https://www.asnmarketingplan.com/senior-care-industry-netcast-linda-bass-around-the-clock-medical-alarms/
Episode 49 of the Senior Care Industry Netcast is live!
We were fortunate enough to have Linda Bass, https://www.aroundtheclockmedicalalarms.com/, on our show and she offered some great insight and #advice for other #seniorcare and #healthcare providers.
https://www.asnmarketingplan.com/senior-care-industry-netcast-linda-bass-around-the-clock-medical-alarms/
Episode 49 of the Senior Care Industry Netcast is live!
We were fortunate enough to have Linda Bass, https://www.aroundtheclockmedicalalarms.com/, on our show and she offered some great insight and #advice for other #seniorcare and #healthcare providers.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
This is Valerie Vanbooven with the Senior Care Industry NetCast where leaders with three or more years of experience in the senior care industry share their advice. It's six questions in nine minutes, so let's get to it. In a few sentences, tell us who you are and what you do?
Linda Bass:
Good morning. My name is Linda Bass. I am the owner of Around the Clock Medical Alarms. We are a nationwide provider of the PERS device, which is a personal emergency response service. Basically, it's the button. We are here to help people to maintain their independence, to stay safe at home as long as they possibly can.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
I know you do a great job with that. What is the best thing about serving seniors and their families?
Linda Bass:
I think the best thing that I get from my job is the ability to help individuals to maintain their independence, to age in place, to enable them to have the peace of mind that they can stay at home rather than feeling like their only option is to move in with their kids or go to a community.
Linda Bass:
Those things are good, but you know statistically people can live in their homes, on average, six years longer if they have a PERS device. It is very, very important for people to realize the benefit that the assurance they get, the ability to get help in an emergency situation, and it doesn't necessarily only have to be lights and sirens. It could be they don't feel good and they want their kids to come check on them.
Linda Bass:
Rather than risk standing to get to a phone to call someone for help and risk falling, they can set where they're at, push their button and our response center would get that help that they need.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
I can personally attest to this because my husband's mother had a PERS device for years and years, and I will tell you that if she hadn't had that she would have been in assisted living or nursing home care a lot sooner.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Now she's 86 years old and she is in a nursing home. She has severe mobility issues now, but she was at home with her necklace or her wristband on, and I can say she probably used it over those years maybe three or four times. But those three or four times kept her from having a serious injury, serious fall.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
In a couple of cases, she did need to go to the emergency room, but it wasn't anything that couldn't be fixed, and we were so glad that she had a way to get a hold of Charlie's sister or us or someone to come over and check on her. They really are lifesavers.
Linda Bass:
Absolutely.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
All right. Let's switch gears for a second and talk a little bit about online marketing because you have a nationwide business, and you have a website and folks can go to your website, which we will put with your video, your interview here, so people can locate you and talk to you about whatever it is that they have questions about. I understand that online marketing can be challenging. We know it's ever changing. What has been your experience or your thoughts with all of that?
Linda Bass:
Well, to sum it up, my grandmother was born in 1909 and she was proverbially always giving words of wisdom, tidbits. One of her favorite things that she said whenever things were just overwhelming was that you had to be a Philadelphia lawyer to understand how to make that operate or to make it work. I feel like that is absolutely true because the rules are constantly changing.
Linda Bass:
My expertise is not in trying to market my business. My expertise is to help people to realize that we're an option, and to be able to enabling them to get our service so that they can be protected, so that they can get the help they need. To advertise is very important for any business, I don't care who you are, but it's difficult to know all the rules and all the guidelines. As I said, you got to be a Philadelphia lawyer.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yeah, you do. It's definitely one of those things where you really want to... You're an expert at what you do, and we need experts like you everywhere to help people stay in their homes longer. But to be an expert on online marketing is a whole nother full time job, for sure.
Linda Bass:
Absolutely, and kudos to those who have the knowledge and the expertise to do that.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Okay. Let's talk about your experience and folks that have maybe made an impression on your career or your life. I'm sure there are other folks out there, whether they're in the industry or maybe your parents, grandparents, or organizations that you just feel like do a really good job. Is there anybody you'd like to give a shout out to?
Linda Bass:
Well, I think we're all a product of our experiences. In 1972, I was six years old and my mother passed away. My grandparents on my dad's side stepped up and actually took me on to raise. They were both retired and that was unheard of back then. It's pretty common today. However, back then it was not.
Linda Bass:
As a result of that, my experience with my upbringing and my ability to understand what families go through, it was learned at a very early age. They taught me things that I could never repay them for the knowledge that they instilled in me and the values. But they also enabled me to realize that my calling in life is to help older folks because that's what I've done all my life.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Nice.
Linda Bass:
I think that that is where we all learn from past experiences that it makes us who we are. My grandparents helped me to become a person that I am so glad because, honestly, I was born in a big city and I was taken away from that environment and put on a 120 acre farm in the middle of nowhere.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yeah.
Linda Bass:
Going back to visit friends as I was growing up in that city. I remember one visit with a girl that was my best friend and I was probably about 11 or 12 years old. I went to visit her, ran up to her. She was having a pool party in the backyard. She had an above ground pool and she looked at me and she smoked on a cigarette and looked me up and down and said, "Oh yeah. I remember you."
Linda Bass:
I felt so uncomfortable, and I looked at my sister-in- law and I said, "Well, it's nice seeing you again," and I walked away and as we were walking down the driveway, I looked at my sister-in-law and I said, "I think, Barbara, you need to take me back to the farm." Because it was an entirely different situation, and I know that had I been left in that environment, I would be a totally different person than I am today.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
You know what? I totally agree. You know what? There's something to be said about the 120 acre farm. It's a lot of hard work.
