Concierge Medicine Comes to Home Care

When investment banker Sam Cross traveled from his area home to Colorado to tend to a family crisis, little did he know the trip would change his career and his life. His aunt had developed early-onset Alzheimer's disease, his uncle was battling Stage 4 lung cancer-and his exhausted mother was trying to care for them both at home.

As he helped his fiercely proud, ex-marine uncle tend to "personal activities of daily living that nothing in our relationship had prepared us for," he was struck by how difficult caregiving was, both for the giver and receiver.

"It was critical that we preserve my uncle's dignity," says Cross. "We brought in a home care agency, but the care was generic-it didn't add to the quality of his life, which was what we needed."

As Cross continued commuting between the Chicago area and Colorado, he became obsessed with finding a better approach to home care. In 2014, after extensive research and soul searching, he launched Broad Street Home Care in Wilmette, Illinois.

He founded the agency-named after the street of his childhood home-on the premise of finding the most dedicated people, arming them with extensive training and then carefully matching them to specific clients based on their skills, traits and personalities.

Just a few years later, the busy agency provides premium, customized home care to clients throughout Chicagoland, drawing on a deep bench of nearly 100 highly-trained "personal assistants"-aka caregivers-who are closely overseen by nurse supervisors.

Carving a Niche in a Fast-Growing Industry

Since 2011, when the first wave of Baby Boomers turned 65, the home care industry has been growing. With 10,000 Boomers turning 65 every year until 2029, the trend is projected to continue-especially since seniors are universally determined to "age in place" at home.

In fact, the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently ranked home health aides as the third fastest growing occupation in the United States.

"Our goal isn't just to provide basic care-it's to make the client's life better," says Cross. "From depth of support from the caregiver to clinical oversight to the administrative team-it's all focused on a highly personalized plan of care.."

"We provide our caregivers with specialized, medically-focused training and collaborative oversight that allows them to support clients with specific health conditions in ways others can't."

Specialized Home Care for Parkinson's and More

Cross starts by understanding the client and their unique needs and conditions. This is crucial in developing a customized level of service, determining the right caregiver and ensuring proper training is in place. In Illinois, home care aides are required to take a mere eight hours of mandatory training for certification. Caregivers receive far more than that, including classroom training, condition-specific training and even client-specific training provided by the nurse supervisors. Finally, there is proactive management and oversight to ensure necessary adjustments are made and the best care is provided.

Take their Parkinson's Care program. As the only Chicago-based member of the Struther's Parkinson's Care Network-a group of providers that develops best practices for the care of Parkinson's patients-it provides its caregivers with an in-depth understanding of the causes and symptoms of Parkinson's and the techniques used to support them--particularly helpful because the disease impacts people in different ways. They in turn can apply best practices to support clients with their unique symptoms and mitigate how it impacts their daily life.

The specialized focus can be helpful for a variety of other debilitating conditions, including Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia, chronic conditions such as diabetes, COPD and CHF, stroke recovery and other cognitive and physical conditions.

So, in addition to providing traditional home care services-help with activities of daily living, meal preparation, housekeeping, transportation-Broad Street and its caregivers help patients better manage their conditions by encouraging and supporting activities that allow clients to continue to live their lives.

"Our caregivers are amazing," says Cross. "They've helped people come to grips with tough diagnoses and helped them maintain rich social lives despite their limitations. We've actually had clients take their assistants with them on vacation so they can enjoy themselves more."

"When you do home care right, the results can be life-changing."