Visionary Blueprint for Redefining Aging Services for Future

Visionary Blueprint for Redefining Aging Services for Future

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Ruby Mehta: Welcome to CareSmartz360 on Air, a home care Podcast. I’m ruby VP sales at Caresmartz. Technology is revolutionizing how we support and connect with the elderly in home care settings, and communication tools like video chat platforms.

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Ruby Mehta: bridge, geographical distances, allowing families and friends to stay virtually connected with their loved ones. This fosters a sense of closeness and combats feelings of isolation which can be a major concern for seniors. Variable devices can monitor vital signs and detect emergencies providing peace of mind in both caregivers and families. Smart home technology with voice-activated assistance.

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Ruby Mehta: empower seniors to manage daily tasks like adjusting thermostats or turning on lights, promoting independence and safety.

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Ruby Mehta: Further telehealth advancements enable remote consultation with doctors reducing unnecessary hospital visits and offering convenient access to healthcare

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Ruby Mehta: communication platforms can also connect homebound seniors with peers for fostering social interactions and combating loneliness.

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Ruby Mehta: Technology empowers caregivers, too, with apps, streamlining scheduling communication and medication management

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Ruby Mehta: overall. Technology acts as a powerful tool to enhance communication, improve care, delivery, and ensures a higher quality of life for seniors receiving home care. Today we have Bob Roth on the panel. Who’s the managing partner at Cyprus? Home care solutions that offers personalized senior care through a wide range of home care services, allowing the elderly to live safely and independently in their homes or communities. Welcome to the podcast Bob, how are you?

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Bob Roth: I’m doing great Ruby. Thank you so much for having me on today. I do apologize. I’m getting my messages that come through. So I will try not to let that interrupt us. But I really appreciate being on your podcast here today to talk about something that’s really important to all of us. And that is, how do we embrace

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Bob Roth: innovation and technology and the new paradigm that we’re in a lot has changed, especially since. The great pandemic that we just came off of

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Bob Roth: 4 or 5 years it. It’s been like lightning years, I mean, they’ve gone really fast, so

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Bob Roth: happy to talk to you today about how we’re utilizing technology and innovating the way we’re delivering care.

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Ruby Mehta: Yeah, absolutely. And and that’s correct post-pandemic things have changed. Technology has really helped many businesses, let alone home care. Many businesses really operate efficiently. And people have learned the real meaning of remote working. Honestly speaking. So, yeah, that’s that’s been a great contributor.

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Ruby Mehta: so my first, st I think question is on technology. Obviously, what are the specific ways in which technology can be used to improve communication

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Ruby Mehta: and daily life for seniors receiving care at home.

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Bob Roth: You know, Ruby, I think 1st we need to really talk about how the and again, you know, we’ve been doing this for 30 years. So the care recipient demographics have changed over that time.

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Bob Roth: You know the number of silent and gi generation

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Bob Roth: clients that we’re serving as dwindling. So more and more we’re caring for boomers, and we’re communicating with our clients that are boomers and certainly communicating with the children of these folks that are, whether they’re Gen. X. Whether they’re millennials they’re all adept to technology more so than they were 20 years ago. So having
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Bob Roth: people adapt to technology and and comfortable with technology is something that’s really good to be able to have these type of communication channels. But we also need to be mindful that we are providing care, and we’re delivering a

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Bob Roth: a person-centred, you know.

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Bob Roth: care plan, and we’re very, you know.

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Bob Roth: intentional in the way we deliver care. So with that being said, we can use technology. And I’m gonna share with you some of the ways we’re doing it. Cyprus, home care solutions. But at the same time.

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Bob Roth: I’d like to say. And it’s not my quote. But technology makes things possible. It’s humans to make things happen. And we need to still remain human with our clients, and certainly more importantly, with the caregivers that are serving our clients.

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Bob Roth: So some of the things we’re doing in Cyprus, as it relates to technology is that

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Bob Roth: we’re utilizing it with inside our enterprise software solution, which you guys have one as well, which we have a family portal. So there’s a lot of information inside that family portal that allows consumers

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Bob Roth: both family members, and maybe they’ve opened it up to advisors or professionals like doctors to view and see what’s going on, so they can see schedules.

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Bob Roth: They can pay their bills that way, and they can see the daily notes, which is really important, especially when you’re talking about people that live on either sides of the coast, or in sometimes, in some cases we have people that are caring for loved ones that live abroad.

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Bob Roth: So it’s sometimes it’s really hard with time zones, but they can see that type of activity.

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Bob Roth: The other thing that we’ve done. And we’ve really recently added this to our portfolio of offerings is we’ve embraced some innovation inside the home.

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Bob Roth: More specifically.

