Improving Care Coordination for Aging New Yorkers

Morningside House pioneering the use of comprehensive in-home health data and online care management tools in New York

Morningside House pioneering the use of comprehensive in-home health data and online care management tools in New York

NEW YORK, NY, October 15, 2012 — eCaring, the nation’s first in-home health monitoring company, announced today that it has been chosen as a strategic technology partner by Morningside House Long Term Home Health Care, a member of Aging in America’s family of providers. The selection is part of the provider’s larger effort to improve care coordination and reduce hospital readmission for ethnically diverse older New Yorkers.

Morningside House oversees five subsidiaries delivering care to thousands of people annually in the Bronx, Westchester, Rockland and Long Island.

“Morningside House has a long history of launching innovative programs to keep our patients at home, with the best possible care,” said Dr. William T. Smith, president and CEO of Aging in America. “Integrating eCaring into in-home care will allow us to continue improving quality of care, reduce patient re-hospitalizations and lower healthcare expenditures.”

By capturing real-time information about a patient’s care, conditions and status from the home, eCaring will enable Morningside’s clinical staff to monitor, communicate, and triage rapid changes in a patient’s status to avoid costly ER visits and prevent deterioration. The program will run with a select group of frail elderly patients who are at high-risk for hospitalization and vulnerable to rapid changes in medical conditions.

“eCaring is easy to use, yet the system captures an unprecedented amount of real-time data from the patient’s home — something that we have never had before. It’s the ideal tool for transitioning into the managed care environment and facilitating New York State’s Medicaid Redesign Initiatives,” said Ms. Laura Hernandez, RN, MSN, vice president of home care and director of patient services at Morningside House Long Term Home Health Care. “eCaring will help us to enhance our care coordination capabilities, allowing the older adults we service to remain safely at home, longer, and at a lower cost.”

Family members and caregivers also stand to benefit from the partnership. Using eCaring’s interactive system, family caregivers can monitor their loved ones’ care, activities and state of mind 24/7. With instantaneous alerts and customizable reports, caregivers can remain aware of problems or conditions.

“By embracing the power of real-time home monitoring, Morningside House is one of the first home health care providers to offer this type of care,” said eCaring CEO, Robert Herzog. “This partnership will potentially improve care coordination for thousands of ethnically diverse aging New Yorkers and give peace of mind to their families knowing that they can check in on their loved ones from any Internet-connected device, any time of the day.”

In addition to partnering with Morningside House Long Term Home Health Care, eCaring is starting trials with Maimonides Medical Center and Beth Israel Medical Center to reduce preventable readmissions through timely access to clinical and behavioral data from a patient’s home.

Media Contact:
Nina Dunn
nina@spectorpr.com
212-943-5858

About eCaring

eCaring is a privately held, New York-based technology company that uniquely integrates behavioral and clinical data to provide a real-time, round-the-clock home health care management and monitoring system for seniors and people with chronic conditions. The unique web-based platform allows hospitals, family caregivers and care providers to spot changes in a patient’s normal patterns, receive alerts when intervention is required to keep small problems in the home from becoming big ones in the hospital, and improve information sharing among all health care providers. www.ecaring.com

About Morningside House Long Term Home Health Care

Morningside House Long Term Home Health Care Program (LTHHCP) is also known as the “nursing home without walls” program. It is certified by the New York State Department of Health and offers a coordinated plan of medical, nursing and rehabilitative care provided at home to persons who are medically eligible for placement in a nursing home. In addition to regular Medicaid services, special waiver services that are not ordinarily covered by Medicaid may be available such as case management by RNs, housing improvements and moving assistance, respiratory therapy, medical social services, nutrition and dietary services, respite care, social day care and social transportation. Morningside House LTHHCP has been in operation since 1990.