Jon Siegel and Kasondra McCormick from The Perfect Companion talk about the importance of infusing hospitality into healthcare, addressing family dynamics and finding the right caregiver/client match.
Jon: I've been Founder and President of The Perfect Companion since 2008. Prior to that, I had a successful psychotherapy practice in Phoenix and Scottsdale, Arizona for almost 30 years. I was a Medicare provider as well. I was a captain in the United States Air Force and part of the mental health clinic at Luke Air Force Base back in the 80s and worked in psychiatric departments in Veterans Administration (VA) hospitals and on the campus of The Ohio State University.
Kasondra: Prior to joining The Perfect Companion in 2018, I worked in the business world for nearly 30 years. Through various roles, I have focused my efforts on automated environments with technology and in the health and longevity space, specifically around functional medicine and genetics. My role with TPC allows me to blend my love of business and technology with my compassion for people.
Jon: The goal of The Perfect Companion is to match the individual skill sets and personality of our caregivers with our clients’ individual needs and personalities. We like to call it “ladies and gentlemen caring for ladies and gentlemen,” along the lines of The Ritz-Carlton motto, “ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.” Our clients expectations of receiving excellent service and care is high.
The Perfect Companion has three distinct categories of service: Companions, Caregivers, and Hospice Care. We serve a discerning clientele with a high discretionary income. Our clients' expectations of excellent services are high. Our clients appreciate that they can relate to their companion caregivers from a personal and professional standpoint.
Most of our independent living clients prefer educated, seasoned caregiving professionals who have shared mutual life experiences and are able to relate to them. In response, we hire a lot of retired nurses, teachers, real estate executives and hospitality professionals. These types of professionals can relate to our clients not only from a physiological perspective, but from a personality standpoint. We take a very personalized approach.
We're not looking for a volume of clients, we are looking for the right clients so that we can build the right kind of relationships that we know our clients want.
Jon: Let me give you an example, Katherine. One of our hospitality companions is a retired TV news anchor, helicopter pilot, and was a record producer for Phil Collins. To be able to have somebody with that life experience working with our clients and coming to work in a St. John's suit instead of scrubs, positions them more as a personal assistant than a companion. It goes a long way for our clients. They feel more comfortable and that they are understood. The companion knows that the person they are caring for is an individual with unique needs.
“Unlike a healthcare worker who focuses only on physiological needs”, we take a holistic approach to meet the psychosocial determinants along with the needs of their activities of daily life. We do a very thorough clinical care assessment to address the physiological needs of our clients and integrate assessment of their psychosocial needs. This allows us to provide the best service for every individual.
Kasondra. Yes, I would like to add two things. Regarding the hospitality and healthcare piece, there's a saying in hospitality— “what the customer wants, the customer gets.” That is our approach in a nutshell. As Jon said, there are psychosocial dynamics within these individuals and their families.
Providing tools and blending what the customer wants and what they get with these psychosocial dynamics is sometimes complicated as they don't always know what they need. It is our job to understand what they need and help them navigate the hard conversations with their families. When we truly understand their needs, we can give them the voice to understand their world--not only from their perspective, but also that interaction with their loved ones and their environment. Sometimes we are the only ones to help them have a voice.
Jon: That rapport you are speaking about is all about what we do, and it leads to the most important thing of all trust. Trust is the keyword, because without that, there is no Perfect Companion.
Jon: It's all about continuity. We're usually spending more time with clients in the home environment than anybody else in their lives. Our clients go to see their personal physician, for example, who spends maybe 10 to 15 minutes prescribing a treatment plan and some meds. It's up to us to maintain that continuity of care, and family integration is very important in that respect.
We like to call ourselves the “informers of treatment.” If you go through the continuity of the care spectrum, it comes down to us, to be able to integrate the multiple instructions from doctors, therapists, and other healthcare workers.
Kasondra: We spend thousands of hours going to clients’ homes and talking on the telephone with their caregiving teams. There are so many aspects of what we do that go unnoticed in the outside world, and maybe even with the other family members who aren't so involved with their loved ones. We are the eyes and ears for that family. We are also the eyes, ears, and compassion for the family caregivers who are with our client every day.
Our clients are dealing with difficult transitions that can be very overwhelming for the companion. Many caregivers are taking care of their own families, which adds to the complexities and stress. Caregivers may need an outlet to process what they are going through, and we are that lifeline. We can give them guidance and tools so that they can “let the air out of the balloon.” It is our top priority to make sure that the caregiver has the support they need to do their job every day.
We allow the family to be the family; getting the hard jobs done so family members can focus on having meaningful moments with their loved ones.
Jon: As Kasondra illustrates, it is important to stay in communication with the family, whether they are local or across the country. To be able to reassure people who are living thousands of miles away that their loved one is being taken care of, it is priceless.
Katherine: Let’s talk about your partnerships in senior living and aging services. How long have you been working with Vi and do you work with the community and residents?
Kasondra: We have been a proud partner of the Vi at Silverstone for more than over 9 years Serving its clients and community through personalized services, introduction of professional partners, and engaging in education for its residents. We love partnering with like-minded professionals that share our special brand of personalization in the healthcare, hospitality, wealth fund and management, business and university levels and beyond.
Katherine: Congratulations, Kasondra, on your new position as Chief Information Officer (CIO). What can you provide to senior living in terms of age-tech and talk about some of the specific technologies that excite you.
Kasondra: I have the privilege of having experience in both healthcare and technology and automation., The ability to advise, educate, and even just witness this special opportunity for each person to experience further personalization of communication between care providers, families and individuals, the appropriate level of care needs, understanding their environment, and tailor ones care to improve their outcomes giving them joy, hope and independence is astonishing and a privilege.
Katherine: I completely agree and part of that is that kind of care comes from the heart. You speak about The Perfect Companion as a heart-centered business. Please share with us what that means to you and why it's important for the industry to have this kind of connection.
Jon: Bringing heart to our business starts with our staff. Instead of focusing on financial goals and sales, I tell my employees to focus on enjoying their work. I come to an office full of people I love to work with, who have been with me for a long time, and who understand what we're trying to do. I sleep well at night because we do the right thing. And word gets out about our heart, –80% to 90% of our business comes from word of mouth.
It feels good to match a client with the right person and then pay the caregiver a living wage. It’s a true win-win.
Our high level of retention is a huge advantage, because we are able to have the same caregivers work with the same clients for long periods of time to maintain a level of consistency. We have had some clients with the same caregiver for 8 to10 years, which initially I never thought that would be possible. It is true we pay our caregivers better than anybody else, which allows them to take care of their own families and come to work having pride that they're performing a needed service.
Visit The Perfect Companion website for more information.