Getting Care Instructions Like This Is Unacceptable

Hospitals MUST get better. Paper? A cross-out? Really?? #sendanaction #mhealth #TheCare3Way

TripleTeam Podcast Episode 2: Using Technology for Caregiving Can Make Your Life Much Easier

After reviewing the major caregiving apps for consumers on the market, it became very clear that none meet the criteria needed to manage care outside of the hospital. Below are five necessary features of any good caregiving technology. You can also listen to our podcast (subscribe in iTunes - search for Care3 TripleTeam Podcast) where we detail technology for caregivers and introduce some new ways to get the most out of mobile apps.

Podcast: Using Technology as a Caregiver

Care3 for Care Managers

Calling All Care Managers!

Did you know there are 65 million family caregivers in the US? These people lovingly support your clients in their quest to remain healthy. In fact, 69% of family caregivers are open to using mobile applications to help them take care of loved ones.

What if a technology platform could improve communication with your clients and their families, keep everyone informed about your work, and teach family caregivers how they can help your clients get and stay healthy?

Welcome to Care3.

Care3 is the care planning and mobile messaging platform for people who care for and about others. You care for your clients by ensuring they receive the best care possible. Your clients’ families care about their loved ones, but often don’t know how to help. Care3 brings it all together.

Care3 = Care Plan + Messaging + Calendar

If you need a system that coordinates care, makes communications with all parties efficient and compliant, and drives positive outcomes, then you need Care3. Care3 combines a simple, 8-step care planning tool with our mobile messaging and calendar app to make sure all care steps are organized and those completing the steps can care anywhere.

You create the care plan, including medications, ADLs, rehab/exercises, home medical needs and more. All individual care steps are sent to the Care3 mobile app as Actions to be completed by members of the care team--professionals and family. Everyone operates from the same central care plan that you design. It's that easy.

• Build a Care Team of interdisciplinary care providers and family members around each of your clients to keep everyone in the loop and engaged.
• Create Care Plans that family and professionals can complete so they know how to help to keep loved ones out of the hospital.
• HIPAA-compliant Text Messaging allows you to securely communicate with your clients and families and track when care steps are complete.
• Calendar and To-Do List keep everyone organized so they know what care has to be delivered when.

Care3 makes you more effective managing care which leads to higher client satisfaction and more referrals.

Dozens of Care Management Companies Use Care3

Care3 enables community-based care managers (geriatric and others) to coordinate care for clients and families. While navigating the health system, you can also ensure that the critical care that's needed to keep your clients healthy and out of the hospital is being delivered by the professional care team and family.

Here are what a few of our users are saying about Care3 for care management:

"Care3 is great for coordinating care!"

"...very intuitive out-of-the-box."

"If you are trying to keep track of service providers for a client, Care3 is your system!"

Try FREE for 60 Days

Sign up for Care3 Care Planner FREE for 60 days. Create as many care plans as you need for all of your clients. Get their families involved with care. Keep your clients out of the hospital.

HIPAA Compliance is No Longer Optional for Mobile Messaging

In today's consumer-driven healthcare environment, it's imperative for providers, patients, and families be able to communicate in a HIPAA-compliant manner. Having a patient portal isn't enough. The engagement levels are too low. You need a HIPAA-compliant mobile messaging solution for your communications between staff and with clients and their families. Care3 is the first and only HIPAA-compliant text messaging app available directly to consumers (DTC) with integrated calendar and to-do list features. This means that you can download Care3 directly from the iTunes App Store (iPhone and iPad available) to communicate all health-related information with healthcare professionals, family members and friends with confidence. Your messages will be private, secure, and compliant with the gold standard of communication encryption and data storage.

And before you ask, the answer is yes: Care3 is 100% FREE to download.

What makes Care3 different from other HIPAA-compliant messaging apps?

Simply stated, Care3 is far more than messaging and has a bias toward action.

Care3 includes:

• HIPAA-compliant messaging to securely communicate with your staff and families.
• Care Team group conversations to include professionals and family members engaged.
• Action Messages (patent-pending) to show staff and family members what care tasks need completion and keep track of progress.
• A full-featured Calendar to review what Actions you have accepted with each day's to-do list included.
• Invitations that are sent via text message or email just by starting a new conversation.
• A Starter Care Plan template of common care tasks (fully customizable) for all Care Teams.

Care3 makes you more effective at managing care to get the best outcomes for your patients and families while not compromising privacy, security, and confidentiality while communicating. No other HIPAA-compliant messaging application provides this much functionality--whether a paid app or free. And did we mention Care3 is FREE?

Download and install the FREE Care3 mobile messaging app now! Communicate in compliance with your staff and family clients.

