Business Briefs: Executive Care Expands into South

LHC Group Opens New Home Office Campus in Lafayette, Louisiana

LHC Group (Nasdaq: LHCG), a publicly-traded national home health and hospice provider based in Lafayette, Louisiana, celebrated its new corporate headquarters campus in Lafayette on Nov. 12.

The company is now leasing the whole building at 901 Hugh Wallis Road, which amounts to about 67,000 square feet in total. The move consolidates virtually all of LHC Group’s home office departments under the same roof and boosts square footage by 20%.

LHC Group, which currently has over 10,000 employees in 29 states, said in a press release that the complex gives it better access to major arteries such as Highway 90, in addition to the Lafayette Regional Airport. The site now houses about 400 local employees.

“The consolidation significantly reduces our overall cost and provides us with room for future expansion as our company continues to grow,” said Keith Myers, LHC Group chairman and CEO. “We believe this step will allow our home office employees to function as an even more efficient and cohesive team. We look forward to providing continued support for our clinicians and staff around the nation as they provide high quality health care to the patients and families we are blessed to serve. Those folks – our employees in the field and the patients who have trusted us with their care – are the reason we go to work each day here in the great city of Lafayette.”

Executive Care Expands Home Care Franchise into the South

Hackensack, New Jersey-based Executive Care has launched in the South. The home care services company announced it has signed a franchise deal to open an office in Texas and a multi-unit agreement to open two offices in South Florida. The company’s first Texas office is set to serve North Dallas, while the Naples and Sarasota offices mark the company’s second and third Florida locations, joining the 13 franchise locations nationwide.

All offices are expected to open during early 2016.

The new Executive Care offices are anticipated to bring as many as 50 new jobs per location in the next two years, and are looking to expand the home care agency’s reach further in untapped markets across the United States.

“We have always seen the South as an excellent region for Executive Care to thrive,” said Lenny Verkhoglaz, CEO and co-founder of the company. “The new offices will fill a niche regionally, given the large senior population in Florida and Texas. We are committed to providing compassionate care to the residents of Sarasota, Naples and Dallas.”

Executive Care necessitates that all prospective caregivers undergo an intensive pre-employment screening process, including an employment history check, a criminal background investigation and verification of references. All caregivers are experienced, insured and undergo skills and continuing education training. Registered nurses closely monitor and supervise all staff, performing periodic evaluation assessments.

FirstLight HomeCare Names Larry France to Franchise Development Team

FirstLight HomeCare, a Cincinnati, Ohio-based provider of affordable, non-medical in-home care for adults, announced it has named Larry France as its director of franchise development to help meet the increasing demand for services in the senior care industry.

“We’re excited about Larry’s vast experience in senior care and franchising,” said Jeff Bevis, FirstLight HomeCare’s CEO. “I’m confident that he will put his experience to work to help us continue to provide people-first care to seniors, people with disabilities, those in need of recovery or rehabilitative services and veterans.”

France brings to the executive team more than 20 years of outside and inside sales experience and 12 years of franchising experience to complement the team’s combined 100 years of franchise and home care experience, which has allowed the organization to provide affordable, quality, non-medical, in-home services to thousands of families in 30 states across the nation, FirstLight said in a press release.

AlayaCare Raises C$3.6 million to Accelerate Growth

AlayaCare, a home health care software startup based in Canada, announced that it has raised C$3.6 million in its most recent round of funding as it accelerates client management, research and product development, as well as its expansion in the U.S. market.

AlayaCare’s proprietary platform provides its clients with an integrated solution that combines back office functions such as invoicing, scheduling and attendance, with clinical documentation and a suite of mobile solutions for care workers and relatives.

“With the growing trend toward home-based health care, we’ve seen first-hand how the adoption of new technologies can dramatically improve the day-to-day needs of health systems and the home care providers that support them,” said Adrian Schauer, CEO of AlayaCare. “This capital will accelerate our ability to support our growing number of home and community care partners.”

This round of financing included multiple strategic angel investors and institutional investors such as Recap Health Ventures, a leading investment fund with an expertise in innovative health care markets.

“We believe that the future of home and community care consists of great in-person visits combined with best-in-class technology supporting the caregivers, patients and their families,” said Rich Osborn, managing partner of RecapHealth Ventures. “We have evaluated numerous solutions and companies over last several years and believe strongly that Adrian and his team have the potential to dominate this high growth and vitally important market.”

The investment, which also included funding from several AlayaCare employees, is expected to help the organization double in size, boosting the employee count to 50.

