July 16, 2025 • 29 mins
Jennifer Maxwell of Maxwell TEC shares how patient-centered technology is transforming home-based care by focusing on how patients feel rather than just clinical measurements.
• Personalized care plans should prioritize patient feelings over diagnostic measurements
• Technology can enable real-time patient feedback through simple text messaging
• Effective remote patient monitoring doesn't require complicated or expensive equipment
• Solutions that remain available post-discharge maintain connection and prevent readmissions
• Employee satisfaction directly correlates with patient outcomes and satisfaction
• Automated check-ins with staff can identify concerns before they lead to turnover
• Family engagement through text updates keeps distant caregivers informed
• Real-time feedback allows agencies to address concerns immediately
• Technology should integrate people, process, and tools for maximum effectiveness
• The ultimate goal is to enable more people to age in place with dignity
Episode Resources:
- Blog: The future of home and community care: Predictions for 2025 and beyond
- Blog: The key to better client experience? Improving communication between home and community care providers and clients
- Guide: How employee experience drives success in home and community care
- Guide: The Future of AI in Home and Community Care
- Guide: The Effects of Machine Learning Powered Remote Patient Monitoring on Home Health Care
- Podcast: Unlocking AI’s potential in home and community care with Naomi Goldapple
- Podcast: Using AI to automate key processes in home and community care with Jeff Salter
If you liked this episode and want to learn more about all things home-based care, you can explore all our episodes at alayacare.com/homehealth360.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jennifer Maxwell (00:00):
A lot of times .
What we've found through ourtechnology is that we want to
know how the patient is actuallyfeeling.
When you think aboutpatient-centered, you want to
know what they feel, notnecessarily what the diagnostics
are telling you.
Diagnostics can mean one thingcompletely different than how
that patient is feeling in themoment.
And if we really get thatpatient's words and feelings,
(00:22):
then our clinicians can dobetter at the bedside and be
more prompt and more effectiveand efficient with patient care.
One of our big things we talkabout is right care, right time
and if we have the patient athand, being able to direct that
care, that makes our cliniciansthat much more able to be able
to provide the outcomes that thepatients are actually looking
(00:44):
for.
Erin Vallier (00:55):
Welcome to another episode of the Home Health 360
podcast, where we speak tohome-based care professionals
from around the globe.
I'm your host, Erin Vallier,and today I am joined by
Jennifer Maxwell, co-founder andCEO of Maxwell Health
Associates, or MHA for short.
Jennifer partners directly withclients, empowering them to
(01:18):
reach new levels of operational,technological, regulatory and
financial efficiency.
She brings a wealth ofexperience into this role,
having previously served as CEOand Executive Director of the
Minnesota Home Care Associationand an Executive Account Manager
at a leading home health andhospice consulting firm.
(01:38):
In these positions, shedesigned and managed numerous
client engagements focused onstaff augmentation, acquisition
support due Masionic Children'sHospital and CHAP Community
(02:08):
Health Accreditation Program.
I love that program.
By the way.
Earlier in Jennifer's career,she gained valuable experience
working with the agingpopulation through her work
running adult community serviceprograms at Mesa County
Department of Human Services.
And Jennifer holds a master'sdegree in counseling and a
bachelor's degree in psychology,and previously served as an
(02:31):
adjunct professor of psychologyand sociology at Colorado
Christian University.
My goodness, what a resume.
Thank you so much for coming onthe show, jennifer.
Jennifer Maxwell (02:42):
Oh, thank you, Erin, I'm excited to be here
today.
Erin Vallier (02:45):
Yeah, I'm excited to chat with you about the topic
at hand, which is patientoutcomes improving patient
outcomes.
I think you, based on yourtenure and your experience, are
the perfect person to talk aboutthis, and I know that you've
been speaking recently aboutpersonalized care plans, so I
thought maybe we would startwith a question in this
(03:08):
particular area.
I know that MHA has developedtools such as Nanaconnect Is
that right?
Nanaconnect?
Yes, these are to enhancepatient engagement through daily
check-ins and customizablemessaging.
So I'm curious, I want to learna little bit more about this
tool.
But also I want to know how doyou see such technologies
(03:30):
transforming the creation andthe implementation of
personalized care plans in thehome, health and hospice
settings?
Jennifer Maxwell (03:38):
Over the years , tom and I husband and business
partner in this space we'vedeveloped a lot of tech-enabled
kind of services and technologythat can bolt on to an
electronic medical record.
It gives the clinicians at thebedside a better bird's eye view
of how the patient is feelingin the moment, versus through
(03:58):
technology that is moreantiquated, like a blood
pressure cuff or a pulseoximeter or something that is a
delayed response.
And a lot of times what we'vefound through our technology is
that we want to know how thepatient is actually feeling.
When you think aboutpatient-centered, you want to
know what they feel, notnecessarily what the diagnostics
(04:19):
are telling you.
Diagnostics can mean one thingcompletely different than how
that patient is feeling in themoment.
And if we really get thatpatient's being able to direct
that care, that makes ourclinicians that much more able
(04:48):
to be able to provide theoutcomes that the patients are
actually looking for.
Erin Vallier (04:53):
I love that, and you are so right.
It's a lot about how thepatient is feeling rather than
what's on the piece of paper.
I know, speaking fromexperience.
You know you go in and you talkto them and you're like
nothing's wrong.
That's not true.
I'm feeling different, and soto be able to meet somebody
where they are in their home, Ithink is super important and
will help them stay there.
(05:13):
I want to touch a little bit onsomething else I know you're
keen on, which is remote patientmonitoring.
This has become much morepopular and accepted since COVID
and with that increasingadoption.
I'm sure that there arechallenges that providers are
still facing when they go tointegrate these technologies
into their workflows.
I'm curious what are some ofthose challenges and how can
(05:36):
they be addressed so that we canuse these technologies to
improve patient outcomes?
