The founders say a new way of organizing home health care is better for patients, their families and the caregivers who help them.
Hoʻokele means “to navigate” and for more than a decade, Hoʻokele Health Services has helped O’ahu seniors and their families find their way to home health care services.
In 2019, Ho’okele founding partners Dew-Anne Langcaon and Bonnie Castonguay leveraged over 50 years of combined healthcare industry experience to launch Vivia.
Langcaon says it’s a neighborhood-based model for home health services that spans across O’ahu, Maui and Washington, with more locations on the mainland which are expected to open within the next year. Langcaon says the pandemic intensified the shortage of caregivers in Hawaii and made home care services “unaffordable for a lot of people, and it was starting to become just a service for the wealthy.”
After talking extensively with staff, clients and their families, Langcaon says, it became clear that technology could help make care more accessible and affordable by solving logistical and staffing issues that are contributing to rising costs. .
Staffing shortages have been addressed by guaranteeing qualified caregivers full-time work in the areas where they live and subsidizing their transportation with company cars. Langcaon says productivity and patient outcomes improve as caregivers build trust and relationships through personalized visits to service areas in their neighborhoods.
Technology has also improved communication, planning, reporting and accounting. Clients and their families can design plans for the care they need instead of paying for full days or half days of service they don’t get, Langcaon says.
Full-time care at an assisted living facility can cost anywhere from $8,000 to $10,000 a month, Langcaon says. Home care services are significantly more affordable, but are often not covered by insurance. For example, one of Vivia’s clients, an 85-year-old man, was having difficulty managing his diabetes medications and diet.
“Vivia’s personalized plan, designed for him, improved his overall health and saved the family more than $2,000 per month compared to if they had chosen traditional care services with a minimum of four hours per day. This translated into savings of $25,000 per year. He also likely avoided countless hospitalizations and emergency room visits due to his improved health,” says the case study published online by Vivia.
“The needs of these seniors are so personal,” says Langcaon, “depending on their health status, their cognitive abilities, their financial budget, where their family lives. Each person’s needs are so different that the challenge is to create an effective way to care for them while respecting all of their individual needs.