Linda Bass:
Cows, chickens, pigs, horses, we had them all. Garden, we had it all.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
We live in a very suburban community, but our school district is a farming community and the girls are just mesmerized. I mean, we live in a small, very small school district with lots and lots of farms and kids that are raised on farms a lot of them out here. I always tell them, you need to go to somebody's house and learn what this is like because it's a lot of hard work, but it's so rewarding. This is a great life.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Anyway, I love it that you were raised on a farm. I think that's amazing. I was the little city girl, but I would go to my grandmother's house in Kentucky and city girl was afraid of bugs and afraid of everything outside. I got a lot of ribbing for that because I was afraid of bugs.
Linda Bass:
Right.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yeah. I love farm life. All right. What piece of advice would you give to other senior care providers out there?
Linda Bass:
Well, I think the main thing that I would like to relay is that we are in this together and our goal is to help senior populous, or those that are ill, to be able to maintain their independence, to stay safe, to live their life in their homes and with the quality of life that they deserve, and integrity.
Linda Bass:
What I would ask is that we work together. When we are with our clients or we hear something that our client says to us regarding a change in their health, or ask them, "Do you need extra assistance? What kind of things do you think you would be in need of?" And relay that to their families, because a lot of times we can be a trusted advisor, but we can also be a confidant.
Linda Bass:
If we reach out to our customers when we are able to speak with them, listen to what they say, help them to be able to find the resources that are available because there's a lot of resources out there. Enable them to trust you. Don't go tattletale to their family, but reach out to their family and just express your concern and tell them, I don't want to break this trust because we want future communication between the two of us also.
Linda Bass:
That will enable them to have a better life and a better quality of life, and to enable them to get the help they need rather than waiting until it's too late. A lot of times they won't tell anybody, not even their doctor, even if they have a fall. If there's not visible signs, they're not going to tell anybody. But if you have that relationship with that individual and they trust you, they will talk to you. Listen, and then share that and forward that on so that they can get the help they need.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Very good advice, and I love the advice of sharing resources. Because, for instance, a home care agency has a lot of clients that probably would benefit from introducing a personal emergency response system. If they want to keep that client at home and in home care, having that device available and on that person is probably the best idea ever.
Linda Bass:
Absolutely.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Because that'll keep them in home care, but also keep them at home.
Linda Bass:
Right. Well, the thing is, is that a medical alert can be an extension of that home care service because they are there 24/7 with that person when your caregiver is not. If Mrs. Smith has an event, say she falls and her family is aware that she fell or the home care agency itself can be a responder and be notified. If you are aware of that situation, then you can be more proactive in their care. You can assist them, because it may be that that person has a urinary tract infection and they just need an antibiotic.
Linda Bass:
But if they fall and they do not have any signs of that, they don't have any bruising or anything and visible to the caregiver, and the caregiver is not aware, if she falls later because the progression of that UTI, she would then possibly lose her independence. Because if something happens like that and she gets hurt, her family's going to say, "Well, that's not going to happen again," they yank them a lot of times.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yeah.
Linda Bass:
Collaboratively, we can help them to be able to be proactive rather than reactive to the care of those individuals, and we're there when they're not. It's a wonderful relationship, and we do work with agencies in that regard, but I'm trying to help people to realize that that is very important, that they need advocates everywhere.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yeah. Absolutely, and I'm glad you said UTI because I will say that the biggest challenges that I saw with Charlie's mom and some of the things that happened there was when she got a UTI, for whatever reason, that was the biggest challenge. That's the moment she couldn't get up out of bed by herself. That's the moment that she fell. Those are the things that... Because it took a toll on her joints. I know people get confused as well when they get a UTI, and it's not really apparent as to what's wrong, but something that simple to fix could easily be the reason that they're falling.
Linda Bass:
Right.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
I don't know how else to explain it, but it would really affect her joints, that UTI, terribly. She would have a hard time with mobility on top of her other issues with mobility.
Linda Bass:
Right. Right. It just adds fuel to the fire, unfortunately. Again, awareness, being proactive, looking and trying to listen and make sure that they deserve the best quality care that they can, and we can help together to be able to assist them in that regard.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. All right. My last question is supposed to be a fun one.
Linda Bass:
Okay.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
When you have a win in life, and that could be anything. It could be a marriage, it could be a new baby in the family, it could be a birthday, or it could be that you just know today, you helped somebody. How do you like to celebrate?
Linda Bass:
Typically what I do is a no cook Friday.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yeah. I'm going to use that.
Linda Bass:
We go to our favorite restaurant, and we like a Mexican restaurant here in town, and go and just enjoy the food. Of course, with COVID, it's been a little difficult to do, but that is really my go to. Just to relax and have a margarita and not have to cook. That's always win/win.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Right. No cook Monday through Friday.
Linda Bass:
Any day that ends in day.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yeah. No cook Friday. That's a good one. I haven't had that one before. I've had martinis.
Linda Bass:
Hopefully, that could become a trend.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
Yeah, I've had martinis. I've had all kinds of dancing but no cook Friday.
Linda Bass:
No cook Friday. Bring on the celebration.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
All right. Yeah. Okay. That's good. Well, I want to thank you for being on the show and for helping us learn more about what you do and that you're nationwide and that we'll make sure your website's, like I said, available if folks are wanting to know more about what a personal emergency response system is, and you showed us your necklace.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
I'm sure most people have seen the commercial with the necklace or the bracelet. They also can be very pretty now. I know that a lot of people will say, "Oh, well, you know." But they have some really pretty necklaces to go with them now. I mean, they can be a fashion statement like they didn't use to be.
Linda Bass:
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN:
I will make sure everybody has your information, so thank you, Linda. We appreciate it.
Linda Bass:
Thank you. Appreciate it.