The investment is also expected to drive several strategic initiatives from AlayaLabs, which intends to further disrupt the delivery of care through advanced technologies such as big data analytics, machine learning and other optimization efforts.

In the long run, AlayaCare’s aim is to transform the way home care is delivered through next-generation technologies that enable the integration of remote patient monitoring and telehealth with conventional face-to-face in-home care. AlayaCare’s Machine Learning algorithm-based clinical support tools and open web architecture are meant to enable improved coordination and quality of care across the health care continuum.

Franchisee buys Interim HealthCare of SE Ohio

The largest franchisee of Interim HealthCare—the Columbus, Ohio-based Salo Organization—has acquired Interim HealthCare of SE Ohio.

Interim HealthCare of SE Ohio has Ohio offices in Marietta, Bridgeport, Woodsfield and Steubenville, as well as an office in Moundsville, West Virginia.

Together, the offices employ approximately 270 registered nurses, home health aides, licensed practical nurses and personal-care workers.

Fellow franchisees Brad Hunter and Diane Hunter were the sellers; Diane Hunter is expected to stay with the company as vice president and administrator.

The company currently has 60 office locations in five states.

Griswold Home Care Selects ClearCare to Modernize Care Services

ClearCare, the San Francisco-based leader in software solutions for private duty home care companies, announced a partnership with Griswold Home Care, a Philadelphia-based in-home care referral network.

Griswold chose ClearCare as a preferred partner for all employee-based agencies following the completion of a successful pilot program. The partnership provides access to ClearCare’s home care management platform, in addition to its recent payment processing, background checks, work opportunity tax credit and workers’ compensation integrations.

“ClearCare has a unique lens on how technology can enhance the in-home care experience,” said Matt Murphy, CEO of Griswold Home Care. “Having a partner in Silicon Valley is a strategic advantage for Griswold and our industry.”

“When my grandmother was receiving care 1,500 miles away, my family had difficulty getting the information we needed to ensure she was receiving proper care,” said Geoffrey Nudd, founder and CEO of ClearCare. “As a result, I created the Family Room, an online portal that replaced the paper logs most home care agencies were using. That innovation led to creating more tools for agencies, into what is now the most complete home care management platform available. We’re thrilled to be partnering with Griswold Home Care, first started by Jean Griswold in 1982 as one of the early pioneers in our industry.”

ClearCare’s WorkSafe Central feature proved to be a deciding factor in the selection process, bringing a modern, improved caregiver safety program to the Griswold network. Additionally, ClearCare was chosen for its complementary technology features, including QuickCare Placement, CareAssure Screening and FamilyFeedback System.

AxisCare and CaregiverRewards.com Partner to Address Private Duty Turnover

CMC-Healthcare, a division of St. Petersburg, Florida-based Capitol Marketing Concepts, Inc., and Waco, Texas-based AxisCare Home Care Software announced the integration of CMC-Healthcare’s CaregiverRewards.com employee retention and recognition platform with AxisCare’s home care scheduling software. The solution is intended to give the private duty home care market a streamlined administrative process for implementing and managing an effective employee retention and recognition program.

AxisCare’s scheduling software offers a customizable point capture feature, designed so administrators can easily create behavioral categories to recognize, track and award points to employees who successfully hit specified milestones. The points can be awarded and scheduled to become available for redemption to CaregiverRewards.com on a monthly, weekly, or daily basis.

“We created the ability to capture and award points to employees via the software but don’t have the HR expertise or backend delivery mechanism for awarding merchandise and prizes”, said Todd Allen, president of AxisCare. ”CMC Healthcare’s experience with employee recognition and retention programs made them a perfect fit.”

The online platforms offer a wide range of choices for care team members to redeem their points from more than 500 vendors offering more than 5,000 products. Participants opting for instant gratification can find online rewards cards valued between $10 and $100, and participants who opt to accumulate their points over time can buy appliances, electronics, apparel, cruises, trips, tickets to sporting events and more.

“As with any small business time and resources are limited, our partnership with AxisCare allows business owners and their administrators to gain the benefits of an employee recognition and retention program without additional administrative burdens,” said J.B. Siegel, vice president of healthcare services for CMC Healthcare. “We know costs associated with hiring and training new team members can be significant. Industry data still indicates a high turnover rate, especially within private duty home care organizations. Why not use a percentage of your recruitment budget that’s being allocated to third party recruiters and advertisers and reinvest those dollars back into your own team and your own organization.”

Written by Mary Kate Nelson