Jennifer Maxwell (05:41):
When we think of tech-enabled care at MHA, we
think of what is least invasive,least costly, a positive ROI
from both, not only employeesatisfaction, patient
satisfaction, family engagementas well as a financial reward at
the other end of it becausethey are a business at the end
of the day along with compliance.
(06:03):
So we develop tech that doesn'trequire a bunch of sign-ons,
applications, downloading,things like that.
We wanted to be able to use andleverage something as simple as
the phone to be able to get topeople.
I mean, when we think about howwe live through our technology
(06:25):
of a cell phone nowadays or aniPad, even for the elderly,
that's like real time, right.
And so if we can make somethingas simple as a text message
that says hey, on a scale of oneto five, how are you feeling
right now?
And we know that if it's athree or under, we need to get a
clinician to pick up the phoneand call, right.
(06:45):
So that's how we can have thatreal-time interaction without
having to have all of the layersthat normal HIPAA-compliant
technology requires.
So we are able to still stayextremely HIPAA-compliant
because we're not exchanging anyPHI, we're not creating an app
that has to be downloaded andupdated every time there is a
(07:06):
new rule or regulation, everytime we come out with a new rule
, a lot of these apps end uphaving to get pulled down out of
the app stores because theyhave to go through their
compliance testing as well.
So we eliminated andcircumvented all of those pieces
to be real time things that areeasy and accessible, that
(07:26):
clinicians can see, thatpatients can see, that even
remote family caregivers can see, especially when you think
about working with a dementiapatient.
My mother has dementia dementiaand so it's nice when, as a
family caregiver who lives inArizona full time and she's in
Minnesota, I can get a textmessage saying, hey, this is
(07:48):
going on with your mom, or hey,she said X, y or Z and her
Likert scale.
So then I can pick up the phoneand call the assisted living
and say, hey, what's going on,you know, or they can reach out
to me and we have a better reallive time interaction and
patient intervention and careplan changes as we need them,
(08:09):
not in retrospect, maybe a weekor two weeks later, having that
that care conference.
That happens once a month.
Erin Vallier (08:18):
interesting, take on it.
So it sounds like you're notproposing all of these
complicated tools and expensivetools to be placed and monitored
and all this stuff, that youcan actually use some of this
stuff that you already have,like an iPad, a telephone, just
to create a different kind ofremote patient monitoring
program that achieves the sameresult but in a different way
(08:39):
that is maybe less barrier toentry for a provider who's
providing the service, because Ithink correct me if I'm wrong
there's still some questions,gray areas about reimbursement
for these types of programs,which make partnering with a
service or buying a whole bunchof gear to place into homes that
might not be feasible.
(08:59):
Can you speak a little bitabout that, not?
Jennifer Maxwell (09:02):
be feasible.
Can you speak a little bitabout that?
Where we kind of started ourjourney with our tech enabled
was remote patient monitoringapparatus, the setup and
everything.
It's really great.
And the cup when you think ofthe blood pressure cup, the
weight, the scale, all thethings that it does.
You as a caregiver, coming intothe home from home health agency
(09:22):
, abc or whatever, you're goingto bring in this really cool
technology to this patient'shome.
They are going to then startengaging with that.
That becomes their tool ofcommunication back and forth,
because a lot of these folkslive alone and there's not a lot
of interaction on the daily.
So for them to be able to usetheir technology to have
(09:45):
communication and interactionwith their caregiver, they
become very attached.
Well then, if it's a homehealth patient and they come to
the end of their episode of homehealth, the last thing you do
is you take away that technologythat they have become very
accustomed to and now you don'thave the patient satisfaction
scores that you needpost-discharge.
(10:08):
So you've taken the patient offon the last visit by taking
away their security blanket.
This doesn't do that anymore.
It's always there.
They can refer to it.
When we look at our productstoo.
We even look at post-discharge.
How do we stay in contact withthose patients post-discharge?
(10:28):
We can keep them in a catchmentarea, not only for the home
health agency, but also to makesure that there isn't the
re-hospitalization, a fall orisolation or any of those things
that could potentially causethe need for reinstatement of
care.
Erin Vallier (10:46):
I love that.
I love that it's a way to keepin contact, even when you're not
officially serving them.
That way, when they needsomething, they know where to go
.
Jennifer Maxwell (10:55):
Yeah, you're the first point of contact,
right.
Erin Vallier (10:58):
They know you.
You said something aboutpatient satisfaction, which is a
good segue for my next questionfor you, and do you have a
partnership with a tool orservice called Levo and that
focuses on enhancing employeeengagement, and this is with the
purpose of reducing staffturnover?
We all know this is a hugeproblem.
(11:19):
We all know this is a hugeproblem.
I'd like to learn a little bitmore about Levo, like what is
that, how does it work and howdoes employee satisfaction
correlate with patientsatisfaction and reduced
hospitalization rates?
Jennifer Maxwell (11:34):
What have you seen to be effective in this
area in working with Jason Yuand his team pretty closely, is
that what we find is when youonboard a new clinician, you
either have a really goodonboarding process, education,
support, those types of thingsor you're constantly doing that
(11:55):
revolving door and it's justlike get them in, get them in
the door, get them through thepaces and then shove them out
into the home.
And that's no fault of anyorganization out there, I mean,
they're all struggling.
So what Level does is it doesthose check-ins and so it can
catch that clinician.
It's almost like a satisfactionscore for an employee.
(12:16):
Do you feel supported?
Do you feel you've gottenenough education?
What could we do differently?
All of those things that in yourfirst 60, 90 days of onboarding
in an agency can be veryoverwhelming, especially with a
clinician who's new to maybe thetechnology.
The patient set any of thosethings, and so being able to
(12:39):
catch that and then work withthose employees up front makes
for that seamless like when youhave a happy employee, you have
happy patients.
Right leads into patient careand patient satisfaction,
(13:04):
whether it's the patient takingthe side of the caregiver in the
home, right, and saying, well,this agency isn't taking care of
my caregiver and I really likemy caregiver.
So there's two sides to that.
