Inspiration
The reality is that we all have aging loved ones that want to stay in their own home and out of assisted living for as long as they possibly can. In the United States alone there are over 43.5 million seniors aged 65 and up. Due to the aging of the baby boomers (often referred to as the Silver Tsunami), this number will double within the next thirty years. 7 out of 10 of these seniors will need care at some point in their life. The problem is that moving forward, there will not be enough caregiver to take care of everyone who needs it. According to a recent article published in The Wall Street Journal, there will be a caregiver deficit of over 2 million by the year 2020. This issue has been named "The Caregiver Crisis" and will become one of the biggest problems that our country and our world will have to face in the coming years.
In addition to the paid care, which is often times not covered by insurance and is unaffordable to many families, there are over 43 million unpaid family caregivers that are taking care of elderly in need. Only 14% of these caregivers have received any training what so ever. To make matters worse, even though advancements in modern medicine and other areas of healthcare are helping people to live longer than ever before, we are still caring for people in the same way that we have for the past 50 years. Families and home health agencies alike are still using paper binders and lists to track tasks and monitor changes in condition. This results in errors and missed symptoms that lead to billion dollars wasted every year in wasted visits and sickness that were preventable if only the caregiver knew what to look for and how to care for our loved ones.
And that is exactly why Bailey Paxton is teaming up with Brian Cooper and Marian Serediak in order to reinvent the way we care for our loved ones. AgileCare Solutions is bringing decades of experience to reinvent the way we care for our loved ones. The AgileCare Log is helping family members track tasks and wellness on a day to day basis. By using icons, pictures, and user-friendly imagery, the log is able to spell out exactly what symptoms and factors the caregiver (Family or agency) should be looking for every single day. Based on the tracked symptoms and other key indicators, AgileCare is able to leverage predictive analytics, to provide preventative healthcare insights and alert caregivers when symptoms are awry. These insights can help caregivers seek medical attention before a minor problem becomes a life-threatening complication in which the loved one may have to spend days or even weeks in the hospital.
Additionally, family members that are not primary caregivers can use the family portal to stay up to date on the quality and consistency of care of their loved one. This can be done by viewing and interacting with a "facebook-like" feed of tasks being performed in real time, status updates, and digital moments and memories that are posted by caregivers or other loved ones. Caregivers are also able to like an comment anonymously among a community of other caregivers in order to share tips and tricks and know they there are in fact not alone.
What it does
How we built it
Challenges we ran into
Accomplishments that we're proud of
For the past six years, Bailey Paxton has worked as both a caregiver and part of the office staff for his parent's adult in home health care agency. After working with these tools directly and seeing many of the major challenges of the industry first hand, he knew there had to be a better way. He has since spent the last twelve months interviewing and getting feedback from caregivers, family members, and agency owners in order to create something that has been referred to as a "home run."
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