Care3™ launches Starter Care Plan feature to help caregivers get into their groove

2-care3-startercareplan

(Los Angeles, CA) - July 6, 2016 - Care3™, a leading  developer of mobile health technology, has launched a new feature called Starter Care Plan for all iPhone and iPad app users.  Successful caregiving depends on having the goals set and the tasks laid in a routine that families can follow every single day. Starter Care Plan offers a set of the most common care tasks that family caregivers face when caring for a loved one, thus helping to integrate the tasks into a new caregiving routine. “At Care3, we call this routine your ‘groove.’ Getting into your caregiving groove means you’ve integrated caregiving into your personal and professional life. When you’re in the groove, you’re efficient, effective, and your stress level is manageable.” explains David Williams, Care3 Co-Founder and CEO.

Starter Care Plan is designed to get family caregivers  into their caregiving groove as quickly as possible. Users first create their Care Team and then are prompted to create the Starter Care Plan. This creates daily and weekly Actions that families share so that no one has to complete all of the care tasks alone, avoiding high stress, missed days of work, and burnout.

Family caregivers can also send Care3 discharge instructions to make them mobile for a nominal fee. Caregivers simply email their paper discharge plans after downloading the FREE mobile app and signing up.

About Care3™

Founded by three former Aetna executives with successful entrepreneurial backgrounds in consumer and enterprise health technology, Care3 elegantly combines patient and family engagement with post-acute care coordination on the same platform to improve outcomes and reduce costly hospital readmissions for underserved populations including seniors, people of color, and the disabled. Download the FREE Care3 mobile app on the App Store now. Learn more at www.care3.co/blog.

The New Normal: Caregivers as Leaders

When a loved one is suddenly struck ill or has a catastrophic event, it changes the world--and without our permission. We are stunned into paralysis—shocked into disbelief—and even shamed into silence. Becoming a caregiver thrusts you into a leadership position. People look to you for guidance, updates, and strength even though you feel the same feelings they do. Leaders are supposed to project an air of invincibility, right? Consider this excerpt from Nelson Mandela’s Leadership Lessons:

Show courage: Mandela was often afraid for his own safety and even his life. Yet, he never showed fear to either his compatriots or his adversaries, saying that a leader “must put up a bold front.”

One of the greatest leaders in world history recommends that we show no fear. A chink in the “bold front” armor may signal weakness, or worse yet, fear and doubt in whether the mission can succeed. So we keep quiet. Play it close to the vest. We never let our family or friends see us sweat.

The problem with that approach is that inevitably when others see that we are, in fact, human, it is such an anomaly that our family and friends think that the sky is falling. Showing vulnerability from time to time, sharing the experience with close family and friends, and rising above it can add to a perception of strength rather than take from it--and result in better health for your loved one.

When our loved ones get sick and need our help to recover or even live comfortably day-to-day, it’s important to talk about the challenges with people you trust—while also letting those around you know that everything isn’t perfect. This includes family members. You will need their help if you want to balance the responsibilities of caring for a loved one and maintaining the life you had already created for yourself.

Do what you do at work. Get your team (a care team) together, set a goal, make a plan, and lead. But talk openly about the challenges with trusted friends and family. Success in this mission means a healthy loved one and a strong, supportive family.

Don’t you want that anyway?

The New Normal - Beginning Life as a Family Caregiver

As a family caregiver, you take on responsibility for your loved one's health when not in the care of a professional. What you do is the work of angels. When you're thrust into this situation unexpectedly, it can be difficult do know what to do. What does it mean to care? What am I supposed to do each day? What results should I strive to achieve?

At Care3, we have been through this situation and want to help you. People don't give you tactical advice on what to do in the beginning because they either don't know or don't want to overwhelm you with details when you're still adjusting to this new normal. While everyone is certainly being considerate, you do need a path to being successful and helping your loved one to heal. In typical Care3 fashion, here are three steps that can keep you less stressed, more organized, and help your loved one heal, recover, and/or be comfortable.

1. Talk openly to others. This seems counterintuitive, right? When discussing health, privacy is the norm. Not in caregiving. One thing is true in caregiving and that is you can't do it all alone. Yes, you're an angel, but remember, you need sleep! You also have other life responsibilities. You want other people around you, trusted family and friends, to talk to about what's happening. You may also find those people willing to fill in for you if there are some care tasks that you can't complete for some reason. Those people are YOUR angels.
2. Make a plan. You've heard this before: Failure to plan is planning to fail. Caring for a loved one is no different. When you left the hospital or other health facility, someone gave you instructions on how to care for your loved one. Yes, it was probably on a piece of paper and had some 'medical-speak' but it was at least a start in knowing what to do. Take that plan an break it down into simple steps. Mark each step by how often it has to be completed, multiple times per day, once daily, weekly, etc. and mark what happens when the plan is complete. When you've completed this plan, you'll know what you have to do each day, what the goal of the plan is, and can integrate all of that into the rest of your life routine. Care3 can help with this.
3. Don't forget the simple stuff. One of the things that we often forget when we're caring for others is their routine. We get wrapped up in our own and forget that our loved ones had a routine, too. One of the most important things you can do is to give your loved one a new routine of basic daily life activities. Bathing, grooming, meal-times, etc. are how we organize our lives. Set up a routine for your loved one so everyone knows what to expect each day. You'll find that certainty reduces your loved one's anxiety as well, which really helps in recovery and healing.