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Bob Roth: everyone knows about artificial intelligence. And certainly, if you’ve not played with Chat Gpt or any open AI type products, you should, because that is artif our future. So one of the companies that we’ve embraced is a virtual care assistant, and that is brought to us by Sensei. AI. And see AI is a company that provides

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Bob Roth: acoustic devices that are in the home that are obviously listening. But more importantly, they’re they’re studying patterns. And you know this ruby as much as anyone else, and our listeners probably know this, too. You know, with artificial intelligence you have to establish patterns, and then you’re looking for challenge changes in those patterns. And what disruptions are happening, so that you can

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Bob Roth: discern whether there’s an event about to happen right? Our goal is to predict and prevent

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Bob Roth: a medical event from happening and utilizing tools like this is gonna enable people to be able to stay at home much longer.

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Bob Roth: So we’ve been partnered with Sensei for over a year now, and we’ve averted a couple of visits to the ER we’ve averted a UTI, actually, more than one UTI. We’ve averted medication mismanagement. So there’s a number of different things that we’ve averted and been able to

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Bob Roth: keep that

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Bob Roth: client that we’re serving as comfortable as possible in their home. So that’s that’s 1 of the technologies that we’ve embraced. The other one is telehealth.

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Bob Roth: and you know we have

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Bob Roth: obviously again, the pandemic to thank for that roughly, roughly, somewhere in the neighborhood of the mid 20 low, 20% of physicians were using telehealth pre pandemic. And now the numbers north of 70%,

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Bob Roth: and we’re utilizing it in homecare. We partnered with a company called Pocket Rn.

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Bob Roth: A really great company that was born out of the University of Stanford. I think it’s called the Healthcare Accelerator Jenna Morgenstern.

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Bob Roth: Gaines is one of the co-founders, and she’s someone that I’ve partnered with, and Nancy Gillette over there, and Sam the other co-founder, and we’re alarming our caregivers and our families with these telehealth solutions more specifically. And I love the name pocket. Rn. It’s to have a nurse in your pocket.

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Bob Roth: And why do we wanna nurse in our pocket one? We need to understand what our lane is, and when you’re in, and I don’t want to go off on a whole dissertation on this, but I’m not a real big fan of the nomenclature that we’ve been given to describe our industries. Non medical.

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Ruby Mehta: Yeah.

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Bob Roth: Medical tells the world what you’re not. It doesn’t tell the world which you are.

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Bob Roth: but when you are in, and I like, I prefer to say an In Home

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Bob Roth: Supportive Service Company. So we’re an in Home Supportive Service Agency, supporting our clients with activities of daily living. We have to understand that we don’t cross that line on the clinical side

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Bob Roth: many home care companies do, and they should not, because they’re gonna put both the client and the caregiver at risk.

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Bob Roth: So it’s really important to really understand those lines of demarcation. And for us, when there we see a change in condition, we can dial up a nurse.

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Bob Roth: and that nurse can be up on the phone in less than 3 min.

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Bob Roth: We can discern what’s going on

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Bob Roth: and be able to avoid an event from happening, and we have dispatch health here. So dispatch health has been called out a number of different times with our clients, and we’ve been able to remedy the situation and keep them comfortable in their home and not go to anergy care or er visit the nice thing also about pocket. Rn. Is you get a nurse for life for the client.

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Bob Roth: and that client has that nurse for life.

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Bob Roth: and if they’re going to the er or they’re going to their primary care, or they’re going to a specialist like a cardiologist or urologist. They can schedule that nurse to be with them in the exam room, so that nurse can be an another set of eyes and ears asking questions. When family members can’t be there, they can be taking notes.

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Bob Roth: They can also make sure that the care plan that we have created is revised to be able to add or eliminate things that that physician has offered to us.

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Bob Roth: So those are really 2 of the ways that we’re really embracing technology and innovation

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Bob Roth: and really to improve the daily life of clients.

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Bob Roth: To be able to safeguard them and keep them at home.

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Ruby Mehta: Yeah, yeah, those are really interesting. Apps that you’re talking about, Bob. I’m sure our our listeners would really benefit from those insights. That’s great.

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Bob Roth: And the only other thing I want to add is with technology. We did partner with a training company, and there are many of training companies here, and I’m not here to promote I any of the companies I’ve shared with you, whether it be Sensei Pocket, Rn. The other ones, Novan.

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Bob Roth: which happens to be in your backyard.

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Ruby Mehta: Yeah. Yes.

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Bob Roth: So, James, you know Jamie and I go back a few years. I love the guy because the guy was an operator.

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Bob Roth: and the guy understands what we need.

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Bob Roth: So what’s really cool about the technology piece is that

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Bob Roth: we, together with them because we told, pulled down a grant here in our state for our State’s Medicaid.

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Bob Roth: Jamie has taken his

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Bob Roth: training modules and

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Bob Roth: taking them down to small bytes, small packets, so that if you need a real quick refresher on how to do a Hoyle lift, or how to do a high lift or transfer, or working with a patient with dementia that is available not only to our caregivers, but it’s also available to the families, too.

