. No one needs to, you know, I mean, I am coming from total suburbs and couldn't wait to drive at 16. I'm shocked about people who are like, I've never learned to drive. I'm like, well, what do you do? Well, they don't need to learn how to drive where I thought, oh, you know, the independent in itself.

[ 00:48:03 ] But so a lot of our caregivers don't drive. So, it was the biggest need. I will say, tell you a story. In 2019 in about October, I did a needs assessment with a couple of local hospitals, home health. We collaborated to these great needs assessment. The biggest need was transportation. I was thrilled. I'm like, well, we have a car. If it continues, we can get another car. We have written grants. We've not always been, we had not gotten any yet, but I keep every year. I apply for the same grant of getting more of a motorized, wheelchair-accessible van to use because that's a huge need. The biggest need though, was transportation. You know, it's the hardest thing to give up for an older person, but their biggest need. So, I was thrilled.

[ 00:48:53 ] And then the pandemic hit, we were busy. We were so busy. I mean, like I said, I had, you know, we had a driver who probably was on four or five calls driving a day, which is a lot considering the time it takes to get somebody from A to B. Sometimes I am. So, I am curious, are most of these clients receiving multiple rides a week, or what is kind of the typical schedule for one client? Is it, you know, one ride a week or four a month, or I know it varies, but what's kind of a typical schedule. I would say most of our clients are frequent riders. We have a lot of, we have a client that does radiation. We have a, so it's a couple of times.

[ 00:49:37 ] Well, it's a couple of times a week right now. We have a gentleman who does dialysis. So that's a couple of times a week. So, kind of putting together that puzzle of, you know, Mr. Smith and Mr. Brown might have arrived the same time. Then one of us will go. And if we can, if time is available and use our own cars, we have insurance on all of us with our company car and our personal vehicle. And they also insure nor, you know, nor life society. So, we're covered with that. And then they signed a consent form and an agreement, you know, that we're going to be taking them. I would say very few of our current transportation clients are one-time. People were constantly doing that. You know, we had a ride today.

[ 00:50:27 ] She probably uses us four times a week on different appointments, a lot of medical appointments. You know, we have a woman who uses us once a month, once a week, to get her hair done. We drop her off. We pick her up. But I would say most people are multiple users every month. Absolutely. Okay. Yeah. Talk about the logistics of, of scheduling. This is people scheduling, you know, appointments things. Some, sometimes they're recurring. Sometimes it's sporadic, you know, I need a driver tomorrow for X reason. How talk about kind of just like the logistical backend of this or people reaching out all the time? Is it pretty set schedule? Are you using... Yeah, maybe a software to track some of this. We are not currently using a software.

[ 00:51:13 ] Should we just track it ourselves? Listen, the logistics are difficult because the need is so great, and we don't always have availability. Again, it's the same group here taking everybody. We kind of look at everyone's schedules. I think I mentioned it last time. We have our favorites who want to take Mrs. Smith, you know, who want to, you know, take some, you know, we have a client named B. Everyone loves to go with her because she's so lovely and she's so fun. And it's pretty much we, if someone inquiries about a transportation, we send out an email. We, we update our transportation schedule and then you kind of shoot. I give like, oh, I have time. I'll do it or I could do it. We all take turns.

[ 00:52:01 ] The logistics is, is that sometimes we have way too many rides and not enough available. We ask people to give us at least 48 hours of notice. We are not a taxi service. You can't call us and say, oh, can you take us? Not that we don't want to. We just probably don't have the availability. And we, yeah, we would if we could, but we don't. So, I think that if it, like since the pandemic last month, February was our busiest month by far. We had a lot of transportation. And I applaud my staff for making sure that we try to help every single person who called. March is looking for the same way. We're pretty busy. So maybe we would hire somebody again, but again, you have one vehicle. So, you're limited.

[ 00:52:54 ] Unless, like, like I'll drive clients. I don't care in my car, but you're, you're limited. So, we would really have to think that way out. If it made sense to hire a designated person, you know, again, not a huge moneymaker, but this year is the first time that I've increased the prices. Seven years. And I kind of changed the way we were billing because we weren't making, even though we're using staff, I'm already paying for. Cause they're here still. We're not making any money, you know? I mean, so I kind of had to relook at that, revamp it. And still, I think we're a good value because we are literally door-to-door. We are safe. You know, it's the same people. We, we know what we're doing or trained.

[ 00:53:48 ] We're just not dropping you off and picking you up and hoping you get there. That brings value. The last question I think I want to ask to kind of round out this program is how concerned or disconcerted are you with UberLift? Some of these other, you know, transportation providers, obviously very different structures, you know, very different companies, but do you, you know, lose sleep over them? Are you concerned with them? Or do you partner with them? If you know, someone reaches out and you can't do, you know, a ride in 15 minutes, do you refer them? So just kind of your general thoughts on that. I'm not afraid, you know, I'm not scared of it. I think we all have a niche. And I think that we. Have a specialized.

