Author

Thomas Wiest

CEO, Aspirience Home Care

You know, our family is a huge American Idol fan. We anxiously wait for the first show of every season. In fact, I have even had my picture taken with one of the judges, Simon Cowell while in Hollywood a couple years ago. To save myself the embarrassment, I won’t post the picture here but, if you want to see it, email me.

The show originated from the United Kingdom show Pop Idol, a singing talent contest to determine the best “undiscovered” young singer in the country. In recent years it has become one of the most highly publicized music competitions in the world, reaching the status of a phenomenon.

A preliminary panel of judges screens contestants to be selected for their singing talent. Those who pass the prelims are potentially aired on the show. They then audition before the three main judges - Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, and Randy Jackson - in selected cities across the United States. Sometimes a celebrity fourth judge is be added. Viewers have two hours following the broadcast of the show in their time zone to phone in votes for their favorite contestant by calling a toll-free number.

The winner receives a one million dollar record deal with a major label, and is managed by American Idol-related 19 Management. In some cases, non-winners have also been signed by the show’s management company (who has first option to sign finalists) and received record deals with its major label partner. In most cases, there are sponsorship deals with many vendors as well most notably, Carrie Underwood and Skechers shoes. All in all, if you can sing, perform and entertain a group you have a chance at making it and a pretty lucrative one at that.

Here’s an American Idol factoid: There was an little unknown American Idol film created in early 2003, a musical, From Justin to Kelly, featuring Kelly Clarkson and runner-up Justin Guarini. The musical love story, produced by American Idol’s creator, Simon Fuller, was filmed in Miami, Florida over a period of six weeks shortly after the first season ended. It’s out on DVD now and has generated fairly decent sales for its limited exposure early on.

Here’s another factoid: American Idol is often noted for advertising its sponsors during the show’s runtime. Being the number one rated show in the United States with over 40 million viewers last year, it costs around $750,000 for a 30-second commercial

You know, I don’t bring this about to impress you with all the rage of Idol but rather to impress upon us all and to challenge us to look at this analogy more closely.

What if we took just a tenth of this much time, effort and money and focused it on our health and the need for competent home care as we do national phenomena like American Idol? How much further ahead would we be with home care needs? With television commercials costing $750,000, that’s a lot of money taking care of a lot of people. Think about it.

It’s important to know, as pop culture is trendy and will eventually change, home care needs are here to stay, for life.

Author

Thomas Wiest

CEO, Aspirience Home Care

According to US Census data, by the year 2030, there will be 70 million people over the age of 65. Many of today’s seniors are living with multiple chronic conditions — such as high blood pressure and diabetes — of which proper management is imperative to avoid an acute episode that could force people to have to move out of their homes. Even managing their medications is a concern for older adults, with medication errors accounting for nearly one-fourth of nursing home admissions and one-third of hospitalizations for seniors.

To help seniors stay in the homes they know and love, a Massachusetts company, Dovetail Health (www.dovetailhealth.com), has developed an in-home care management model that takes into account the reasons why seniors often have to move into care facilities — medication errors, deteriorating chronic illnesses, and falls and injuries. The result is a service that combines personal care assistance with easy-to-use technology. Starting with an in-home assessment by a registered nurse, Dovetail creates a comprehensive, personalized care plan for the client’s health and medication management.

The nurse remains at the heart of the Dovetail care team throughout the year, calling clients regularly and performing in-home follow-up visits (much like what we do). Personal care assistants are available to clients to provide health and lifestyle referrals that help seniors live safely and well at home.

Dovetail clients and their assigned care team are also supported by simple technology from Philips Electronics, which monitors clients’ weight, blood pressure, and blood sugar. This information is reviewed by the Dovetail nurse, helping her assess client progress and detect problems before they become emergencies. The in-home device is also tailored to send messages, health and wellness tips, and reminders to each client about their medications, exercises, and other health-related needs.

The company does not take the place of older adults’ physicians or caregivers, including their adult children. Instead, through personal contact from the care team and telemonitoring, Dovetail strengthens these relationships by collecting and summarizing valuable information about a client’s health needs and status. With client approval, Dovetail shares this information with designated providers and caregivers, helping them to both remotely and confidently monitor the older adult’s well-being.

