VRI partners with CareCentrix for evolved PERS

DAYTON, Ohio—Healthcare services company VRI on Aug. 26 announced a partnership with in-home nursing care company CareCentrix to expand its services and move PERS to the next level, according to VRI president Andy Schoonover. It's not just about the device, the button, and the alert. It's the service, the metrics, and the response.

“We're in a slow transition from security to PERS and PERS is now mixing with healthcare. We're seeing more and more folks on the PERS side transition from the unit being the primary business to healthcare being the primary business,” Schoonover said. “It's taking PERS to the next level … It's one thing to say 'I know somebody has fallen.' It's another thing to figure who the right responders are to that alert.”

VRI will provide CareCentrix with telemonitoring, medication adherence, and medical alert systems to support their efforts in providing people with comprehensive medical care at home.

Schoonover says while VRI's primary sell is to healthcare plans, there is real opportunity here for dealers. “We think that providing telemonitoring services to dealers makes a lot of sense. Whenever you have product where there is low awareness of the product and high willingness to buy there is opportunity for companies that know how to market and sell products to the end user,” Schoonover said. “Whenever I tell people about our telemonitoring services, I always get a 'Wow, my mom could use that.'”

While more expensive than traditional PERS, Schoonover said the selling points for a more advanced telemonitoring solution were many. “Properly used, the devices are proven to keep those with chronic diseases out of the hospital. Telemonitoring gives family members an even higher level of comfort. Now caregivers know not only if their loved one has fallen due to the client using PERS but also that their vitals, blood sugars, and other biometric data are in line with their doctors' expectations,” Schoonover said. “All of this information can be viewed on our online HIPAA-compliant portal that can be private-labeled for our dealers.”