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Bob Roth: So that’s another techno technological device or technology that we’ve introduced to the offerings that we offered Cyprus. And I do wanna say this. And for the listeners to the show.

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Bob Roth: our customer services are so expensive

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Bob Roth: they really are.

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Bob Roth: and these are all meant to safeguard our clients and keep them at home

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Bob Roth: for as long as they can stay at home.

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Bob Roth: So we’ve decided as a company over a year ago to not charge for these things. We’re paying for them.

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Bob Roth: So the cost for pocket Rn.

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Bob Roth: The cost for Sensei.

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Bob Roth: the cost from Nvon is all being borred by us. We’re taking that on, and we’re delivering to our community.

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Bob Roth: As I like to describe

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Bob Roth: a new model of care. We’re reimaging home care and delivering a new model of care with these technological innovations

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Bob Roth: that will safeguard that person accounting for.

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Ruby Mehta: That’s that’s really interesting. And that brings my next thought here and question

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Ruby Mehta: since you I don’t know how long ago you implemented, or were they all together, or one by one? But, however but you have implemented all these technologies. How did you make sure that your clients and your caregivers. They’re comfortable with technology. And the main thing about technology is it’s only useful when people adapt it when people

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Ruby Mehta: use it effectively. So how did you ensure the usability, the comfort, and you know the openness to use technology.

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Bob Roth: Well, let’s let’s talk about the the artificial intelligence with Sensei, who is, you know, do using these listening devices.

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Bob Roth: So they have evolved their devices. And I’m gonna tell you it’s really hard. And there were so many other companies before them that have pitched me their remote monitoring type services. And the challenge I have is that I don’t have a technician that I’m

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Bob Roth: employing that can go out to the homes and install all of these.

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Bob Roth: I’m taking my nurse care coordinator

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Bob Roth: and asking her

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Bob Roth: to go out and and and have another care. Coordinator, go out and install these devices as a as a supplement to the care that we’re providing.

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Bob Roth: That is really hard when you don’t have a technology technology background.

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Bob Roth: So Sensei has created a new version of their their devices where they really are plug and play.

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Bob Roth: You plug 3 of these units throughout the house, usually high traffic areas.

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Bob Roth: and you connect a router.

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Bob Roth: and you just wait for the lights to go on. There’s no using your devices, I mean, really, it’s that simple to do so. We have to keep it simple, not only for our own people, but for the clients we serve. So the devices now are plugged into the socket. The electrical socket, like a

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Bob Roth: called a glade air freshener. They’re really not that much bigger than that. So they’re they’re room, you know. They’re discreetly around, and we want to put the router in a very discrete place, too. We typically want to put it near the television or entertainment center. There is. So it’s not obtrusive. And the consumer that is.

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Bob Roth: having this device in their home isn’t looking at that and saying, What is that black thing? So you know, we we tried to make that very obscure and seamless as possible to the consumer. So there’s not really a whole lot of education that we really need to do on the artificial intelligence, you know, really wrapping around that service in the home.

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Bob Roth: But on the other end the pocket. Rn,

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Bob Roth: I think. And as I opened up I mean

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Bob Roth: the people that we’re serving in the

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Bob Roth: family members. They’re of a generation that really understands these devices. So there’s not really a whole lot of teaching. It’s just, you know. Push the app, open up the app.

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Bob Roth: wait 3 min, maybe 4 min before the nurse comes on.

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Bob Roth: and you’re on so so the technology we have to keep it really simple. Keep it simple for our staff. And each one of us we’re trying to figure out how to do more with less.

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Bob Roth: So we we don’t want our nurses or our care coordinators or our social workers to be techno savvy. We want to make it as easy as possible. So we did a real simple training in our office. And now my team’s able to implement those into the field.

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Ruby Mehta: Yeah, that’s that’s really great. Simplicity is the key in technology. Now, you see.

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Ruby Mehta: AI, especially if you talk about Chat Gbt or any other tools. They are so simple

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Ruby Mehta: you don’t even need nobody trains you to use such tools. They’re that simple. So absolutely.

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Bob Roth: Literally. 3 or 4 months ago I wrote a job description.

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Bob Roth: and I, free formed all the information in there.

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Bob Roth: and I. I took pieces and parts from some of the other job descriptions that I had.

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Ruby Mehta: Yeah.

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Bob Roth: And

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Bob Roth: it came out beautiful. I mean, it was 75% right? And then I tweaked it, I mean, but it formatted it. It looked really good. I’m using that also for a lot of my LinkedIn posts.

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Bob Roth: You know it, you know. I really think that you know Chat Gbt, if you direct it and tell it what you want to say, what’s really cool is the emojis. You tell it to add emojis packing emojis are really hard, so.

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Ruby Mehta: Yeah.

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Bob Roth: Yeah, I think that we can use artificial intelligence

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Bob Roth: in really great ways. And you know, we’re talking about consumers and the delivery of care in the home.

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Bob Roth: Maybe I’ll come back and do a podcast and talk about how we’re using artificial intelligence to improve workflow.