Follow these three steps and you'll find caregiving to be a challenging, yet do-able action. You can do this.

Use Care3 LIKE A BOSS to Care for Loved Ones

Thank you for all you do caring for others! Check out the second video (<6 minutes) where our CEO, David Williams, walks you step-by-step on how to use Care3 like a BOSS to care for loved ones.

https://youtu.be/0qsIuXCyrK8

Bookmark this page so you can refer back to the video.

Questions? Comments? Email us at boss@care3.co/blog. We want to hear from you!

Why Care Plans Matter for You as a Patient

The interaction between you and your healthcare provider, e.g., a doctor or nurse, can either motivate you to follow your treatment plan by making it easy for you to understand and follow—or it can leave you confused, scared and clueless on how to best take care of yourself. Only one thing matters when you’re sick—getting better. Your healthcare team is supposed to supply you with a care plan detailing your path back to better health, especially when you leave the hospital. Care plans are important because they lay out what care steps you should take when you’re at home or otherwise away from health settings.  However, think about when you receive your care plan—at hospital discharge, right? When you know it’s time to go home, what’s the first and only thing on your mind? GET ME OUT OF HERE!

You’ve just spent three sleepless nights being poked and prodded when all you want to do is feel better. You’re so ready to go home, you’re not listening to the discharge nurse explain how you should care for yourself. Even if you have a family caregiver there with you, it’s likely the person you’ve been complaining to about your hospital experience so she just wants to take you home also. In other words, no one is paying attention to the critical instructions being discussed by the discharge nurse. And therein lies the problem.

The Problems with Current Care Plans

Care plans are discussed when you are not ready to hear and internalize the detailed information on how to care for yourself outside of the hospital. How are care plans given to you in 2015? Paper. If you're lucky, you might get your care plan emailed to you, but even if you do, care plans are often littered with clinical jargon that you may not fully understand and you don’t have a nurse there to explain the plan to you in the moment.

Let's pause for a moment. In 2015, care plans are delivered via PAPER. Paper gets lost easily. The most important steps you’re supposed to take to get you well are delivered on a sheet of paper that is likely to end up in your recycle bin.

OK, you received a paper care plan. Even if you manage not to lose it, that doesn't remove the medical language. How can you follow steps if you don’t fully understand them? The most arrogant of healthcare providers chalk that up to YOUR illiteracy of health language; a language they went to school for six to eight YEARS to learn, but you’re just supposed to understand enough to follow directions.

What Can You Do? What can you do to make this care plan delivery process better for yourself? Sometimes you have to take control of your care if your care team isn’t providing the care you need. Here are four ways you can ensure your care is delivered the way that you want:

1. When is best for YOU. Make sure your provider gives you the care plan at a time when you are ready to listen. Sure you can get the paper plan at discharge like you normally would, but that’s not the optimal time to receive it. When you are not in a rush, calm, and settled back at home, you will be receptive to understanding the care plan. This is the best time to receive it because you are in your most familiar surroundings. Receiving the care plan and any support information at this point would seem to be more logical, right? It makes one wonder…why is the distribution of the discharge plan only delivered at discharge?
2. Ask for your care plan in plain language. It’s not that hard for doctors and nurses to remove the med-speak. Demand that they speak to you in a way that helps you understand the care plan and write it in a way that you can implement the steps when you’re at home.
3. Get a digital care plan. At least have it emailed to you so that you can review it at a time when you have the time and aren’t in a rush. There are new technologies that can deliver your care plan via text messages and sequenced by when each step is supposed to happen. Ask your care provider if they have that type of solution for care plan delivery. If not, tell them that they should!
4. Get family and friends involved. Actively involve the people who care most about you—your family. They want to help you. Make them part of your family care team. Give them tasks to complete on your behalf from the care plan. That way you have a support structure in place to help you. Your family wants to help, so show them ways that they can.

You CAN take control of your healthcare experience. Don’t be afraid to ask your healthcare team to deliver your care plan in methods that are convenient for you. Your healthcare team wants the same thing you do—for you to get better. Your providers are financially responsible for your care as well, so it’s high time they started treating you like the customer—because, especially when dealing with your own health, the customer is always right.