So if the employee that'scoming into the home to provide
the care is happy and healthythemselves, then that's a happy,
healthy interaction as wellwith the patient, which then
(13:25):
yields to better patientoutcomes and patient
satisfaction scores.
Erin Vallier (13:30):
Yeah, all very important points.
Yeah, the attitude of somebodygoing to the home does make an
impact.
Attitude is everything and okay, yeah, that's really good and
I'm imagining how this works.
Is it automated?
So is it like 30, 60, 90automated check-ins that are
customized by the organizationto ask certain things?
Jennifer Maxwell (13:52):
and yes, we've been working with some agencies
where, like, there has beennewer turnover, so you have
younger clinicians and thenthere's clinicians that have
also been there quite some timebut maybe not as familiar with
technology, and so I think youhave two buckets right People
who are not really used to theadvancements of the technology,
and how do you support themthrough that process, as well as
(14:14):
those that are just new to thespace.
And how do you navigate that?
Nurses that are coming from aclinic-based setting or
brick-and-mortar setting it's avery different environment.
You are now a doctor, the nurse, you're the evaluator, right,
instead of getting to push thecall button and have the
(14:35):
physician come down the hallwayor the group of nurses to come
in and consult with.
So there's a lot of pressuresthat can potentially be put on
clinicians that are newer to thespace and want to be successful
.
They're in this industrybecause they want to provide the
best care possible and theyalso love the fact that they get
to go to people's homes andmake an impact that is so
(14:57):
significant in somebody's life,and so how do we do that?
And I think what Jason has doneat Levo has been very
instrumental.
The clients that he's beenworking with have seen some
phenomenal responses increase inretention rates and
satisfaction Technology that hitthe caregiver, to say this
group of people.
They cared for Nana over theweekend and did a phenomenal job
(15:21):
.
The family is extremely happy.
Kudos to this team.
Now you've rallied and you'restarting to build a culture
right.
When we live in a world ofremote health, you have to be
able to build a foundationalculture that can touch people
remotely, versus you and I goingto the water cooler back in the
(15:43):
day where we could all clap foreach other or sit in a
boardroom together.
That doesn't happen as often,and so how do we keep that
energy alive withinorganizations that are
strategically growing, spreadingtheir footprints, as well as
having to constrict and do morewith less?
Erin Vallier (16:00):
Yeah, I think there's so much value in a
program like you're describing,be that technology enabled or if
you have the bandwidth to do ityourself, because I mean
speaking from experience fromthe provider side of things.
Training and onboarding was oneof my roles and it takes a lot
of time and effort to keep upwith 250 to 500 employees out in
(16:25):
the field.
And how do you make the time totouch them two weeks, 30 days,
60 days, 90 days after yourselfto make sure that they're
feeling okay?
And just having conversationswith these providers over the
years and some of them work formultiple agencies and the
onboarding and some of them workfor multiple agencies and the
onboarding and communication ofthe organization has a lot to do
(16:48):
with if they're going to staythere or not.
I mean, if they feel thrown tothe wolves and they're out there
and they feel alone andisolated, they're not going to
stay with that organization.
They're going to lean towardsand pick up more shifts from the
people who are telling themthey're doing a good job,
checking in with them, makingsure they know how to use the
technology.
(17:08):
Are they feeling comfortable?
What do they need?
So that's a very importantpoint you made.
I know you also are a bigproponent of family involvement
when it comes to care planningand execution of that care plan.
Considering your background incounseling and your experience
(17:30):
with adult community services,I'm curious how do you believe
that family involvement impactspatient outcomes and are there
any best practices thatproviders can adopt to foster
family involvement?
Jennifer Maxwell (17:44):
In my time at Human Services and Adult
Protection, family involvementcan be so sporadic, depending on
where the individual lives, howmany family members are around,
and what typically happens isthose that are three states over
.
It's not until there's a crisisthat they find out.
(18:05):
And that's where it wrenches atmy heart as a former clinician
is how do we stop that fromhappening?
There's a lot of technologythat's been out there over the
years Basecamp, othercommunication platforms but
again they are applications youhave to download, you have to
log into and then it's like thisexchange of information and if
(18:28):
you're not at your computer orif you don't have the app
installed correctly, thefeedback isn't real time.
But when you can customize atext-based message that not only
goes to the patient but goes tofamily to say hey, jennifer
showed up for Nana's visit todayat 10 o'clock she wasn't
(18:49):
feeling all that great orwhatever, there is a message
that they can click on and seeversus them saying did she come
Right?
Because a lot of times you'llhave the elderly folks are
forgetful and they won'tremember that I came to the home
and then you've got familycalling up the agency saying why
(19:10):
are you not coming to see mymom.
We've been there four timesthis week, erin, you know, and
they're like mom's saying youhaven't been there at all, erin,
you know, and they're likemom's saying you haven't been
there at all.
And this way it gives a senseof comfort to those who can't be
in there day in and day out.
Right, and if there is a visitwe have visit reminders.
So the night before we send atext.
(19:33):
You know, all clinicians aresupposed to make sure that they
verify their visits for the nextday.
So if we don't get a responseback, it sends another text and
says are you going to be theretomorrow, yes or no?
And if they say no, then wehave a scheduler being able to
call and reschedule the visit.
And then the family knows okay,that visit got rescheduled.
Once the visit is done we senda confirmation.
(19:56):
Visit has been complete.
And then we ask them how wasyour visit?
The other thing is, it's onething to show up.
Let's just say you're showingup, but what if you know the
patient doesn't care for thecaregiver?
What if they don't like theirfive cats or their smoker?
You know, there's just allthose little things.
Because you're coming intotheir home, right?
(20:17):
You know how complicated it canbe to have caregiver match.
This way, we send a text at ascale of 1 to 10, how was your
visit?
And if it's anything less thanan 8, we're picking up the phone
at the agency level to say whatcould we have done better?
And now you're catching itright at the source of when the
(20:37):
problem is happening, so thatthey don't go through their
whole caregiver cycle or youknow their episode of care and
give you bad scores.
