Author

Thomas Wiest

CEO, Aspirience Home Care

I have been asked more than once about how our company name and logo came about. It wasn’t easy coming up with the answer. It kind of ‘hit us’ as to what it stood for.

When we branded our company we asked the opinions of our clients and kept hearing a common theme in different ways that we help them ‘turn their aspirations into better experiences’. We simply combined the two words aspire and experience to get Aspirience.

Our logo had a similar thought process put into it in the form of a seed. The seed of life. Yes, it is a dandelion seed. But, to the eye, it is the most visible form of a seed and one that drops itself from the plant to be whisked away by the wind only to be deposited back down to earth to grow again. And this process happens over and over and over, being called the seed of life.

You know, as I researched this newsletter further and I came to find out there are a lot of names that came to be…well…just because.

Take for example, Formula 409, all-purpose cleaner. The two scientists who invented it didn’t get the formula right until the 409^th attempt.

What about Grey Poupon Dijon mustard? Sounds classy, doesn’t it? Actually, it’s named for the inventor, Mr. Grey and business partner, Mr. Poupon, who put up the money to open a mustard factory in (where else?) Dijon, France.

Best Buy. It actually started business in 1966 as The Sound of Music. After the business grew, Dick Schulze changed the name to ‘Best Buy’ to reflect their pricing strategy.

Magnavox. In 1915 the Commercial Wireless and Development Co. created a speaker that offered the clearest sound of any on the market. They called it the Magna Vox, which means ‘great voice’ in Latin.

Brillo pads. It’s from the Latin word beryllus, which means to ‘shine’.

Lysol. It’s short for lye solvent.

I can go on and on but, you get the idea. Our name calls together two of the greatest reflections on the services we offer and it is also our Vision Statement: Turning aspirations into experiences. This also ties in with our Mission Statement of ‘Empowering all caregivers to help home care clients dream more, doing more and being more.

So the next time you’re thinking of home care needs, think about the company’s name and logo and what it might stand for. You might be surprised.

It’s good to know, Aspirience Home Care can help you with home care needs for right reasons.

Author

Thomas Wiest

CEO, Aspirience Home Care

At 6:45pm on Wednesday evening I got an email from a colleague. She was asking if I was safe or at home with the family. I thought how sincere, how nice, but why? What’s going on? Obviously, there was something going on I was not aware of.

I was at my son’s basketball practice with my daughter helping the other coaches and players strategize the coming weekend games. My wife was out shopping. Yeah, we’re fine.

When I replied back that we we’re all OK and asked why, her exact email response was the following:

“35W bridge collapsed over the Mississippi at University, bumper to bumper traffic, many confirmed dead. So, happy you are SAFE with family.”

Honestly, I was paralyzed on the court from her email response. After a minute and the thought of what just happened settled in, I was blown away!

Immediately, I started searching mobile news stories on my phone. I couldn’t believe what I was reading nor the pictures I was seeing. Stuff like this doesn’t happen in Minnesota. This is something for either of the coasts, namely California where some sort of an earthquake would happen.

We all have so many connections with people around the Twin Cities: meeting with people in the south metro, north, downtown, etc. How could you not have traveled over that bridge at some point in time? How could you not have been affected some way, some how, to this tragic incident?

Needless, to say, the recovery efforts from all will be going on for a long time. There will be numerous people put in hospitals and maybe assisted living facilities while they recuperate and get better depending on their injuries and how self sustaining they can be with activities of daily living.

There’s going to be a gap in what they could do versus what they will be able to do now. It may take a while for them to get to where they feel their life is back to ‘normal’.

Again, our thoughts and prayers go out to all who have been affected by this tragedy.

It’s good to know, Aspirience Home Care can help you with home care whether it’s planned in advance or an emergency situation. We’re there to help!

Author

Thomas Wiest

CEO, Aspirience Home Care

State health officials are threatening to withhold the license of the troubled Minneapolis Veterans Home, saying the problems in care uncovered last year require new state scrutiny.

The 402-bed home’s license expires today, Monday. The home has taken steps to correct the problems, but state officials said Wednesday that after decades of violations at the home, they want more assurance that the cycle will end. The Minnesota Veterans Homes Board is negotiating an agreement with the Health Department over the state-owned home’s license.

One provision of the agreement will include spending about $1 million over the next two years for an outside consultant to monitor the home’s progress and report monthly to the Health Department. The action was more fallout from a state inspection in late 2006 that found 34 violations of care standards and other regulations. Inspectors this year cited the home for medical errors connected to the deaths of three veterans at the home. One death involved a man with diabetes who died when his blood sugar plummeted after he received improper treatment.

The state violations led to $40,700 in fines this year when many of the problems were not corrected. Nine of the fines were for $200 or more, and under state law, four fines of that size trigger action to suspend, revoke or not renew a nursing home license.

I would be seriously concerned about the care at the Minneapolis Veterans Home.

Earlier, Gov. Tim Pawlenty ordered the Health Department to begin monitoring care at the home until an outside consultant was hired to provide that help. He has also named a commission to study the problems and governance of the state’s five veterans homes.

Although the Minneapolis Veterans Home’s license expires today, Monday, it will continue in effect until an agreement is reached with the Veterans Homes Board, possibly by early August.

The home is unlikely to lose its license, but the threat is an indication of how serious health inspectors consider the history of care problems at the home. Shortcomings at the home included inadequate therapy for bedsores and physical rehabilitation, failure to follow care plans, medical errors and violations of residents’ rights to privacy and dignity.

In 2005, a similar annual inspection found 27 violations of state care and other rules. The home, a complex of historic buildings overlooking the Mississippi River, has had regulatory problems dating to the 1970s. Even though you hear the employees at the the home say things like, “This is a very serious situation,” and “We’re taking all due steps to make sure we’re meeting the requirements of the Department of Health,” this battle has raged on for years.