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Bob Roth: We have no idea how much we have improved onboarding caregivers, utilizing artificial intelligence to really help smooth out that funnel and bring in caregivers on I think they’re great ways for us to do that

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Bob Roth: in delivering care.

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Bob Roth: I don’t think we’re going to save my lifetime robots.

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Bob Roth: You may see it in yours, but.

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Ruby Mehta: Got it.

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Bob Roth: I didn’t see that. But using AI for workflow makes so much sense.

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Ruby Mehta: Yeah, yeah, I agree. And these days, I’m in sales. So I get to see a lot of sales, automation tools and AI tools that help the claim to help really close deals faster and efficiently, and some of them are really good.

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Ruby Mehta: So really good. So I truly encourage people to try out whatever tool that works for you, but there are so many out there

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Ruby Mehta: the the.

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Bob Roth: The only thing I’ll add, Ruby, is that

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Bob Roth: we can never lose this. The human.

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Ruby Mehta: Human, yeah, yeah.

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Bob Roth: And you know I think it may work in other industries, but home care is such a personal experience.

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Ruby Mehta: Right.

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Bob Roth: It is such a 1 on one, I mean. Look, when a consumer

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Bob Roth: care recipient opens up the door to their home.

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Bob Roth: they open their life to a caregiver.

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Bob Roth: and they really do. It’s not, you know, to AI they are opening up to a caregiver another human.

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Bob Roth: And we all know about social isolation. We know what it’s done to older adults, and we don’t want older adults to be even zooming like you and I are today. We want that human interaction, I mean, babies get touched over a hundred times a day.

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Bob Roth: and there are some older adults that may not have human contact at all during the week. It may even be 2 or 3 weeks.

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Bob Roth: We need that. We need that hug. We need the handshake. We need the hand on the shoulder.

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Ruby Mehta: Texting, yeah.

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Bob Roth: Never, ever lose sight. Don’t let the machines take over for that because humans need humans.

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Ruby Mehta: Absolutely, I can’t agree more. Yeah. But then, on the other hand, without losing that human touch.
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Ruby Mehta: on the other hand.

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Ruby Mehta: there is, there is definitely an efficient way where you can use technology. And AI to reduce your men will work and focus on really things that matter. For example.

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Ruby Mehta: meeting with your clients.

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Ruby Mehta: Go ahead, meet with your clients. AI will take care of your whatever work that can happen on on your computer. So.

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Bob Roth: 100%. And you know the great thing about Chat Gbt, and some of these others is you can do text to voice and or voice to text, voice to text and.

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Ruby Mehta: Yeah.

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Bob Roth: And then, you know, have it summarized. I mean the beautiful thing. And like I said, I’m not gonna get into a whole lot of details on the workflow. But our 1st encounter with a caregiver is just like you and I are today, where you know it is a digital encounter

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Bob Roth: with very specific questions that are asked.

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Bob Roth: and AI is able to

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Bob Roth: transcript it.

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Bob Roth: And we’ve already put in the summary the areas that we want

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Bob Roth: to highlight for artificial intelligence to look for.

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Bob Roth: and that’s encapsulated in a summary, too.

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Bob Roth: and the company that we’re using to do this Hello, Hire has built an API to our enterprise software solution.

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Bob Roth: So now it populates into my caregiver profile.

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Bob Roth: So the beautiful thing about this ruby is that look.

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Bob Roth: caregivers aren’t perfect.

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Bob Roth: They are special, they really are, and they have a gift, and that gift is they care.

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Bob Roth: And we’re not talking about Ibm salespeople. We’re not talking about grocery store checkers, but they also sometimes make errors in judgment.

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Ruby Mehta: Yeah.

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Bob Roth: And that happens a bit. We’re all human. We’re flawed.

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Bob Roth: But you know, when something happens that’s somewhat egregious.

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Bob Roth: How cool is it now that I can go back into my caregiver profile, my enterprise software solution.

00:22:37.140 –> 00:22:41.110
Bob Roth: And let’s say you’re that caregiver Ruby. I can go and click on that interview.

00:22:41.420 –> 00:22:43.999
Bob Roth: And I can say, Okay, what did we miss?

00:22:44.330 –> 00:22:45.840
Bob Roth: How did this happen?

00:22:45.980 –> 00:22:56.949
Bob Roth: Because we have to learn? I mean, we have to learn that we can get better. And to me, having that ability and having that in that caregiver’s profile is

00:22:57.040 –> 00:22:59.540
Bob Roth: amazing. It’s so futuristic. It’s so cool.

00:22:59.720 –> 00:23:01.440
Ruby Mehta: Yeah, absolutely

00:23:02.140 –> 00:23:05.885
Ruby Mehta: talking about technology here, Bob, since

00:23:07.160 –> 00:23:34.930
Ruby Mehta: you have implemented technology. And we have technology, we are working in a technology company. So there is technology all over. But in homecare or healthcare space specific, there is that data security and personal information that we need to keep in a secured way. How do you ensure that? That’s not compromised when you are implementing technology? What are your measures that you wanna tell people.