[ 00:54:32 ] Specifically that we're very, very neighborhood friendly. And we've been doing this. For 30 years. Maybe not transportation, but we've been around for 30 years. I will suggest to people if they need. You know, immediate transportation. I will say, call an Uber, call Lyft. That's difficult for an older person who does not do apps on their phone. There was a taxi service here years ago, and sadly, the pandemic put them out of business. It was called the Pink Taxi. They were pink taxis. There were three of them in a community near here. I referred them all the time. They referred us all the time. The pandemic took him out of business. I was saddened because they helped a lot of our clients. And they had also a big heart.

[ 00:55:19 ] They would make sure that they were okay. So, partnering, that would be tough. I know that Uber has like Uber Medical or something, but still, I think it's different. I think we have a different value that we could bring. Different reputation. I will tell families to or call a cab, but most families or clients will say, well, is she going to walk me to my doctor's office? Is she going to walk me inside into the lobby? Probably not. No. You know, and then we will also wait. It's for a fee, but we'll wait. So, if they need someone in their office with them, we will also do that. So sometimes that's an added bonus, especially if it's like a quick appointment and they don't have to wait for someone to come back to pick them up.

[ 00:56:10 ] Or they have to stop at the Walgreens to get a prescription. We'll do that too. A lot of places will do that, you know? So, I think it's good to have competition, but I don't see them as my competition. Yeah. I think that's a great response, you know, really. Differentiated services. You don't really compete. You know, for the same client, for the same experience. But I just wanted to get kind of your take there. In just our last couple of minutes, I want to zoom out and ask just kind of a couple of general questions. You mentioned a few times that these programs aren't necessarily, you know, big revenue drivers. So, I want you to share, you know, what the value is, you know, beyond what the program offers.

[ 00:56:53 ] What is the value that these programs are driving to the business as a whole? The value is, the mission, the mission of our organization, that we are to provide care, nonprofit organization to seniors. And I also think that it gets people in the neighborhood or the surrounding neighborhoods, a level of trust. And that is what we do. Yes, if you do the caregiving, it is more of a revenue maker. Absolutely. But it also gets people familiar with the bigger picture if they needed housing. So, we are kind of the pre, and then they go to maybe assisted living or memory care. And it's still the same organization. The transition is probably much smoother than a traditional going into a home care because we are affiliated with them.

[ 00:57:48 ] I also think that I know at one point when we were talking about, because I think I mentioned last time, we did lose one of our programs during our social outings. I hope to get it back. But when a lot of our clients say they don't know what they would do without us in those situations, and that kind of keeps it going. I mean, we are profitable. Most months, you know, we do have, but we are profitable in the fact that we, we are well known. We are trusted. We are good. We have a good neighborhood, surrounding area, place to go. And I think it's the mission of Norwood Life Society, and the mission of Norwood Seniors Network that keeps us going. Yeah, you said it last week, reshaping aging, you know, that really is the motto of the company.

[ 00:58:44 ] And these programs fuel that motto, giving people options, meeting people where they are, not offering kind of a one-size-fits-all service, but offering them what they need. And then as their needs evolve, you know, you have more alternatives, more options to share with them. So, I think, you know, this is really great to dive into these programs. You've spent a lot of time and effort, you know, probably kind of the blood, sweat and tears in these programs. And so, I think it's great for you to share what you've learned, how you structure them, you know, some of the value that they drive for other agencies that are considering offering these programs or just, you know, vetting and thinking about specialty programs in general. I think this is a great, you know, foundation for people to get a taste of them.

[ 00:59:25 ] So thank you for sharing everything so openly and transparently. I know you shared some really specific things and I think it's great for people to know what they're getting into with some of these programs. Yeah. Thank you. Any, any last advice or, you know, insight that you'd share with someone that is, you know, considering adding a specialty program and has reservations, what would you share for kind of an owner in that seat? I think that if you know there is a need that you should explore it. I think that nothing is not worth exploring. Doesn't mean you necessarily have to implement it, but explore, you know, like when we were looking to recruit to redo our social program, I reached out to like a hundred of our clients.

[ 01:00:10 ] And there were maybe three that would do the social outings right now. So, it's not worth it. So, you have to know what your needs are. So, if you do like a mini needs assessment or like when people call us, we track every single call. So, if they're asking for something, like really listen, like if they're looking for something specific, really listen. But I would say, try it or try at least, at least investigate it. Please research it because I really believe having these additional community-based programs are keeping people in their home, whatever that means, as safe and comfortable as possible. And I wouldn't give that up for the world. You're such a great example of, you know, listening, listening to clients. You, you have advocated for, you know, homecare poll surveys for feedback, for closing the loop.

[ 01:01:00 ] Just you are, you know, kind of embody that concept. And I think that that's a great tie into this concept of listening, you know, surveying your people regularly, asking them what they need, asking what service they need that you don't offer. And that can be a really good indicator of, you know, what people want and what people need. And that can, you know, kind of light the fire of what programs you should start and the why behind them. So, Laura, thank you so much for joining me last week and this week, we've covered so much good information you've shared so much. And I really appreciate you, all you do for your market, all you do for this industry. I know you've been, you know, kind of an advocate, a chair on different boards for this industry. And so, you've done a lot, and we just appreciate all that you do. Thank you. I love it. Well, thank you everyone. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you everyone for joining us and we'll look forward to seeing you back again next week, Laura. Thanks again. Thank you.