Erin Vallier (20:46):
Yeah, that's super important.
Jennifer Maxwell (20:48):
And then they didn't have a really good
experience.
And when they do need healthcare or home care again, they're
less likely to want it.
No, yeah, I like that, justtake care of it in real time.
Erin Vallier (20:56):
And you're right, Like it's difficult to find a
good match.
I like that.
Just take care of it in realtime.
And you're right, Like it'sdifficult to find a good match.
I mean, there are tools outthere that help you select the
right caregiver based on skillsand proximity and interest and
stuff like that, but even thenyou can still get it wrong.
Personalities sometimes clash.
I'm curious you've mentioned awhole bunch of automated text
(21:18):
messages and stuff like that.
How do you guys facilitate that?
Is there a service that you'reusing a tool that you built
yourself?
What does that look like?
Jennifer Maxwell (21:25):
We built the platform.
It's very easy.
It's extremely customizable tooto agencies.
We have products for homehealth, hospice, private duty,
because they can be used kind ofinterchangeably.
But we have a main portal thatthe products live in and then,
depending on if it's Notify Nana, nana Connect, nana Reach, nana
(21:48):
Bereavement any one of thoseproducts we can customize how
many texts, frequency of texts,what do you want we can embed
links into the text so like whenwe've gotten if you've gotten a
referral, you can then send outa welcome text saying hey,
we've got your referral, we'reprocessing it, and then there's
(22:09):
a little welcome video it couldbe the CEO of the organization
to say thank you for choosingHome Health ABC.
We are so excited to providecare for you in your home and
we're really looking forward toyou having a wonderful
experience.
This is what you can expect,because, when you think about it
too, people get discharged fromthe hospital, a nursing home or
(22:32):
whatever.
It could be a little bit oftime before services truly start
.
So how do you keep them engagedin it?
Because by the time theclinician comes out, they're
like I did what?
Who are you?
Yes, what were we talking?
Because there's so much beingthrown at patients when they're
discharging from any caresetting right.
And it's overwhelming, Like youdon't know what's going on
(22:55):
during your eligibility findingyour caregiver match, getting
all of that set up and beingcompliant as a business, but
also staying engaged with thatpatient up front so that they
know, yes, your referral hasbeen received.
We are working it.
We are going to be out to seeyou In the meantime.
This is what you can expectfrom your experience with us.
Erin Vallier (23:19):
I really like that .
I know it's a little cliche,but I like to say sometimes that
an ounce of communication isworth a pound of forgiveness and
, as we all know, like there'shiccups in this process of
onboarding somebody or evenfinding the right caregiver or
care worker it might take acouple of different times and
scheduling snafus, but if you'rein constant contact with your
(23:41):
clients and your employees andyou just make them feel heard
and you recognize likesomething's going down, we
apologize for this whatever.
That goes a long way to not onlysatisfaction but in retention
and outcomes, so this is a greattool.
I want to switch gears a littlebit and ask you sort of a more
(24:01):
personal kind of question.
I know that some of yourreflections on the challenges
and opportunities in thepost-acute space these really do
highlight your commitment toinnovation, so I want to know
from your personal experiences,how has that shaped your
approach to both?
Jennifer Maxwell (24:33):
patient care and organizational leadership
needs right.
And so how do I stay relevant,how do I stay ahead of what is
happening?
How do I put technology andtools in place, as they come out
(24:53):
, that help me be more engagedwith, whether it's my
consultants, my teams across thenation, the organizations I
work with, the organizations Iwork with, and what I found is
when I had less of thatconnection, we had more
difficulty with execution.
And so when I think about apatient in a home, a family
across the nation, it's aboutconnecting them right to
(25:16):
everything.
And so that's been my soleplight throughout my career is
to be innovative, creative,listening.
As a counselor, I spend a lot oftime listening and having over
100 consultants, I get to hear alot of stories about what
they're experiencing at theorganizational level, listening
(25:40):
to our clients talk about I have40% of my C-suite going to be
retiring in the next two years.
What do I do?
And so I think about innovation.
I think about proactivelygetting folks ready for the next
generation and iteration ofhealthcare needs.
We're moving more and more tothe home right.
(26:03):
It's where patients want to be,it is more cost-effective, it
is personal.
So how do we stay relevant?
And that has been my experience.
I want to be able to age inplace in my home with my little
you know my well, they're notvery little, but my big dog at
my side, right, yeah.
(26:24):
So when Tom and I talk aboutwhat do we want to do for
healthcare, it's like I want aspace by the time.
It's our time that we can haveour friends, our family, our
loved ones, our pets, oureverything around us and be able
to transition in our own homesand that be the norm versus
(26:45):
hospitals, nursing homes,facilities where, yes, there's
great care and I will never saythat that's not necessary or
needed in this space but I thinkthat there's a more
compassionate way to do this andthat's where my heart lives and
will until I retire, if I everretire.
Erin Vallier (27:06):
That's such a beautiful answer, thank you.
Thank you for sharing that andalso thank you for coming on the
show and sharing a lot of yourinsights with us.
I just have one final questionfor you.
I'm just wondering if there'sanything you'd like to say about
MHA and what you guys do andhow to reach you, in case
someone listening today iscurious about how they might
(27:28):
engage with you personally orone of your consultants or some
of your tools.
Jennifer Maxwell (27:34):
I encourage you guys all to come to our
website.
It's maxwellhcacom, and I amavailable at any point in time.
I'm jennifer at maxwellhcacom.
I'm always very interested inhearing what's going on in the
industry.
I love having conversationswith you like this, erin.
I think that the more we canget the word out, the more we
(27:56):
can do, and there is somethingto be said for taking tech
enabled, which is tech but alsocare right, and so we take our
consulting services and intermixthat with people, process and
the technology.
You know you got to have allthree.
If you leave the people out,like we talked about earlier,
(28:17):
you're not going to have thepeople.
If you put in all the tech inthe world but you don't train
them and you don't have theright processes, it's just
wasted money.