00:23:34.930 –> 00:23:47.360
Bob Roth: Well, 1st of all, the technology companies have to be HIPAA compliant. And yeah, they have to validate that for us to allow us to know that because privacy is so important.

00:23:47.430 –> 00:23:52.889
Bob Roth: I mean health information. Privacy is something that we take very seriously.

00:23:53.338 –> 00:23:59.909
Bob Roth: The nice thing about living here in Scottsdale ruby is that this is a destination for a lot of people.

00:24:00.427 –> 00:24:05.490
Bob Roth: Over the last 30 years I’ve had a chance to take care of some very

00:24:05.660 –> 00:24:06.760
Bob Roth: prominent.

00:24:06.990 –> 00:24:09.609
Bob Roth: very. You know, people that you would know.

00:24:09.904 –> 00:24:17.310
Bob Roth: The one of them happened to be someone that was worldwide, known back in the seventies and eighties, and I had a chance to care for this individual

00:24:17.340 –> 00:24:20.030
Bob Roth: so really important to really

00:24:20.400 –> 00:24:23.690
Bob Roth: have that understanding between the caregiver

00:24:24.120 –> 00:24:25.250
Bob Roth: and us

00:24:25.550 –> 00:24:29.219
Bob Roth: that, hey? You’re caring for this high profile person.

00:24:29.460 –> 00:24:31.250
Bob Roth: This is very private.

00:24:31.460 –> 00:24:37.200
Bob Roth: This is not for information to get out to anybody that we’re caring for this individual.

00:24:37.290 –> 00:24:40.019
Bob Roth: So it’s really important that you know we have

00:24:40.340 –> 00:24:53.099
Bob Roth: within our own company. We have a non-disclosure and confidentiality, and it specifically states that our caregiver sign that they are not permitted to talk about any of our clients to anyone outside of our company.
00:24:53.500 –> 00:24:54.870
Bob Roth: Internally

00:24:55.510 –> 00:25:00.639
Bob Roth: we use initials we don’t use first, st initial and last name. We don’t use

00:25:00.750 –> 00:25:13.869
Bob Roth: 1st name and last initial. We just use initials, and we use initials. And you know that is how we communicate. We don’t use the person’s name because you never know who’s going to be listening.

00:25:13.870 –> 00:25:14.300
Ruby Mehta: Yeah.

00:25:14.300 –> 00:25:19.300
Bob Roth: So. So you know, when we’re talking about individuals, we really need to be

00:25:19.480 –> 00:25:27.080
Bob Roth: able to keep the privacy as. And that’s really important. You know, I had someone come into our industry that was in the healthcare space.

00:25:27.230 –> 00:25:34.720
Bob Roth: and they said to me, Hey, you know, Bob, this would be really great. He used to work for Hospice, he said.

00:25:35.110 –> 00:25:45.620
Bob Roth: When you’re caring for somebody you know how you know roofers are working on the roof, or you’re getting a pool, Doug, or you know they put up a sign in your yard kind of like a real estate sign.

00:25:45.920 –> 00:25:50.489
Bob Roth: you know. Why don’t we put cyber science up there, and I’m like, No.

00:25:50.610 –> 00:25:56.160
Bob Roth: and he’s like, why not? I’m like, because people don’t want to know that they’re

00:25:57.060 –> 00:26:03.720
Bob Roth: health is failing and they need help. You know a lot of home care companies, and I’m not here to knock them.

00:26:03.990 –> 00:26:07.189
Bob Roth: A lot of them are putting their caregivers in scrubs.

00:26:08.460 –> 00:26:13.330
Bob Roth: We’ve made a, a very concerted effort not to.

00:26:13.940 –> 00:26:29.319
Bob Roth: There was a day almost 20 years ago, where we allowed caregivers. It wasn’t requirement, but I got too many calls from my clients, saying, Would you please tell the caregiver not to wear scrubs, because when they take them out to restaurants.

00:26:29.480 –> 00:26:32.250
Bob Roth: to the symphony, to the

00:26:32.340 –> 00:26:34.630
Bob Roth: to wherever their appointment is

00:26:35.100 –> 00:26:39.710
Bob Roth: to the country club. They don’t want people to know that they’re receiving care.

00:26:39.760 –> 00:26:47.269
Bob Roth: They want that image that this is. This is my friend. This is my daughter. This is my son. This is my granddaughter.

00:26:47.500 –> 00:26:49.810
Bob Roth: We have to respect that privacy.

