Introduction to Dr. Amanda Kirzner

Kerry 0:00

All right. Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the Get Healthy Tampa Bay podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Kerry Reller, and today we have Dr. Amanda Kirzner back on the podcast. We're gonna shift gears a little bit to a topic that many families face but few know how to navigate, and that is finding reliable in-home care for a loved one. Dr. Kerzner, why don't you tell us how you got into this, and what is in-home care, and all about your company that you have with... Is it your mom?

What Is L’Instant Health Connect?

Amanda 0:29

yes, my mom is my co-founder. So my company's called the Instant Health Connect, and it is an online platform connecting at-home providers to families who need them. So for example, if you wanted to hire a home health aide or a caregiver, a private nurse, a speech pathologist, physical therapist, or occupational therapist, you can get one directly through my website without going through an expensive agency. How it works is you log on and you put your zip code in and a bunch of profiles will pop up with... you can filter what kind of provider you're looking for and providers in your area. They all have different rates, different experiences, and you can message them on the platform and hire them. The platform does not take any cut of the job, and y- you could take it private after that, once you find someone you like, but it really gives families more direct access to home healthcare. it's more economical. Agencies take a big cut of money from both the family as well as the provider, and so you're saving a lot of money if you are a family, and you're making a lot more money if you're a provider. So for example, if an agency charges a family $40 an hour for a home health aide, and they're paying the home health aide $20, if the home health aide came on the website and listed themselves for $30, they are making more and the family is paying less. it also allows families to speak to many people and interview them and find really the best fit for their family member. Let's say you're hiring a private nurse. You want to find someone who is going to have a personality that works well with your family member who needs the care, and agencies often will just send you whoever they have. The reason I thought of this is because I st- I myself struggled with finding someone. My son needed speech when he was two years old, and I was a resident at the time. I had three children, and I really wanted someone to come to the house. And I spoke with a bunch of agencies and there was no one available to come to the house. They couldn't even send me who they had. There was nobody. And I had to put all three of my kids in the car, drive to the office where the speech pathologist was. I had to wait in the waiting room with my other two kids, and I kinda thought like there has got to be a more direct way for me to get access to home health providers than going through the agency or word of mouth."

How Personal Family Experiences Inspired the Platform

Kerry 3:02

So it was actually inspired by, navigating home health for your child. I was just gonna assume, an elderly person, like related

Amanda 3:09

no, it's for everyone. My other daughter was premature and needed home physical therapy. And, I think they provided us with someone who only came three times, and we wanted to continue it, and that was a struggle. So finding, affordable home healthcare, finding the right fit for your family, and finding providers in general can be difficult. And, It's easier if someone comes to your home, and, the population in the United States is aging, and care is going to be an issue going forward

Why Traditional Home Care Can Be Expensive and Overwhelming

Kerry 3:40

Absolutely. So why is traditional home care system, why is it so overwhelming and expensive, other than maybe what you've said, if you can elaborate?

Amanda 3:49

I think that there are time requirements, the provider has to work this many hours, and obviously the home health agencies make money, right? So they charge a premium and they take a cut from both sides, and they only have so many providers. Whereas here, we have about 10,000 providers nationwide to this point, and a provider, let's say someone's someone's a nurse in the ICU. She can make a free profile and decide what jobs she wants to take and does not wanna take, versus if she is part of an agency, she has to take whatever jobs they give her. And, often when there's an agency, they'll tell the family it's a minimum of four hours or six hours. Y- if you need someone for two hours to come change a bandage or something, you can find them on the platform as well.

Types of Providers Available Through the Platform

Kerry 4:40

Nice. Okay, what other types of providers can families find through the platform?

Amanda 4:45

So it's caregivers-home health aides,

Kerry 4:48

Okay.

Amanda 4:49

private nurses, Speech pathologists, which is what I really needed for my son occupational therapists and physical therapists. And what's great if you're a provider is you can use this as a side gig. You could use this as a full-time gig if you're a busy working mom. You could do whatever you want with it. The sky's the limit. And for the families, also agencies are, present in certain areas. This is nationwide, and there are a lot of rural areas where there aren't agencies that can, send people to the home. But if, private nurses sign up in your area, it gives more access to more places because it's the whole concept of aging in place for people, which has become a trend in the United States as well. People wanna age in place, and they need help to do it 'cause it's really difficult if their family member, their child has a family of their own and they can't, take care of them full time, which is very common

Understanding the "Aging in Place" Movement

Kerry 5:44

I haven't heard that phrase before, age in place.