So I feel that we at Maxwellwe've done a really, really
great job of being able toconnect those three and feel
that we are the leaders in thespace that allow us to do all of
those things.
Erin Vallier (28:40):
Fantastic, and we'll make sure that your
contact information is in theshow notes so people can get in
touch with you.
Again, thank you so much forcoming on the show.
This was a really funconversation for me and maybe we
can do it again sometime.
Jennifer Maxwell (28:51):
I would love to Love to Erin.
Erin Vallier (28:53):
Fantastic Home Help 360 is presented by Alaya
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(29:17):
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com/ homehealth360 or visit uson your favorite podcast
platform.
A lot of times .
What we've found through ourtechnology is that we want to
know how the patient is actuallyfeeling.
When you think aboutpatient-centered, you want to
know what they feel, notnecessarily what the diagnostics
are telling you.
Diagnostics can mean one thingcompletely different than how
that patient is feeling in themoment.
And if we really get thatpatient's words and feelings,
(00:22):
then our clinicians can dobetter at the bedside and be
more prompt and more effectiveand efficient with patient care.
One of our big things we talkabout is right care, right time
and if we have the patient athand, being able to direct that
care, that makes our cliniciansthat much more able to be able
to provide the outcomes that thepatients are actually looking
(00:44):
for.
Erin Vallier (00:55):
Welcome to another episode of the Home Health 360
podcast, where we speak tohome-based care professionals
from around the globe.
I'm your host, Erin Vallier,and today I am joined by
Jennifer Maxwell, co-founder andCEO of Maxwell Health
Associates, or MHA for short.
Jennifer partners directly withclients, empowering them to
(01:18):
reach new levels of operational,technological, regulatory and
financial efficiency.
She brings a wealth ofexperience into this role,
having previously served as CEOand Executive Director of the
Minnesota Home Care Associationand an Executive Account Manager
at a leading home health andhospice consulting firm.
(01:38):
In these positions, shedesigned and managed numerous
client engagements focused onstaff augmentation, acquisition
support due Masionic Children'sHospital and CHAP Community
(02:08):
Health Accreditation Program.
I love that program.
By the way.
Earlier in Jennifer's career,she gained valuable experience
working with the agingpopulation through her work
running adult community serviceprograms at Mesa County
Department of Human Services.
And Jennifer holds a master'sdegree in counseling and a
bachelor's degree in psychology,and previously served as an
(02:31):
adjunct professor of psychologyand sociology at Colorado
Christian University.
My goodness, what a resume.
Thank you so much for coming onthe show, jennifer.
Jennifer Maxwell (02:42):
Oh, thank you, Erin, I'm excited to be here
today.
Erin Vallier (02:45):
Yeah, I'm excited to chat with you about the topic
at hand, which is patientoutcomes improving patient
outcomes.
I think you, based on yourtenure and your experience, are
the perfect person to talk aboutthis, and I know that you've
been speaking recently aboutpersonalized care plans, so I
thought maybe we would startwith a question in this
(03:08):
particular area.
I know that MHA has developedtools such as Nanaconnect Is
that right?
Nanaconnect?
Yes, these are to enhancepatient engagement through daily
check-ins and customizablemessaging.
So I'm curious, I want to learna little bit more about this
tool.
But also I want to know how doyou see such technologies
(03:30):
transforming the creation andthe implementation of
personalized care plans in thehome, health and hospice
settings?
Jennifer Maxwell (03:38):
Over the years , tom and I husband and business
partner in this space we'vedeveloped a lot of tech-enabled
kind of services and technologythat can bolt on to an
electronic medical record.
It gives the clinicians at thebedside a better bird's eye view
of how the patient is feelingin the moment, versus through
(03:58):
technology that is moreantiquated, like a blood
pressure cuff or a pulseoximeter or something that is a
delayed response.
And a lot of times what we'vefound through our technology is
that we want to know how thepatient is actually feeling.
When you think aboutpatient-centered, you want to
know what they feel, notnecessarily what the diagnostics
(04:19):
are telling you.
Diagnostics can mean one thingcompletely different than how
that patient is feeling in themoment.
And if we really get thatpatient's being able to direct
that care, that makes ourclinicians that much more able
(04:48):
to be able to provide theoutcomes that the patients are
actually looking for.
Erin Vallier (04:53):
I love that, and you are so right.
It's a lot about how thepatient is feeling rather than
what's on the piece of paper.
I know, speaking fromexperience.
You know you go in and you talkto them and you're like
nothing's wrong.
That's not true.
I'm feeling different, and soto be able to meet somebody
where they are in their home, Ithink is super important and
will help them stay there.
(05:13):
I want to touch a little bit onsomething else I know you're
keen on, which is remote patientmonitoring.
This has become much morepopular and accepted since COVID
and with that increasingadoption.
I'm sure that there arechallenges that providers are
still facing when they go tointegrate these technologies
into their workflows.
I'm curious what are some ofthose challenges and how can
(05:36):
they be addressed so that we canuse these technologies to
improve patient outcomes?
Jennifer Maxwell (05:41):
When we think of tech-enabled care at MHA, we
think of what is least invasive,least costly, a positive ROI
from both, not only employeesatisfaction, patient
satisfaction, family engagementas well as a financial reward at
the other end of it becausethey are a business at the end
of the day along with compliance.
(06:03):
So we develop tech that doesn'trequire a bunch of sign-ons,
applications, downloading,things like that.
We wanted to be able to use andleverage something as simple as
the phone to be able to get topeople.
I mean, when we think about howwe live through our technology
(06:25):
of a cell phone nowadays or aniPad, even for the elderly,
that's like real time, right.
And so if we can make somethingas simple as a text message
that says hey, on a scale of oneto five, how are you feeling
right now?
And we know that if it's athree or under, we need to get a
clinician to pick up the phoneand call, right.
(06:45):
So that's how we can have thatreal-time interaction without
having to have all of the layersthat normal HIPAA-compliant
technology requires.