The home, which has 341 beds in its nursing home and 61 in assisted living, stopped taking new admissions in January until its care problems have been fixed. There are 45 vacancies in the nursing home portion, with 342 people on the waiting list to get in.

The Health Department issued its demands in a letter June 20 but did not make a public announcement. News of the license problems surfaced in minutes of a special July 3 meeting of the Veterans Homes Board, which met again last week to work things out.

While details of the home’s new requirements still are being negotiated, they will include monthly reports from the home’s consultant, Health Dimensions Group, of Minneapolis. The reports will summarize problems, concerns, complaints, its recommendations to the Minneapolis Home, the home’s progress in meeting those recommendations, and staff training.

The Health Department could have charged the Homes Board thousands of dollars for reinspecting the Minneapolis home after all these problems surfaced. But officials there decided not to do so unless serious problems show up again. Again?? “We decided that, in this instance, it was all state money, going from one pocket to another,” one inspector said. “We already had to defend that we had fined them.” Problems since the 70’s, a failed inspection in 2005 and another in 2007?

What’s your take on this scenario?

It’s good to know, Aspirience Home Care can help assist your transition to safer home care in many ways, anywhere, anytime.

Author

Thomas Wiest

CEO, Aspirience Home Care

Many people start needing care earlier on than we think to safely live at home. Not just seniors but also adults, young adults and most importantly, children. Their adult children can only do so much to directly help out because they work, have their own families and often live out of town.

When the time comes, what decisions should they consider?

Whether the need for care arrangements is sudden (a stroke, broken leg from a car accident, etc.) or gradual (dementia, autism in a child, etc.), the adult children/parents need to decide what their roles will be as much as possible. How will they help out on a day-to-day basis? What outside resources are needed? How will they oversee and evaluate the care?

That might sound simple, but it usually is difficult and stressful for several reasons: The senior parent requiring care may resist family or outside help; the adult children might not agree on an overall plan and their respective roles; they usually have no experience in making such decisions; and their busy lives allow limited time for any of this.

If there is more than one adult child, discussion and agreement of roles can prevent contention and bitterness. We have worked with family caregivers who neither asked for nor received offers of help from siblings. When more than one pitches in, the roles need to be collaborative, not necessarily equal.

It helps to develop a list that may include such tasks as arranging physical rehabilitation, checking in and monitoring medications, accompanying the parent or child to medical appointments, keeping the home stocked with food and supplies and preparing bills to be paid.

Usually, the list includes items that require outside resources; for example, arranging paid home care to assist with such activities as bathing, dressing, toileting, meals and safely moving about the home.

But the family might not be able to effectively make such decisions and spend a lot of time directly assisting the parent and arranging and overseeing outside services due to lack of available time or to living at a distance from the person needed care. There are approximately 5 million long-distance caregivers in the United States. Averaging 450 miles distance from their parents, or the person they are responsible of caring for. They often miss work, spend an average of nearly $400 per month on travel and other out-of-pocket expenses and feel stressed and worried.

We suggest long-distance family caregivers recognize what they can do from afar (scheduling appointments, paying bills, etc.) but, also rely on a local network of relatives, friends, neighbors and a reputable home care provider for checking in, reporting and peace of mind assistance.

We also recommend considering the help of a professional care manager (usually a nurse or social worker) who can assess the parent’s care needs and make recommendations, make and oversee care arrangements, provide medical advocacy and monitoring and report regularly to the family. A care manager can help overwhelmed local family caregivers in the same ways. Aspirience has an on site staff that can oversee all client care plans. Nothing gets overlooked.

Family caregivers generously jump in to help with care, sometimes with little thanks or support. They almost always experience stress and depression, and sometimes health problems due to lack of self-care.

Our advice is to avoid the “I can do it myself” syndrome by asking for help from your family and personal support system, and by finding outside information, support and service resources.

It’s good to know, Aspirience Home Care can help assist you in many ways with your home care needs, anywhere, anytime.

Author

Thomas Wiest

CEO, Aspirience Home Care

Some of you have recently heard of a state lawmaker that is learning about nursing home care by spending 24-hours as a patient at a home in rural Winthrop, Minn.

Rep. Terry Morrow’s injury, a broken hip, may be fake, but the lessons he is learning are very real.

“I dropped a pen on the floor and now I can’t pick it up,” said Morrow, D-St. Peter, as he pushed himself in a wheelchair. “I get an idea of somethings that can be changed just in the amount of paperwork, which I don’t think I would have really sensed had they just told me about it.”

Morrow underwent physical therapy and spent time hearing how residents value living in a hometown care facility where visitors, and friendly care, are more likely.

The state budget crunch resulted in many workers receiving little or no pay increase for the past four years in a row, a warning sign that a quarter of nursing homes in Minnesota are in financial crisis.

Most homes are not at immediate jeopardy of closing but, if there is not some financial assistance in the next few years I could definitely see that they would be at risk of laying off staff, downsizing or worst case, closing.

It’s especially tough for rural homes. Morrow already knew the economic puzzle before he checked in, now he has an up-close appreciation for what’s at stake.

The bottom line is nursing homes need to get more money than they’ve been getting. On the other hand, could this be a sign (again) that the state is directing us, albeit tactfully and quietly, that they are taking the same position as most other states are and moving towards more home care rather than institutional care?

One estimate I have heard is that 40 or so Minnesota nursing homes will close in the next year, including a few in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro. On the flipside, home care services will grow by 15% in the state.

It’s good to know, Aspirience Home Care will be there to help you make the transition to home care a smooth one.