“With Dovetail, everyone benefits,” said Stever Aubrey, CEO and Managing Partner, Dovetail Health. “Seniors stay healthy and are confident about their decision to live at home. Their children feel less worried, and their doctors get the information they need to make informed care decisions.”

Dovetail Health hopes to make it possible for seniors to fulfill their desire to live independently in their later years, despite certain health conditions. The company has created a new way for seniors to remain in their own homes with hope and dignity. For many, this will defer the need, worry and expense of moving into a senior care facility.

It’s important to know, as care needs continue to rise, it’s nice to know you can stay at home.

Author

Thomas Wiest

CEO, Aspirience Home Care

You know, there are so many options available now on new cars and trucks, it’s just amazing! One of the most popular and more common features found today in the automotive world is a navigation system.

Most are touch screen operated and utilize a Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) system and internal electronic maps to gauge the vehicle’s location and plot a course to a selected destination. The system responds to spoken commands, including millions of preprogrammed points of interest, and allows the driver to choose from several different routes in the event of road construction or delayed traffic driving. It’s virtually bullet proof to get you from point A to B.

I had navigation on a car I rented from Hertz (www.hertz.com) a few years ago. It was actually quite useful and very easy to use. I told myself on my next vehicle I should get that option.

Now, I don’t drive anything fancy, just an older Ford pickup – without navigation. Ford has never offered navigation on their pickups. But, you know what, I like my truck. It does everything I want it to do or ever asked it to do and then some.

However, new for 2007, Ford is offering for the first time in their history, yep you guessed it – navigation on their trucks.

I’m excited; I can get the best of both worlds now. My utilitarian pickup and a state of the art navigation system to help guide me around the Twin Cities or where ever I may travel.

Put that scenario into this analogy:

Wouldn’t it be great to have a navigation system for our life experiences? Someone with a map of where to turn at the right time to keep us on course. To lead us in times of taking care of another family member when we may not know how to or have the physical and emotional energy or support to do so.

Think about a time when you were lost. You were looking for direction. Not sure what to do or where to turn because you were in such unchartered territory. A place you had never been before.

Taking care of loved one in home can be just like that. It can happen to anyone at anytime.

It’s important to know, there are people that can help you navigate the home care path.

Author

Thomas Wiest

CEO, Aspirience Home Care

New Years is a time that we look back at the year that’s gone and forward to a blank canvas of the year ahead, deciding what we can create upon it. It’s time of reflection, pondering and weighing up of how effective our strategies have been, when reviewed with the wonder of hindsight, which is always 20/20.

The time between Christmas and January 1st, is a magical time of growth, when we can shift our perspective, making changes to herald new opportunities and personal satisfaction for the coming year and allow for greater creativity and growth in our chosen direction.

This year is exciting for me personally because of all the new directions we are taking with Aspirience. I personally haven’t made a New Year’s resolution in a long time. I believe if you put your mind to doing or getting something done, most likely, it will happen. But we have to start somewhere and it begins with a resolution.

For those contemplating and pondering new initiatives I looked up the Top Ten New Year’s Resolutions of modern times as polled by many online services and the results are:

1. Spend more quality time with family.
2. Get fit and exercise.
3. Over 66% considered themselves overweight and vowed to start diets and lifestyle changes to combat their weight.
4. Quit smoking - easier these days with patches, gum and tablets.
5. Enjoy life more.
6. Quit drinking excessively and return to moderate consumption.
7. Get out of debt.
8. Learn something new - take a course on something.
9. Volunteer within the community.
10. Become better organized.

I though it was interesting to see the first one, ‘Spend more QUALITY time with family’. How can we get the quality part of this equation accomplished in today’s busy world? Most of us have never thought about out sourcing for an expert because we are too stubborn or strong willed that we can do it our self or no one knows better that I do. But, out sourcing for a PCA at a time of dramatic and important resolution planning like this can help. A PCA can bring that ‘quality of life’ back.

It’s important to know, the resolutions we keep help shape the character of who we are.