So we are able to still stayextremely HIPAA-compliant
because we're not exchanging anyPHI, we're not creating an app
that has to be downloaded andupdated every time there is a
(07:06):
new rule or regulation, everytime we come out with a new rule
, a lot of these apps end uphaving to get pulled down out of
the app stores because theyhave to go through their
compliance testing as well.
So we eliminated andcircumvented all of those pieces
to be real time things that areeasy and accessible, that
(07:26):
clinicians can see, thatpatients can see, that even
remote family caregivers can see, especially when you think
about working with a dementiapatient.
My mother has dementia dementiaand so it's nice when, as a
family caregiver who lives inArizona full time and she's in
Minnesota, I can get a textmessage saying, hey, this is
(07:48):
going on with your mom, or hey,she said X, y or Z and her
Likert scale.
So then I can pick up the phoneand call the assisted living
and say, hey, what's going on,you know, or they can reach out
to me and we have a better reallive time interaction and
patient intervention and careplan changes as we need them,
(08:09):
not in retrospect, maybe a weekor two weeks later, having that
that care conference.
That happens once a month.
Erin Vallier (08:18):
interesting, take on it.
So it sounds like you're notproposing all of these
complicated tools and expensivetools to be placed and monitored
and all this stuff, that youcan actually use some of this
stuff that you already have,like an iPad, a telephone, just
to create a different kind ofremote patient monitoring
program that achieves the sameresult but in a different way
(08:39):
that is maybe less barrier toentry for a provider who's
providing the service, because Ithink correct me if I'm wrong
there's still some questions,gray areas about reimbursement
for these types of programs,which make partnering with a
service or buying a whole bunchof gear to place into homes that
might not be feasible.
(08:59):
Can you speak a little bitabout that, not?
Jennifer Maxwell (09:02):
be feasible.
Can you speak a little bitabout that?
Where we kind of started ourjourney with our tech enabled
was remote patient monitoringapparatus, the setup and
everything.
It's really great.
And the cup when you think ofthe blood pressure cup, the
weight, the scale, all thethings that it does.
You as a caregiver, coming intothe home from home health agency
(09:22):
, abc or whatever, you're goingto bring in this really cool
technology to this patient'shome.
They are going to then startengaging with that.
That becomes their tool ofcommunication back and forth,
because a lot of these folkslive alone and there's not a lot
of interaction on the daily.
So for them to be able to usetheir technology to have
(09:45):
communication and interactionwith their caregiver, they
become very attached.
Well then, if it's a homehealth patient and they come to
the end of their episode of homehealth, the last thing you do
is you take away that technologythat they have become very
accustomed to and now you don'thave the patient satisfaction
scores that you needpost-discharge.
(10:08):
So you've taken the patient offon the last visit by taking
away their security blanket.
This doesn't do that anymore.
It's always there.
They can refer to it.
When we look at our productstoo.
We even look at post-discharge.
How do we stay in contact withthose patients post-discharge?
(10:28):
We can keep them in a catchmentarea, not only for the home
health agency, but also to makesure that there isn't the
re-hospitalization, a fall orisolation or any of those things
that could potentially causethe need for reinstatement of
care.
Erin Vallier (10:46):
I love that.
I love that it's a way to keepin contact, even when you're not
officially serving them.
That way, when they needsomething, they know where to go
.
Jennifer Maxwell (10:55):
Yeah, you're the first point of contact,
right.
Erin Vallier (10:58):
They know you.
You said something aboutpatient satisfaction, which is a
good segue for my next questionfor you, and do you have a
partnership with a tool orservice called Levo and that
focuses on enhancing employeeengagement, and this is with the
purpose of reducing staffturnover?
We all know this is a hugeproblem.
(11:19):
We all know this is a hugeproblem.
I'd like to learn a little bitmore about Levo, like what is
that, how does it work and howdoes employee satisfaction
correlate with patientsatisfaction and reduced
hospitalization rates?
Jennifer Maxwell (11:34):
What have you seen to be effective in this
area in working with Jason Yuand his team pretty closely, is
that what we find is when youonboard a new clinician, you
either have a really goodonboarding process, education,
support, those types of thingsor you're constantly doing that
(11:55):
revolving door and it's justlike get them in, get them in
the door, get them through thepaces and then shove them out
into the home.
And that's no fault of anyorganization out there, I mean,
they're all struggling.
So what Level does is it doesthose check-ins and so it can
catch that clinician.
It's almost like a satisfactionscore for an employee.
(12:16):
Do you feel supported?
Do you feel you've gottenenough education?
What could we do differently?
All of those things that in yourfirst 60, 90 days of onboarding
in an agency can be veryoverwhelming, especially with a
clinician who's new to maybe thetechnology.
The patient set any of thosethings, and so being able to
(12:39):
catch that and then work withthose employees up front makes
for that seamless like when youhave a happy employee, you have
happy patients.
Right leads into patient careand patient satisfaction,
(13:04):
whether it's the patient takingthe side of the caregiver in the
home, right, and saying, well,this agency isn't taking care of
my caregiver and I really likemy caregiver.
So there's two sides to that.
So if the employee that'scoming into the home to provide
the care is happy and healthythemselves, then that's a happy,
healthy interaction as wellwith the patient, which then
(13:25):
yields to better patientoutcomes and patient
satisfaction scores.
Erin Vallier (13:30):
Yeah, all very important points.
Yeah, the attitude of somebodygoing to the home does make an
impact.
Attitude is everything and okay, yeah, that's really good and
I'm imagining how this works.
Is it automated?
So is it like 30, 60, 90automated check-ins that are
customized by the organizationto ask certain things?
Jennifer Maxwell (13:52):
and yes, we've been working with some agencies
where, like, there has beennewer turnover, so you have
younger clinicians and thenthere's clinicians that have
also been there quite some timebut maybe not as familiar with
technology, and so I think youhave two buckets right People
who are not really used to theadvancements of the technology,
and how do you support themthrough that process, as well as
(14:14):
those that are just new to thespace.
And how do you navigate that?