Amanda 5:47

That's a very it's an up and coming thing where people do not want to go to like a nursing home or a what's it called? A, where they all live. I forget. Assisted living.

Kerry 5:58

Assistive, I think,

Amanda 5:59

They don't wanna do that as much. They wanna stay where they are. This, it's aging in place is the term

Kerry 6:05

Yeah. I know for a fact that family members of mine, feel the same way, that they don't wanna, do that, and this is definitely a way to provide I guess the in-home care, like you said. Is there any drawbacks of it or any negative things?

Safety, Vetting, and Potential Drawbacks

Amanda 6:20

So you can choose, the families can choose to do a background check or a licensure exam. Is it's really, it's a drawback. I guess you have to do your own vetting. Again, you can, through the site, do a background and licensure check to, to check that kind of stuff. I would say agencies vet their people more. I've al- also heard horror stories of people getting home health aides from agencies, but in general, this is really a platform that if people do, have a home health aide certificate or nursing, has a license number they can sign up for. And I just... You have to vet them more yourself. There's many more people that you could talk to And sort through, when you're looking to hire the one, it's really up to, the burden is placed on the family as opposed to an agency who does that for you.

Kerry 7:13

So do you think that obviously if it's more affordable that more people can be able to, quote, age in place or use these things use these

Amanda 7:22

I do. I really do. I think that, I think it's a really needed service in the United States. I think, like I experience, agencies don't always have all of these providers, and the population is just the baby boomers. They're just, we're just aging, right? People even need aides when they're in assisted living. People wanna hire private aides for them. People wanna hire a private nurse when their family member's discharged from the hospital and they can't stay and take care of them for the next week. And I think, the big deal is that they're saving money, but I think getting direct access to all of these caregivers on a platform themselves makes a huge difference, as opposed to calling an agency and saying, "I really need someone," and them sending one person at a time. I think it gives you choice

Kerry 8:03

Do you, would you say there's any red flags that any family could encounter when thinking about hiring for help?

Amanda 8:10

I think it's always risky to have someone come into your home. You don't know them very well. And, I've heard stories where, they haven't cared very well for a family member or crazy things have happened. But I think it's a risk, however you find someone. And I actually think, with this Instant Health Connect, you can vet the person better. You can vet, you can talk to to 20 people before you decide to hire someone for your mom

Kerry 8:39

What kind of questions do you, would you recommend them asking the potential caregiver?

Questions Families Should Ask Potential Caregivers

Amanda 8:44

I would recommend them asking about their experience in general, in the home, what kind of tasks they do. I think it's really important to know upfront what they can and they can't do, what their duties are. I think it's important for the family to communicate what they need, and it has to be a good match

Respite Care and Support for Family Caregivers

Kerry 9:06

Do you think that this can also be an opportunity, when sometimes there's I guess I'm using the word respite care. Do you know what I mean? To give somebody who is the caregiver like a break? Yeah

Amanda 9:16

Exactly. Because again, unlike an agency where there's an hourly requirement, you can find someone or who can come in for two hours a day. It could be whatever you want. The caregivers, they can... And you know what? Also, it could be you could find someone who's more expensive. You could find someone who's more cheaper. With an agency, many times, they're saying, "This is my price." Here, you could find someone who's cheaper, who's more expensive, who's m- more of a better fit for you and your family. You have, again, options and choice

Kerry 9:48

Who other than what you've mentioned I think s- like for speech therapy and things like that, but who might benefit most from this kind of service? What are some other examples besides aging and things like that?

Amanda 9:59

So it could be anyone who needs help caring for their family member. Even if someone, in their 30s, they're, th- they have five kids, for example, and their husband has surgery and they're running around with their kids to five million activities and they need to find someone to care for their husband. But it could be for little kids, 'cause a lo- again, like I mentioned, my kids needed home physical therapy and they needed home speech. It could be for, we do have the most volume of private nurses and home health care, home health aides-caregivers. And like I said, the population is aging. It is so necessary United States

Kerry 10:38

Yeah, so aging, right? Y- you mentioned little kids, families needing respite. Maybe what about disability support, dementia

Amanda 10:46

just the people with disability, really for anyone who needs assistance in the home.