00:26:49.830 –> 00:26:53.880
Bob Roth: So it’s it’s really, really important that whoever you’re working with

00:26:54.010 –> 00:27:03.159
Bob Roth: Start with your enterprise software solution. And then and then it goes to you all your bolt-on solutions like the ones I’ve shared with you since

00:27:03.500 –> 00:27:04.920
Bob Roth: Nevon
00:27:05.000 –> 00:27:21.490
Bob Roth: Pocket, Rn. I mean, all of them have hipaa compliance rules that they follow. So it’s imperative, especially because we want to protect that information, especially when you may have someone high profile that’s in your client list.

00:27:21.640 –> 00:27:23.180
Bob Roth: You don’t want that to get out.

00:27:23.680 –> 00:27:24.170
Ruby Mehta: Yeah.

00:27:24.170 –> 00:27:25.530
Bob Roth: They don’t want it to get out.

00:27:26.450 –> 00:27:31.872
Ruby Mehta: Yeah, I really like the way you said, or actually your staff

00:27:32.570 –> 00:27:38.060
Ruby Mehta: uses initials instead of names. I mean that kind of privacy we’re talking about.

00:27:38.060 –> 00:27:53.420
Bob Roth: Well, exactly. It’s so important. It really is. Now, you know, obviously, any communications that we have internally through our enterprise software solution or through. You know, we’re we’re big software. Or should I say Microsoft users?

00:27:53.530 –> 00:28:08.350
Bob Roth: So you know, teams is the platform we use. We prefer teams. We’ve tried slack, and we’ve tried a couple of others. But teams is all encapsulating. So you know, in those environments, we’re having free communication.

00:28:08.350 –> 00:28:09.420
Ruby Mehta: Chats. Yeah.

00:28:09.420 –> 00:28:19.989
Bob Roth: But we don’t want anything like whether it be an email, a text message, we don’t want a conversation to be listened in, on and for someone.

00:28:19.990 –> 00:28:20.670
Ruby Mehta: Yeah.

00:28:21.110 –> 00:28:31.440
Ruby Mehta: especially with AI and technology. And everyone one says that your phone is listening, your Google devices listening, or whatever is listening all all day long.

00:28:31.440 –> 00:28:32.373
Bob Roth: They are.

00:28:32.840 –> 00:28:33.460
Ruby Mehta: They are.

00:28:33.460 –> 00:28:43.110
Bob Roth: Cool. I mean, I can’t begin to tell you some of the stuff that my wife is talked about or purchased, and it shows up on my phone, not hers. And

00:28:43.710 –> 00:28:44.770
Bob Roth: it’s crazy.

00:28:44.770 –> 00:28:46.290
Ruby Mehta: It is. Yeah, yeah, it’s.

00:28:46.290 –> 00:28:48.597
Bob Roth: I need to learn how to turn off some of those things.

00:28:48.790 –> 00:28:52.150
Ruby Mehta: Oh, yeah, yes.

00:28:52.590 –> 00:29:00.580
Ruby Mehta: So in the coming years, Bob, what? What exciting technological advancements do you see impacting home care.

00:29:01.210 –> 00:29:02.060
Bob Roth: Wow!

00:29:02.720 –> 00:29:04.300
Bob Roth: Well, you know what

00:29:04.690 –> 00:29:07.280
Bob Roth: it’s changing so fast. Yeah.

00:29:07.300 –> 00:29:14.339
Bob Roth: I will tell you, Ruby. You know it’s really a great time that we’re in right now.

00:29:14.680 –> 00:29:16.469
Bob Roth: you know. I think

00:29:17.050 –> 00:29:34.089
Bob Roth: we’re seeing change at such a rapid rate. I mean, just think about where we came from 2019 to 2024, and we’re almost halfway through 2024. You know the World Economic Forum has said that we are now in the 4th Industrial Revolution.

00:29:34.240 –> 00:29:41.769
Bob Roth: It began right at 2020 19, when COVID-19 happened. And it’s gonna run to about 2050.

00:29:41.780 –> 00:29:45.259
Bob Roth: And the changes that are going to be brought on are going to be so fast

00:29:45.630 –> 00:29:47.429
Bob Roth: and so volatile.

00:29:47.440 –> 00:29:50.300
Bob Roth: and further reaching than we can ever imagine.

00:29:50.350 –> 00:29:53.180
Bob Roth: They’ll affect every single person on earth.

00:29:53.340 –> 00:29:57.819
Bob Roth: and we’ll be required to make decisions that none of none of us have ever thought about

00:29:58.010 –> 00:30:00.550
Bob Roth: what they are. We don’t know. But

00:30:01.020 –> 00:30:06.709
Bob Roth: we, we are harnessing such innovation and technology at such a rapid rate.

00:30:07.060 –> 00:30:12.289
Bob Roth: You know the democratization of the world. Everything’s available to everybody, you know.

00:30:12.380 –> 00:30:15.700
Bob Roth: Used to think that. You know

00:30:15.880 –> 00:30:18.500
Bob Roth: you had to keep all the stuff up in your head.