Nurses that are coming from aclinic-based setting or
brick-and-mortar setting it's avery different environment.
You are now a doctor, the nurse, you're the evaluator, right,
instead of getting to push thecall button and have the
(14:35):
physician come down the hallwayor the group of nurses to come
in and consult with.
So there's a lot of pressuresthat can potentially be put on
clinicians that are newer to thespace and want to be successful
.
They're in this industrybecause they want to provide the
best care possible and theyalso love the fact that they get
to go to people's homes andmake an impact that is so
(14:57):
significant in somebody's life,and so how do we do that?
And I think what Jason has doneat Levo has been very
instrumental.
The clients that he's beenworking with have seen some
phenomenal responses increase inretention rates and
satisfaction Technology that hitthe caregiver, to say this
group of people.
They cared for Nana over theweekend and did a phenomenal job
(15:21):
.
The family is extremely happy.
Kudos to this team.
Now you've rallied and you'restarting to build a culture
right.
When we live in a world ofremote health, you have to be
able to build a foundationalculture that can touch people
remotely, versus you and I goingto the water cooler back in the
(15:43):
day where we could all clap foreach other or sit in a
boardroom together.
That doesn't happen as often,and so how do we keep that
energy alive withinorganizations that are
strategically growing, spreadingtheir footprints, as well as
having to constrict and do morewith less?
Erin Vallier (16:00):
Yeah, I think there's so much value in a
program like you're describing,be that technology enabled or if
you have the bandwidth to do ityourself, because I mean
speaking from experience fromthe provider side of things.
Training and onboarding was oneof my roles and it takes a lot
of time and effort to keep upwith 250 to 500 employees out in
(16:25):
the field.
And how do you make the time totouch them two weeks, 30 days,
60 days, 90 days after yourselfto make sure that they're
feeling okay?
And just having conversationswith these providers over the
years and some of them work formultiple agencies and the
onboarding and some of them workfor multiple agencies and the
onboarding and communication ofthe organization has a lot to do
(16:48):
with if they're going to staythere or not.
I mean, if they feel thrown tothe wolves and they're out there
and they feel alone andisolated, they're not going to
stay with that organization.
They're going to lean towardsand pick up more shifts from the
people who are telling themthey're doing a good job,
checking in with them, makingsure they know how to use the
technology.
(17:08):
Are they feeling comfortable?
What do they need?
So that's a very importantpoint you made.
I know you also are a bigproponent of family involvement
when it comes to care planningand execution of that care plan.
Considering your background incounseling and your experience
(17:30):
with adult community services,I'm curious how do you believe
that family involvement impactspatient outcomes and are there
any best practices thatproviders can adopt to foster
family involvement?
Jennifer Maxwell (17:44):
In my time at Human Services and Adult
Protection, family involvementcan be so sporadic, depending on
where the individual lives, howmany family members are around,
and what typically happens isthose that are three states over
.
It's not until there's a crisisthat they find out.
(18:05):
And that's where it wrenches atmy heart as a former clinician
is how do we stop that fromhappening?
There's a lot of technologythat's been out there over the
years Basecamp, othercommunication platforms but
again they are applications youhave to download, you have to
log into and then it's like thisexchange of information and if
(18:28):
you're not at your computer orif you don't have the app
installed correctly, thefeedback isn't real time.
But when you can customize atext-based message that not only
goes to the patient but goes tofamily to say hey, jennifer
showed up for Nana's visit todayat 10 o'clock she wasn't
(18:49):
feeling all that great orwhatever, there is a message
that they can click on and seeversus them saying did she come
Right?
Because a lot of times you'llhave the elderly folks are
forgetful and they won'tremember that I came to the home
and then you've got familycalling up the agency saying why
(19:10):
are you not coming to see mymom.
We've been there four timesthis week, erin, you know, and
they're like mom's saying youhaven't been there at all, erin,
you know, and they're likemom's saying you haven't been
there at all.
And this way it gives a senseof comfort to those who can't be
in there day in and day out.
Right, and if there is a visitwe have visit reminders.
So the night before we send atext.
(19:33):
You know, all clinicians aresupposed to make sure that they
verify their visits for the nextday.
So if we don't get a responseback, it sends another text and
says are you going to be theretomorrow, yes or no?
And if they say no, then wehave a scheduler being able to
call and reschedule the visit.
And then the family knows okay,that visit got rescheduled.
Once the visit is done we senda confirmation.
(19:56):
Visit has been complete.
And then we ask them how wasyour visit?
The other thing is, it's onething to show up.
Let's just say you're showingup, but what if you know the
patient doesn't care for thecaregiver?
What if they don't like theirfive cats or their smoker?
You know, there's just allthose little things.
Because you're coming intotheir home, right?
(20:17):
You know how complicated it canbe to have caregiver match.
This way, we send a text at ascale of 1 to 10, how was your
visit?
And if it's anything less thanan 8, we're picking up the phone
at the agency level to say whatcould we have done better?
And now you're catching itright at the source of when the
(20:37):
problem is happening, so thatthey don't go through their
whole caregiver cycle or youknow their episode of care and
give you bad scores.
Erin Vallier (20:46):
Yeah, that's super important.
Jennifer Maxwell (20:48):
And then they didn't have a really good
experience.
And when they do need healthcare or home care again, they're
less likely to want it.
No, yeah, I like that, justtake care of it in real time.
Erin Vallier (20:56):
And you're right, Like it's difficult to find a
good match.
I like that.
Just take care of it in realtime.
And you're right, Like it'sdifficult to find a good match.
I mean, there are tools outthere that help you select the
right caregiver based on skillsand proximity and interest and
stuff like that, but even thenyou can still get it wrong.
Personalities sometimes clash.
I'm curious you've mentioned awhole bunch of automated text
(21:18):
messages and stuff like that.
How do you guys facilitate that?
Is there a service that you'reusing a tool that you built
yourself?
What does that look like?
Jennifer Maxwell (21:25):
We built the platform.
It's very easy.
It's extremely customizable tooto agencies.
