Five years in the making, we’ve only just begun!

December 2017 marks a Fifth Anniversary milestone for us at iCare Home Health. Looking back, we’re glad that we chose to build our operation from the ground up in-line with our vision for individualized care at home vs. buying a turn-key cookie cutter franchise.

As a boutique, innovative and creative agency, we built a strong, client centered services’ offering to set us apart from other homecare service providers.

Our Fifth Anniversary comes with some exciting updates:

Coverage & Demographics:

• We’ve grown from our early launch in Oakville, Ontario to our current coverage of Burlington, Oakville, Mississauga, Milton, Georgetown and Toronto.
• iCare Home Health evolved from an Eldercare agency to serve an age demographic ranging from 3 years to 104 years young. Seniors comprise 70% of our clients.

Our Services:

• In addition to our Friend at Home and Personal Support at Home; the demand for our Nurse at Home and mobile nurse program continues to grow.
• We also introduced a unique Expressive Art Program to help stroke affected clients.
• Therapeutic Recreation was introduced last year and continues to grow among our young clients suffering from Autism and mood disorder. In 2017, we started our Physiotherapy at Home service.
• With a certification in Brain Injury Care, our complex care client roaster is also on the rise.
• While 1:1 care remains our core focus, our temporary staffing services for other institutions such as retirement homes, long term care facilities is growing.

Our Team Members, Our Ambassadors:

• We aspire to make iCare Home Health a great place to work by accommodating our team members’ family needs. In turn we are rewarded with low staff turnover and low client churn.
• In 2015, we launched our own on-line training portal for our team to access their training at a convenient time and place that works for them.
• In January 2018, we will rollout our first Employee Benefits Plan for qualified team members. This is a rarity in the private home healthcare space. The added cost to the business is offset with a healthier team, higher performance, loyalty and by extension, happier clients.

Digital Health:

Adopting “Prevention vs. Treatment” approach, we developed our own cross platform app to help our clients and their families better manage their own health. (currently in beta).

Health Espresso provides remote monitoring of body vitals, Drug to Drug Interaction and medication adherence among other features.

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) feature will be especially helpful for those suffering from Alzheimer and dementia.

In Q1/ 2018, Health Espresso will be piloted at our local Hospital in collaboration with Sheridan Centre for Elder Research as part of a research project.

We are currently exploring Virtual Reality (VR) technology and the role it could play in the home healthcare space.

The Digital Health space will continue to grow as a solution to our financially strapped healthcare system. iCare Home Health continues to build solid collaborative partnerships with Age-Well, Canada Infoway, Synapse, IBM Watson Health and others to ensure that the latest in safe Ageing in Place solutions are available to our clients. We appreciate the support of our local RIC, Haltech.

iCare Navigator:

We continue to provide Expert Opinion on legal matters related to Attendant care in addition to Patient Advocacy to navigate the complex Ontario healthcare system.

Research:

Collaboration with like-minded healthcare providers and academia such as Halton Health, Sheridan Centre for Elder Research, Durham College and McMaster University with co-funding from Ontario Centre of Excellence and NSERC continue to grow our insight on how to better serve our clients. We’re proud to be part of the following research projects:

• Aging in Place, Optimizing Health Outcomes through Technology, Design and Inclusion. Partner: Sheridan Centre for Elder Research – 2016
• Use of Artificial Intelligence for Home Healthcare. Partner: Durham College – 2017
• Technology Adoption Among Seniors. 2017 –Sheridan centre for Elder Research – Pilot at Halton Health Q1/ 2018
• Art Therapy for Clients Taking Part in Stroke Rehabilitation. 2017 – Pilot at Oakville Hospital Q1/ 2018
• Use of Sensor Technology to Reduce Adult Falls. Partner: McMaster University 2018.

We Give Back:

We continue to live our Make a Difference value by supporting all six hospitals in Halton and Peel and the Alzheimer Society through direct donations, fundraising and/ or event sponsorship.

We also support smaller community organizations that provide services, that in-turn, support our clients.

We’ve Only Just Begun:

2018 promises to be a busy year. Health Espresso will be spun out as a separate technology subsidiary. With two pilots already planned at our local hospitals and several new institutional clients, the excitement is building.

Looking back at our first five years, it may look like we’ve been busy. Looking ahead, we realize that we’ve only just begun!