Business Briefs: Always Best Care Opens New Location

Always Best Care Announces New Franchise in California

Non-medical in-home care provider franchise Always Best Care has opened a new franchise in Vacaville, California.

The new location, which is owned and operated by local resident Rebecca Smith, will serve the Vacaville area as well as surrounding communities Fairfield, Suisun Valley, Cordelia, Green Valley and Rio Vista.

“We are thrilled to welcome Rebecca Smith to the Always Best Care family and expand our presence in our home state of California,” Jake Brown, president of Always Best Care, said in a press release. “Senior care continues to be a booming industry, and Rebecca’s business acumen and strong community connections will serve her well in this new role.”

Smith has been a licensed dental hygienist for 17 years and spent years practicing in the community, but also has a background in mortgage planning, realty and design. She is a long-time resident of Vacaville and serves on committees for the Vacaville Chamber of Commerce and the Alzheimer’s Association.

“I am thrilled to open the Always Best Care Vacaville and have the opportunity to serve the needs of local families for many years to come,” Smith said. “Having spent close to two years researching different senior care franchise concepts, I decided to go with Always Best Care based on the brand’s longstanding industry reputation and its continuum of care services. By partnering with Always Best Care, I have the ability to create and sustain long-term, meaningful relationships with my clients.”

Amedisys Expands Use of SigmaCare

Home health and hospice provider, Amedisys, Inc. (NYSE: AMED) announced that it will be expanding its partnership with customer relationship management (CMR) tech vendor for the home health industry, SigmaCare.

Amedisys plans to expand its use of the SigmaCare CRM solution to strengthen the connection among referral sources and provider partners, according to a press release.

“SigmaCare CRM enables our team to identify, target and track referral opportunities from our task network partners,” Mike Fleming, senior vice president of hospice marketing and development at Amedisys, said in a press release. “The combination of referral source market intelligence data, our customer-specific business development activities, and information on admissions from our EMR allows us to make informed decisions on how best to meet the needs of our customers and their patients in each community we serve.”

Amedisys anticipates that this expansion will further advance business development practices in the highly competitive home health and hospice market.

VNA Homecare Partners with Health Recovery Solutions

Home health agency, VNA Homecare, based in Upstate New York, has announced a partnership with Health Recovery Solutions (HRS) to help decrease post-orthopedic surgery episodes of care from 60 to 30 days.

The partnership will also improve postpartum care outcomes by using a VNA’s remote monitoring platform, a press release explained. The program will include the development of new care models using the HRS remote monitoring platform to address orthopedic post-surgical patients and postpartum patients.

“This is not your traditional telehealth,” said Andrea Lazarek-LaQuay, chief clinical officer at VNA. “We are transforming our model of care delivery and using technology in different ways to engage and empower patients and family members.”

ClearCare Online Integrates with Home Care Pulse

A software platform for home care agencies, ClearCare Online, has integrated to automate the data feeds that support the Home Care Pulse Quality Satisfaction Program, a program from research and quality assurance company Home Care Pulse.

Home Care Pulse gathers detailed feedback from clients and caregivers through telephone calls on behalf of home care business to create reviews.

The new integration from ClearCare allows its customers and Home Care Pulse customers to better organize their lists of interviewees by updating automatically while building quality metrics at the same time, according to a press release.

“Our health care system has evolved where it no longer pays for service, it pays for quality,” Derek Jones, VP of marketing at ClearCare Online, said in the press release. “Home care agencies that prove quality and patient satisfaction have an undeniable advantage when competing for business. We’re proud to partner with Home Care Pulse to give our customers more tools to improve the health care and aging experience of their clients.”

Carter Healthcare Acquires Home Care Company

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma-based home health care provider Carter Healthcare has announced the acquisition of Bonner Springs, Kansas-based Blessed Trinity Home Health Care, Inc.

“We are thrilled to welcome the home health professionals from Blessed Trinity on to the Carter Healthcare team,” Brad Carter, COO at Carter Healthcare, said in the press release. “It is an exciting opportunity to expand into the Kansas and Missouri market. We’ve been helping people in five states live better lives and look forward to helping residents in Kansas and Missouri live better lives.”

With the acquisition of Blessed Trinity, Carter now has more than 50 offices in seven states, including Kansas, Missouri, Florida, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Texas.

“Like Blessed Trinity, Carter Healthcare has an excellent reputation and shares in being a nationally recognized elite home care provider,” said Alice Moore, founder of Blessed Trinity. “They have similar values to Blessed Trinity, and we are very confident that they will be able to expand upon the great works we’ve started and make an even greater impact on the communities we serve.”

Epic Health Services Acquires Pediatric Care Company

Epic Health Services announced its seventh acquisition of the year of Georgia-based pediatric home health care company, Pediatria Healthcare for Kids. With the purchase, Epic will now operate in three new states: Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina.

“Pediatria has a respected reputation, particularly for its pediatric day health centers,” Chris Roussos, president and CEO of Epic, said in a prepared statement. “These centers will add a wonderful new element to our pediatric care continuum, giving us another environment in which to provide care to the most medically fragile of children. We look forward to seeing how we can grow this service line across our current service territory and bring it to the patients and families who need it.”

Pediatria has more than 700 patients across its 29 locations that also offer services beyond home care, such as center-based outpatient care. The acquisition will also expand Epic’s operations in Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Texas, and Louisiana.

Written by Alana Stramowski