Four pioneering organizations described their technology-enabled services and supports during the CAST Technology Symposium on April 22 at the LeadingAge PEAK Leadership Summit. Here are highlights from a presentation by Denise Rabidoux, president and chief executive officer of Evangelical Homes of Michigan (EHM) and Stephen Hopkins, EHM’s vice president of wellness and home based solutions.
Find details about EHM’s technology-enabled services and supports in its case study, which is featured in Preparing for the Future, CAST’s recent collection of case studies.
Organizational Transformation: Stephen Hopkins
Somewhere between 85% and 87% of older adults will tell you that they don't wish to come on your campuses at any point in their life if they could choose. So it turns out that providers of long-term services and supports have all been fighting over about 12% of the market.
Evangelical Homes of Michigan is a faith-based organization based in southeast Michigan with a very broad continuum. We have a full array of bricks-and-mortar services, including skilled nursing and independent living, as well as home and community-based services.
Our organization experienced quite a transformation about 10-15 years ago when we decided that we needed to work with the 85% of consumers who want to remain in their own homes.
First, we embarked on a corporate health and wellness program, a very key strategic, board-embraced initiative to broaden our focus from just providing care to promoting health and wellness. Next, we got into the home and community-based services business, purchasing a couple of home care divisions. Then we embarked on 2 programs:
- LifeChoices™ provides members who pay a one-time member fee and a monthly service fee with an inclusive package of services and supports designed to keep them independent and cared for over a lifetime, all in the comfort of their own home.
- LifeChoice Solutions™ provides an a la carte menu of support products that promote wellness, safety and independence through the use of the latest technologies and lifestyle coaches.
The philosophy behind these programs is simple: If we are as good at care and wellness as we say we are, we should be able to tell an older adult, “If you get ill, we will be the one paying the bill. If you have difficulty living at home, we will be financially responsible for (modifying your home).”
Fulfilling the Desires of Customers: Denise Rabidoux
The move into home and community-based services was a leap of faith for Evangelical Homes of Michigan. But what this did for our organization is an amazing story about innovation, technology and transformation, of really putting the client at the center of everything we do. For the first time, we were asking:
- What would happen if the client was running Evangelical Homes of Michigan?
- What would their desire be?
- What would keep them at home for life?
Innovation Through Skin in the Game
With LifeChoices and LifeChoice Solutions, we became “pre-care” providers. We wanted to impact the wellness and health of older adults before they needed care. We wanted to talk about medication management and services in the home.
But what if we couldn't keep that person healthy? An entrance fee of $40,000 and $400 a month means that you have a lot of skin in the game. So suddenly, our lifestyle coaches and our technology partners began thinking about innovations that would make a real impact on wellness before care.
Suddenly we were worried about the client who was returning to home from a hospital or a sub-acute unit and wondering what we were going to do to keep that individual from having to be readmitted to the hospital. Technology helped us look at what was causing those transfers back to the hospital. And we began to focus very seriously on outcome measures.
Success Outside of Bricks and Mortar
EHM has been very successful as an organization. We are the premiere service provider in our geographic area. We have become very nimble at program development. It became very easy for us to create market share and to go to market with a product. That’s because consumers were telling us what they desired and we were developing the business model and the program around that.
Our brand became viral overnight. In the span of 3-4 years, we went from serving 600 individuals to serving 2,300 people. And, in the process, we have discovered that you don’t need an infrastructure of a $90 million retirement community to impact lives.