00:30:18.720 –> 00:30:19.760
Bob Roth: and

00:30:20.230 –> 00:30:23.410
Bob Roth: we did back when I was younger. I mean, I was a

00:30:23.450 –> 00:30:29.729
Bob Roth: former athlete, and you know, with my friends, we used to always talk about sports and stats and stuff right now.

00:30:29.810 –> 00:30:36.629
Bob Roth: stuff like that. And you know, in the past we’ve been able to ask Google to validate. And now you know

00:30:36.990 –> 00:30:52.401
Bob Roth: who knows how we can do it? I mean, you know, we may have implants in our brains. We you know, you know, the Google glasses. And I’ve had the chance to play with Apple Vision pro. And if you haven’t, that’s something you should play around with.

00:30:52.710 –> 00:30:53.100
Ruby Mehta: Martha.

00:30:53.100 –> 00:30:59.229
Bob Roth: So the technology is really fast, and it’s and it’s growing at such a rate rapid rate.

00:30:59.290 –> 00:31:17.439
Bob Roth: You know, my wife, Susie, is a big fan of Hamilton. She’s seen the show, I think, 4 times. They’re coming back to damage right now. So damages are at Asu, and that’s a big theatre here in the Phoenix metropolitan area, where we see a lot of Broadway shows. If have you seen Hamilton.

00:31:17.780 –> 00:31:18.930
Ruby Mehta: No, no.

00:31:18.930 –> 00:31:33.150
Bob Roth: Right. So there’s a line, and and listeners may have seen that show, and there’s a line from the shoulder, sisters, and they sing this chorus, and it says, Look around, look around at how lucky we are to be alive right now.

00:31:33.650 –> 00:31:36.999
Bob Roth: and I gotta tell you, Ruby, we are so lucky to be alive.

00:31:37.492 –> 00:31:40.150
Bob Roth: Things are happening at such a rapid rate.

00:31:40.636 –> 00:31:46.649
Bob Roth: We it is scary, I mean, and then scary only in the sense that we know we have a caregiver shortage.

00:31:47.010 –> 00:31:52.029
Bob Roth: and we know that what is really pushing it, that caregiver shortage is that

00:31:52.040 –> 00:31:54.910
Bob Roth: we’re not growing as a country anymore.

00:31:54.970 –> 00:31:56.040
Bob Roth: you know.

00:31:56.170 –> 00:31:57.949
Bob Roth: in order to keep

00:31:58.040 –> 00:32:03.380
Bob Roth: our population at 335 million people in the United States.

00:32:03.570 –> 00:32:06.390
Bob Roth: every female childbearing

00:32:06.470 –> 00:32:10.470
Bob Roth: A citizen of our country should have 2.1 kids.

00:32:10.690 –> 00:32:21.219
Bob Roth: I mean, it’s all about math, right? We need to have 2.1 kids to sustain our population. We’re at 1.7 declining to 1.6.

00:32:22.270 –> 00:32:28.910
Bob Roth: So it is gonna be challenging for us. And how are we gonna get through this? Well.

00:32:28.970 –> 00:32:32.710
Bob Roth: one, we can’t force people to have babies. That’s

00:32:32.770 –> 00:32:35.759
Bob Roth: we can’t do that, and we can

00:32:36.040 –> 00:32:37.730
Bob Roth: do something about immigration

00:32:37.860 –> 00:33:03.479
Bob Roth: and immigration should not be a bad word. We have such great caring nations out there, and all you have to do is look at some of the caregiver pools in various regions of our country. You go to New York. You go to Connecticut. You see a lot of people from West Africa, whether it be from Ghana, you know, in here, in our country or our State. We see a lot of Filipinos and a lot of Romanians

00:33:03.806 –> 00:33:25.989
Bob Roth: a lot of people from Tonga. I mean, these are caring nations. They love caring for other humans. Why can’t we open up the borders and and and give them visas in Canada? They give them 8 year visas. That’s what I was told so. I mean, you’re in a great place, I mean here, you know, we we’re not even given visas right now because of immigration.

00:33:26.170 –> 00:33:28.000
Bob Roth: So we gotta solve for that.

00:33:29.890 –> 00:33:34.450
Bob Roth: I really believe in intergenerational living. And I think we’re gonna see more of that

00:33:34.470 –> 00:33:45.090
Bob Roth: culture. Culturally, there are a lot of groups out there that care for their own. You know, I can specifically talk about Hispanic culture because we have a large Hispanic population here.

00:33:45.370 –> 00:33:48.309
Bob Roth: I’ve been at the helm of my company for 20 years.

00:33:48.510 –> 00:33:52.430
Bob Roth: I can’t even count on one hand how many Hispanic clients I’ve had!

00:33:52.660 –> 00:33:54.240
Bob Roth: I can’t count on one

00:33:54.500 –> 00:33:59.049
Bob Roth: now over a 3rd of my Carribean pool is Hispanic.