We have products for homehealth, hospice, private duty,
because they can be used kind ofinterchangeably.
But we have a main portal thatthe products live in and then,
depending on if it's Notify Nana, nana Connect, nana Reach, nana
(21:48):
Bereavement any one of thoseproducts we can customize how
many texts, frequency of texts,what do you want we can embed
links into the text so like whenwe've gotten if you've gotten a
referral, you can then send outa welcome text saying hey,
we've got your referral, we'reprocessing it, and then there's
(22:09):
a little welcome video it couldbe the CEO of the organization
to say thank you for choosingHome Health ABC.
We are so excited to providecare for you in your home and
we're really looking forward toyou having a wonderful
experience.
This is what you can expect,because, when you think about it
too, people get discharged fromthe hospital, a nursing home or
(22:32):
whatever.
It could be a little bit oftime before services truly start
.
So how do you keep them engagedin it?
Because by the time theclinician comes out, they're
like I did what?
Who are you?
Yes, what were we talking?
Because there's so much beingthrown at patients when they're
discharging from any caresetting right.
And it's overwhelming, Like youdon't know what's going on
(22:55):
during your eligibility findingyour caregiver match, getting
all of that set up and beingcompliant as a business, but
also staying engaged with thatpatient up front so that they
know, yes, your referral hasbeen received.
We are working it.
We are going to be out to seeyou In the meantime.
This is what you can expectfrom your experience with us.
Erin Vallier (23:19):
I really like that .
I know it's a little cliche,but I like to say sometimes that
an ounce of communication isworth a pound of forgiveness and
, as we all know, like there'shiccups in this process of
onboarding somebody or evenfinding the right caregiver or
care worker it might take acouple of different times and
scheduling snafus, but if you'rein constant contact with your
(23:41):
clients and your employees andyou just make them feel heard
and you recognize likesomething's going down, we
apologize for this whatever.
That goes a long way to not onlysatisfaction but in retention
and outcomes, so this is a greattool.
I want to switch gears a littlebit and ask you sort of a more
(24:01):
personal kind of question.
I know that some of yourreflections on the challenges
and opportunities in thepost-acute space these really do
highlight your commitment toinnovation, so I want to know
from your personal experiences,how has that shaped your
approach to both?
Jennifer Maxwell (24:33):
patient care and organizational leadership
needs right.
And so how do I stay relevant,how do I stay ahead of what is
happening?
How do I put technology andtools in place, as they come out
(24:53):
, that help me be more engagedwith, whether it's my
consultants, my teams across thenation, the organizations I
work with, the organizations Iwork with, and what I found is
when I had less of thatconnection, we had more
difficulty with execution.
And so when I think about apatient in a home, a family
across the nation, it's aboutconnecting them right to
(25:16):
everything.
And so that's been my soleplight throughout my career is
to be innovative, creative,listening.
As a counselor, I spend a lot oftime listening and having over
100 consultants, I get to hear alot of stories about what
they're experiencing at theorganizational level, listening
(25:40):
to our clients talk about I have40% of my C-suite going to be
retiring in the next two years.
What do I do?
And so I think about innovation.
I think about proactivelygetting folks ready for the next
generation and iteration ofhealthcare needs.
We're moving more and more tothe home right.
(26:03):
It's where patients want to be,it is more cost-effective, it
is personal.
So how do we stay relevant?
And that has been my experience.
I want to be able to age inplace in my home with my little
you know my well, they're notvery little, but my big dog at
my side, right, yeah.
(26:24):
So when Tom and I talk aboutwhat do we want to do for
healthcare, it's like I want aspace by the time.
It's our time that we can haveour friends, our family, our
loved ones, our pets, oureverything around us and be able
to transition in our own homesand that be the norm versus
(26:45):
hospitals, nursing homes,facilities where, yes, there's
great care and I will never saythat that's not necessary or
needed in this space but I thinkthat there's a more
compassionate way to do this andthat's where my heart lives and
will until I retire, if I everretire.
Erin Vallier (27:06):
That's such a beautiful answer, thank you.
Thank you for sharing that andalso thank you for coming on the
show and sharing a lot of yourinsights with us.
I just have one final questionfor you.
I'm just wondering if there'sanything you'd like to say about
MHA and what you guys do andhow to reach you, in case
someone listening today iscurious about how they might
(27:28):
engage with you personally orone of your consultants or some
of your tools.
Jennifer Maxwell (27:34):
I encourage you guys all to come to our
website.
It's maxwellhcacom, and I amavailable at any point in time.
I'm jennifer at maxwellhcacom.
I'm always very interested inhearing what's going on in the
industry.
I love having conversationswith you like this, erin.
I think that the more we canget the word out, the more we
(27:56):
can do, and there is somethingto be said for taking tech
enabled, which is tech but alsocare right, and so we take our
consulting services and intermixthat with people, process and
the technology.
You know you got to have allthree.
If you leave the people out,like we talked about earlier,
(28:17):
you're not going to have thepeople.
If you put in all the tech inthe world but you don't train
them and you don't have theright processes, it's just
wasted money.
So I feel that we at Maxwellwe've done a really, really
great job of being able toconnect those three and feel
that we are the leaders in thespace that allow us to do all of
those things.
Erin Vallier (28:40):
Fantastic, and we'll make sure that your
contact information is in theshow notes so people can get in
touch with you.
Again, thank you so much forcoming on the show.
This was a really funconversation for me and maybe we
can do it again sometime.
Jennifer Maxwell (28:51):
I would love to Love to Erin.
Erin Vallier (28:53):
Fantastic Home Help 360 is presented by Alaya
Care and hosted by Erin Vallier.
First, we want to thank ouramazing guests and listeners.
Second, new episodes air everymonth, so be sure to subscribe
today so you don't miss anepisode.
And, last but not least, if youlike this episode and want to
learn more about all thingshome-based care, you can explore
(29:17):
all of our episodes atalayacare.
com/ homehealth360 or visit uson your favorite podcast
platform.
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