Welcome to ElderCARE!
Welcome to ElderCARE! As I’ve been contemplating the launch of the company and this initial blog I struggled to think of the perfect topic. After many starts, I decided it was important to share the story of ElderCARE. My original company was conceived over 20 years ago when I was a critical care nurse at a community hospital in south Florida. As you can imagine, we had many winter residents from the north, or “snowbirds” who came south to avoid winters and enjoy the warm sunshine and cool breezes. Unfortunately, a few would occasionally end up in the ICU, where I took care of them. It was there I began to ponder:
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Who is advocating for these patients when their families fly home?
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Who is helping them navigate their healthcare and recover their independence?
It was those questions that led me to become a geriatric care manager. After several years of growing the company and my family, I realized it was time to focus solely on our girls and I sold the company.
Fast forward to 2019 and we had been living in Franklin for over 10 years. I was happily working as a healthcare consultant for a national company supporting health systems improve care coordination. It was then I believe God let me know it was time to bring back ElderCARE. Restarting the company had crossed my mind over the years, but this was different, and I knew it was time. Then, the pandemic happened and life as we knew it was turned upside down in all of our families and in healthcare. In over 37 years in nursing, I’ve never seen anything like the changes I’ve witnessed over the last 24 months.
In the process of starting the company I asked God for a “tribe” — a group of like-minded professionals who shared my heart and passion for the aging in our community. And what an amazing tribe I’ve been given– four accomplished women who have skills, knowledge, and desire to jump into care coordination and partner with individuals and families to identify and achieve “what matters” most. I encourage you to read their bio’s and get to know them.
One last point I want to make: The concept of “What matters” was actually coined by the Institute of Healthcare Improvement (IHI) when they defined the 4 M’s of aging, which are mobility, mentation, medication, and what matters. They believe that we need to change the conversation from “What’s the matter?” to “What matters most?” I just love that concept and it has become the foundation for ElderCARE!
Our goal is to help you define what matters most and assist you in achieving that goal. There will be more in the coming weeks on this blog page, and you will hear from each of the team members about new strategies, community resources, national days of focus on aging, and other innovations we want you to know about. In addition, we may also have guest bloggers from our community who have something important to share. We are honored that you’ve taken time to get to know us and visited our website. We look forward to meeting with you and learning how we can support you or a loved one define “what matters.”
~Donna