Non-medical home care provider Caring Senior Service recently revamped its C-suite, adding a new chief operating officer and chief technology officer. The leadership changes come as the company undertakes a major overhaul of its technology stack, including a custom-built electronic medical record (EMR). With plans to add eight to 10 new franchisees each year and […] The post Caring Senior Service Banks Growth Goals On New House-Made Technology appeared first on Home Health Care News.
Non-medical home care provider Caring Senior Service recently revamped its C-suite, adding a new chief operating officer and chief technology officer. The leadership changes come as the company undertakes a major overhaul of its technology stack, including a custom-built electronic medical record (EMR).
With plans to add eight to 10 new franchisees each year and nearly double its footprint over the next five years, Caring Senior Service is betting that its upgraded infrastructure will usher the company into a technology-enabled future and elevate its care models, the company’s two newest executives told Home Health Care News.
“We’re going to be able to expand using this software to streamline workflows, integrate a lot of AI into our daily operations and really elevate that level of care and support that we can provide,” Justin McAdoo, CTO, told HHCN. “The success for me is about ensuring that this new platform is rolled out smoothly and it becomes a powerful tool for our entire network.”
San Antonio, Texas-based Caring Senior Service provides personal, respite and companion care, as well as specialty services lines including Alzheimer’s and stroke care. The founder-led organization operates over 50 locations across 21 states.
The company opted for a from-scratch approach for its tech stack – which new COO Ken Doty described as an “incredible challenge” – to preserve its operating processes.
“When you look at off-the-shelf types of products, a lot of times you have to modify your business, your services and your processes to accommodate the software,” Doty told HHCN. “In this situation, from ground level up, this has been built strictly on the working and the process of taking care of seniors in their home.”
When shopping for readily available software solutions, there is always something to love, but also something to dislike, McAdoo said, which can result in being “handcuffed by a system.”
The new platform is the company’s second crack at bespoke software. The first version, which the company currently has in place, is “excellent,” McAdoo said. It was already focused on providing caregivers with the most pertinent information to help save time and support clients. Still, the company has learned from the first iteration and implemented those lessons in the new version.
The overhauled model is designed to push the Caring Senior Service’s efficiency to new heights and eliminate “ankle biter issues” that caregivers face when completing paperwork. The organization is in the middle of rolling out the software, testing it with different groups within its franchise system and iterating it based on user feedback.
New COO Doty’s top priorities revolve around providing the highest quality of care to its clients, which includes the technology shift.
“My priorities are really around bringing the team together and allowing our founder and Justin to stay hyper focused on providing us the technologies and the solutions and helping our team get ready for what I would consider to be a … growth opportunity, not only for carrying senior service, but for the industry as a whole,” Doty said.
The company’s leadership team works together tightly, so much so that C-suite executives can hear each other speak from their desks. The company’s goals, which include adding eight to 10 franchisees each year, are posted on its office wall. That level of communication and collaboration is key to achieving founder and CEO Jeff Salter’s vision, the new executives said.
Pathways to success
Both Doty and McAdoo describe their job histories as untraditional among others who hold similar roles.
McAdoo worked for a decade at Verge Mobile, a franchise-based, T-Mobile authorized retailer. There, he grew the organization from 16 locations to 220, he said, and built technology systems to support 1,300 people. While lacking a traditional engineering background, the executive said his later experience founding a software startup taught him to scale mult-unit technologies and leverage technology to make front-line workers’ jobs easier.
Doty worked early on as a consultant for human resources within the home-based care industry, building custom solutions designed to help identify potential caregivers who believed their roles were a calling, and not just a job. He also founded a property management real estate company before launching a technology firm. He next took on roles with Maids International, a franchise residential cleaning service organization, where he worked as chief information officer, chief development officer and COO.
While leveraging their varied job histories to achieve the company’s bold goals for growth, the new executives face challenges often seen in the home-based care industry.
For McAdoo, it’s a challenge for him as a “tech guy” not to get over-enthusiastic about innovating.
“There’s a concern that too much technology could make care feel less personal,” he said. “Technology is not here to replace the human touch. … It’s really here to protect it. By taking the administrative burden off the caregivers, technology actually gives them more time to focus on the meaningful relationships and connections that they have with the seniors.”
Doty has identified barriers that he says are common in established franchisor-franchisee relationships.
“It is the engagement and the adoption of that new technology,” he said. “It’s the engagement and adoption of new structured programs and so forth. As you bring on new franchisees, that’s pretty easy to do because that’s the only thing they know. But for franchisees that have history, it becomes a little bit more of a challenge to get them to engage and want to become part of the process. That, to me, is a very basic barrier with the franchisor-franchisee process.”
Secondarily, Doty aims to overcome any misaligned mindsets and ensure that the entire team operates with a growth mindset.
“I believe we’re getting there, and that will be a major win for us,” he said.
The post Caring Senior Service Banks Growth Goals On New House-Made Technology appeared first on Home Health Care News.