Kerry 10:51

Post-op, right? Wound care maybe? Yeah. Okay. Those are other good things

Amanda 10:56

if you had plastic surgery and you want someone to come make sure you're doing all the right things, to take care of you. It could really be for anyone or anything

Real-Life Benefits of Aging in Place and Future of Home Care

Kerry 11:05

Yeah. Do you have any examples of how I guess having the right in-home support has basically changed outcomes dramatically for anybody?

Amanda 11:14

I think that like my grandmother had a home health aide for 10 years, and it really just made her much happier because I remember they were talking about putting her in assisted living and she was totally against it. She wanted to be in her own home. She wanted to stay near her friends. She wanted to play her bridge and canasta and all the things that she was used to doing. These were like her, the years where, you know, like her last years, and I think it just made her a happier person, and I think that she probably would've declined in a place like a nursing home or a assisted living. I think that, I think that's why this whole aging in place has become a thing

Kerry 12:03

What about does it accept insurance or anything like that?

Amanda 12:06

So it's really, it can. It's again, it's a platform matching providers to families. So some of them could, will take insurance. Some of th- many of them might not take insurance. This is more of a private thing. You can also submit after the fact to insurance. Like I know if people have a home health aide certificate, you can submit that to your long-term care insurance. So there are different options here.

Kerry 12:32

Okay, cool.

Amanda 12:33

do and some don't

Kerry 12:34

Where can they find this? Like, where can they connect with you, or where on the worldwide web can they

Amanda 12:41

Yes. It's www.linstanthealthconnect.com. So it's the fancy French way, an L, L'instant. We tried to, First of all, I love the way that sounds, but we also tried, we, we trademarked the name, and we, and we were failing a bunch of trademarks until we came up with this, and I think it describes the website perfectly. We're basically connecting, Instant Health Connect, we're connecting them instantly. And the other thing about it, which is really described in the name, is, if you needed to find someone tonight, you can go on and log in, and it's a subscription model. So we have different, tiers. It's freemium, so you can go on and you can see all the providers, but if you wanna message them or get in touch, then you get a subscription. It's like you could do a three-month, six-month, you could do one month, and, if you find who you need, then you don't have to sign up for the next month. Like care.com, which is a similar website but with nannies, I've been a member for the whole 12 years that my daughter has been alive. You can find someone as, as soon as you need versus, again, with agencies there could be a wait for them to find you the right person. You could go on here and hire care for tomorrow if someone's having emergency surgery or whatever you need

Kerry 13:54

Awesome. All right this sounds like an amazing service to be able to match them, and I love the phrase aging in place. I, obviously thinking about, my family members as we all get older. It's just happening fast, isn't it? But I think this is great. I don't... kudos for you to put it all together and make it work. You already said you had 10,000 providers or something like that?

Amanda 14:14

Yes. First of all, it took so long to, build the website correctly. It's a whole process. But we didn't want you, for example, let's say you wanted to go on and find a private nurse. I didn't want you to go on and put your zip code in and nobody comes up. You'd never come back. So it was really important to us to get a good database of providers before we really launched to the public on the other side

Kerry 14:38

Cool. How long has it been around?

Amanda 14:40

It's been up for a few months. It's been li- well, it's been around for about two years building and, going through lawyers and getting the providers. But launched to the public, it's been a few months now.

Kerry 14:53

It's,

Amanda 14:53

We really have to get the word out 'cause I think it's needed

Kerry 14:57

Yeah, it doesn't, it sounds, like you mentioned, similar to Care.com but in a different role. And certainly I think that, this is a great service as, the aging population and obviously the k- youth too. So I think it's nice to get that personal feel rather than more of a transactional feel of, home healthcare or home, in-home care. Yeah. Very cool. Awesome. So we can send everybody to that website. We'll put it all in the show notes. And is there anything else you'd like to add about it?

Amanda 15:25

No. No. Thank you for listening. I hope the website helps families, 'cause that's what it's there for

Kerry 15:32

Absolutely. Absolutely. So we will put all that in the show notes, and everybody stay tuned next week for next week's episode. Take care.

Amanda 15:40

Bye