00:33:59.220 –> 00:34:14.990
Bob Roth: but my clients are, and it’s not because they can’t afford. I just want to go on record saying that because we have a lot of wealthy Hispanics that live here in Phoenix. And and they’re great citizens, and they’re very philanthropic, and they’ve helped build our community.

00:34:15.050 –> 00:34:16.920
Bob Roth: Guess what they care for their own.

00:34:17.320 –> 00:34:23.350
Bob Roth: They care for them, their children, their grandchildren, the nieces and nephews. Everyone pitches in.

00:34:23.510 –> 00:34:24.670
Bob Roth: and Yo

00:34:25.050 –> 00:34:34.729
Bob Roth: the Home Care Association of America did a study, and it came out in the homecare report back in 2,017. I think it was

00:34:35.110 –> 00:34:40.239
Bob Roth: the average distance of an adult child from their parent is 280 miles.

00:34:40.320 –> 00:34:41.980
Bob Roth: So, knowing that

00:34:42.070 –> 00:34:43.900
Bob Roth: makes it really difficult.

00:34:44.150 –> 00:34:50.909
Bob Roth: I see a world where we’re gonna see exactly what we did in the last century. Back in

00:34:50.960 –> 00:34:55.959
Bob Roth: Post World War 2 Post World War, one where you’re gonna see

00:34:56.699 –> 00:35:04.590
Bob Roth: parents, grandparents move in with grandchildren and parents. I mean, you’re going to see intergenerational living is the only way we can make this thing work.

00:35:04.590 –> 00:35:05.120
Ruby Mehta: Alright!

00:35:05.120 –> 00:35:14.830
Bob Roth: We. We also can see or create more village concepts where we can share the care. So I really, you know, I I think these next 30 years

00:35:15.280 –> 00:35:16.920
Bob Roth: are gonna really

00:35:17.120 –> 00:35:21.129
Bob Roth: be dramatic in terms of the way we care for our elderly.

00:35:21.130 –> 00:35:23.220
Ruby Mehta: Gonna change. Yeah.

00:35:23.220 –> 00:35:27.140
Bob Roth: It. It is gonna change. And you know, I really think that you know.

00:35:27.630 –> 00:35:30.090
Bob Roth: we’re gonna be viewed as a country

00:35:30.220 –> 00:35:33.379
Bob Roth: on how we cared for our most vulnerable

00:35:34.087 –> 00:35:37.399
Bob Roth: and I’m talking about the disable, frail and aging.

00:35:37.450 –> 00:35:42.600
Bob Roth: and hopefully it’ll be through a very positive lens that we were able to do so.

00:35:42.790 –> 00:35:47.030
Bob Roth: I’m not so positive right now that there’s so many people.

00:35:47.080 –> 00:35:49.010
Bob Roth: Ruby, you know.

00:35:49.040 –> 00:35:51.859
Bob Roth: because the cost of our services are up

00:35:51.930 –> 00:35:53.729
Bob Roth: 40 to 50%,

00:35:54.000 –> 00:36:03.939
Bob Roth: 40 to 50% at Cyprus. Home care. We were one of the highest priced homecare agencies in 2019, at $27 an hour.

00:36:04.450 –> 00:36:06.680
Bob Roth: And we’re averaging about 40 now.

00:36:06.960 –> 00:36:11.340
Bob Roth: and it’s hard because the cost of labor, which

00:36:11.590 –> 00:36:27.479
Bob Roth: 2019, our average was somewhere between 1375 and $14 an hour. We’re north of $20 an hour because tick files paying $20 an hour. So how do we make it work? So we have to use technology.

00:36:27.650 –> 00:36:28.360
Ruby Mehta: Empties.

00:36:28.360 –> 00:36:30.389
Bob Roth: We have to open up immigration.

00:36:30.550 –> 00:36:31.090
Ruby Mehta: Yeah.

00:36:31.090 –> 00:36:48.490
Bob Roth: And we have to count on families to really pull together in in intergenerational living. And we have to create more villages. And we have to really be intentional on the way we deliver care. So I’m optimistic. I think we’re gonna pull this together.

00:36:48.490 –> 00:36:50.139
Ruby Mehta: Absolutely. Yes.

00:36:50.140 –> 00:36:54.950
Bob Roth: But it’s it’s gonna be a great ride. And what a great time to be alive right now!

00:36:54.950 –> 00:36:56.105
Ruby Mehta: Yeah, absolutely.

00:36:57.260 –> 00:36:57.990
Bob Roth: Really is.

00:36:57.990 –> 00:37:04.541
Ruby Mehta: Thank you so much, Bob, for sharing these great great insights with our audience.

00:37:05.010 –> 00:37:10.119
Bob Roth: Thank you, Ruby, for the invitation. Make it a great day. Have a great rest of the week, and

00:37:10.260 –> 00:37:13.969
Bob Roth: I really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you here today.

00:37:13.970 –> 00:37:15.609
Ruby Mehta: Thank you so much.

00:37:16.090 –> 00:37:16.760
Bob Roth: You’re welcome.