Choice Home Health Care, Inc. (CHHC) is a for-profit home health care agency in Bettendorf, Iowa. We opened our doors in April of 2014, we are locally owned and operated. Our service area includes the Quad Cities, population 471,551 with median age of 40.5. Our owners and senior management team bring over 50 years of health care experience to the table and are passionate about the power of home care. Home health is one of the fastest growing small businesses in the United States. According to Harris and Williams Company (2014), “Home health is poised for continued growth as the population of people over 65 years old is expected to expand by over 40% by 2020, as the baby boomer generation ages.

CHHC, is leading our competitors in nontraditional care services, we offer a line of personalized services we call “Boutique”. The word boutique has come a long way from its connection with the spa and garment industry. Today, it is used to promote various health care services that provide a high level of personalized attention to customers’ needs. Common reasons for boutique services include: memory care, after surgical care (plastic surgery, cataract surgery or orthopedic surgery), post birth in home care for Mom and baby and Chronic Disease Education.
We became passionate about memory care when our first dementia patient touched our hearts. In researching in home care resources it quickly became clear that the Quad Cities was lacking specialized in home care for dementia and Alzheimer’s patients. In partnership with our local Alzheimer’s Association we developed a focused program for our own dementia patients which includes targeted training for the care givers and education and resources for the families.

From a revenue standpoint, participating in the program will allow CHHC to obtain more referrals. Alzheimer patients generally have a number of other needs with their healthcare. CHHC will be able to provide care to service those needs, which will increase revenue. It is expected that, with the number of patients that will use the program, CHHC will get 4 referrals per month for other services. Based on the average number of hours that we are currently providing care per patient, this will increase weekly billable hours by 76 hours. This amounts to approximately $80,000 in revenue per year, from just this referral source. It is anticipated that the marketing associated with this will generate patients that don’t participate in the program, but hear about CHHC through it. Overall, CHHC expects to see an increase in revenue of $100,000 per year from participating in the program because it will help differentiate us from other home health providers in the Quad Cities. We feel that it is important to be able to provide unique services to patients to find new revenue streams. This program is a win for the community and a win for CHHC. The revenue generate from the referrals that the program will feed to us will more than sustain it moving forward and also increase net profitability for CHHC.

Resources and references: http://www.AliveInside.com, http://www.alz.org

Choice Home Health Care, Inc. (CHHC) wants to bring the healing power of music to Alzheimer’s patients in the Quad Cities, using a cutting edge but simple program called Music & Memory created by Dan Cohen. Music has been scientifically proven to unlock the memory of patients with memory loss. Musical memory is profoundly linked to emotions. These memories are stored deep in the brain. While Alzheimer’s damages the ability to recall facts and details, it does not destroy these lasting connections between a favorite song and memory of an important life event. When individuals suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia hear a melody connected with a meaningful memory, they are literally reawakened. Music has shown to decrease Sundowners, calm agitation, relieve anxiety, increase engagement in social activities, feeling energized and many regain their ability to converse and connect with those around them (even if it only for a few hours). Nothing including medication has had this big of an impact on the Alzheimer’s patient. The Music & Memory program can grant many patients the gift of living in the home longer by allowing them to reconnect to family, caregivers and friends through the memory of emotions. The program is simple; a trained music and memory specialist with CHHC will interview the patient and their loved ones and develop a personalized playlist based on favorite music, life experience and era.

CHHC has partnered with our local Alzheimer’s Association to spread this program. By partnering with the Alzheimer’s Association, CHHC will be working with the prominent group supporting Alzheimer’s patients in the Quad Cities. We believe this connection will give us a competitive business advantage that no other home health care organization has. This will allow CHHC to be the premier referral source for Alzheimer’s in the Quad Cities, which gives us a competitive advantage over those trying to enter the market. It is our view that this limits competitive threats with similar programs. Currently no one in the community is providing a similar program to this.

If CHHC is the winner of the Dream Big, Grow Here grant funds we would use the $5,000 or $10,000 dollars for the following:
• Become a certified Music & Memory facility $1,000 (Staff training and materials) . Provide iPods and headphones free to any patient in need, provide staff to create playlists and teach caregivers and nursing home personnel how to properly administer the program.
• Purchase a copy of the “Alive Inside” documentary and gain approval to arrange a community showing to raise awareness of the power of music. $1500
• Purchase music and teaching materials from Alzheimer’s Music Connect. They provide a variety of CD’s with music tailored to each generation and almost any genera. They also provide teaching aids, which CHHC will use with their care givers. $300
• Support the purchase of iPod’s and head phones for distribution to our patients, local nursing homes and memory care units. $500
• Last but not least we will create and implement a marketing strategy which positions CHHC as the only home health care agency in the Quad Cities, specializing in at home Alzheimer’s care. The marketing strategy includes contracting with an advertising agency to develop a media blitz, marketing materials and social media campaign. Furthermore, we would use a portion of the funding to create support groups and materials for care givers of Alzheimer’s patients. Base cost $2,000 and depending on the services requested can be as much as $5,000.

Alzheimer’s the 6th leading cause of death in the United States. What is unique about Alzheimer’s is it’s the only top 10 cause of death without a way to prevent, cure or even slow the progression. Additionally, it has the lowest number of dollars spent on research. According to "National Institutes Of Health” (2014), “The amount spent on the major diseases includes over $6 billion a year on cancer research, over $4 billion on heart disease research and over $3 billion on HIV/AIDS research. But it spends only $480 million on Alzheimer's research. This has to change (Cost of Care). According to the “Alzheimer’s Association” (2010), “From 2010 to 2050, the total costs of care for Americans age 65 and older with Alzheimer’s disease will increase five-fold, from $172 billion to $1.08 trillion per year. These dollar amounts represent the direct costs of care to all types of payers, including insurance companies, families” (Changing the Trajectory of Alzheimer's disease). Nothing has inspired us more and we feel strongly that many persons struggling with memory loss and their care givers will benefit greatly from this program while increasing revenue and profitability for CHHC and allowing our business to grow and meet the goals that we had when we started.

Resources and references: http://www.AliveInside.com, http://www.alz.org, Michael Rossato-Bennett and Dan Cohen.