Our Company

Our Mission:  To be an independent one-stop provider of a broad base of services to help family members improve the quality of – and reduce their time in – their search for care management resources for their care recipients as the care recipients face increasing levels of care needs.

Our Values: 

• Our first concern is the best interests of the care recipient.  We provide care management services and provider recommendations only to the extent that we would for our own parents.
• We utilize and recommend transition care resources that are first quality – and those which are best positioned to serve both the care recipient and the family in the most compassionate, efficient, and cost-effective manner.
• Our employees and care managers treat the care recipients, family members, other service providers, and each other with the utmost respect and understanding.
• We do not become involved as beneficiaries of – or decision-makers regarding – the financial assets of the care recipient.

Barbara Albrecht, RN, Principal and Senior Care Manager, is a Registered Nurse with over 30 years experience providing medical and emotional care for the elderly and for patients in a variety of private medical practices and clinics. Barbara has provided adocacy and care management services for clients from age 72 - 95 living independently and in care facilities.  Barbara has researched and coordinated the transition for her immediate and extended family members and for clients under a wide variety of circumstances, including in-home support services, assisted-living facilities, and nursing homes.

balbrecht@ElderCareTransitions.com     
Phone – 913.825.0181
Cell – 913.220.5172

Frequently Asked Questions:

1.  What services do you provide?

Elder Care and Transitions Consulting, LLC (“ECTC”) is a geriatric care management and consulting company that serves families and their aging parents during periods of changing needs.  We are paid by our clients on a flat-fee basis for providing one-on-one, personalized service to screen and help families select and implement top-quality elder resources for:

Ø               Home health care – medical and non-medical

Ø               Independent- or assisted-living facilities

Ø               Skilled nursing facilities, rehab facilities, and memory-care homes.

We also:          

Ø               Provide advocacy/monitoring and reporting services to distant families and families with seniors already in care facilities to assure that quality service is delivered by the care provider.

Ø               Make free referrals to professional services providers – elder law attorneys, financial planners, and real estate transition professionals (organizers, estate and residential sales agents, movers) and to community-based elder and caregiver resources.

2. Why hire ECTC rather than doing it yourself?

With the tremendous number of care alternatives and providers within each alternative, our services can be a tremendous time-saver for families facing escalating care needs for their loved ones, reducing their time for finding, researching, and evaluating service providers from several days to several hours.  Frequently the need to find care resources comes with very little notice, typically under circumstances where the family has a host of other considerations to think about and problems to solve. 

Oftentimes both the adult children and the seniors are experiencing a wide range of emotions due to unwelcome changes in lifestyle that have to be made.  ECTC can fill the role of an unbiased third party while family members attempt to come to consensus about a course of action or to resolve other family dynamics issues.

These services bring peace of mind because our clients know that:

–       the service providers presented for selection have been thoroughly researched and screened by totally objective professionals

–       the seniors and family will be advised of – and their care services integrated with – all available community-based programs and services.

3. If we decide to use a geriatric care management service like ECTC, why pick ECTC over others in the Kansas City area?

Our competitors in the elder care management business are generally staffed with caring individuals whose first priority, like ECTC’s, is to strive to provide quality care for the senior.  Many of our competitors are, in fact, providers of services themselves and, therefore, not totally objective.  Some competitors offer “free” facility referrals, however they generally only refer clients to providers that have agreed to pay them an annual “subscription fee” plus a subsequent “placement fee” once the client has been placed in the facility. 

ECTC is totally objective and independent of all providers and thus can insure that only quality providers that are most appropriate based on services, qualifications, and cost are offered for selection.  Also, ECTC charges for its facility and home care referral services on a flat-fee rather than hourly basis so the client can easily evaluate whether to hire ECTC or conduct the search, selection, and implementation process on their own, factoring in the value they place on their own time and frustration tolerance level.

4. What are Advocacy/Monitoring Services and why hire ECTC?

In some circumstances, whether due to temporary conditions for local family members or geographic distance for others, family members are not able to provide onsite medical observation and coordination or to visit a facility on a regular basis to objectively evaluate care delivery and insure that their expectations for care levels are being maintained for their loved one. 

Unfortunately, for any given facility there can be major changes over time in ownership, management, staffing, and compliance with state and federal regulations.  Also, because care is delivered through people, sometimes the “squeaky wheel gets the grease” principle can result in a diminution of care for a resident that has no one to watch over and advocate for them.  ECTC can bridge that gap.

ECTC will be the distant family's "eyes and ears" related to their loved one's care.  ECTC will also visit a care facility periodically (the frequency determined by the family) and re-evaluate the facility’s:

–       operations and care plan execution

–       ownership

–       management and staffing

–       annual state survey/inspection results and correction plan compliance, and

–       the continuing adaptation of the resident (activity level, participation in care plan, and general appearance) including discussion with their care staff.

We will prepare a report for the family member and forward it in whatever format is desired.

5. Why pay ECTC for services if my employer provides free elder care referral through our Employee Assistance Program (EAP)?

If your EAP offers a local Kansas City-based referral service that provides personalized geriatric assessment, recommendations to a small number of quality providers (out of the full range of all available providers), and selection support, you probably do not need us. 

However, the elder care referral service offered by many EAPs is outsourced to national benefit companies that provide a list of 5 – 10 potential candidates from a database search without the benefit of the knowledge and insight that comes from on-site inspection and evaluation of the provider’s environment, activities, restrictions, staffing, and reputation.  The responsibility for specific provider research and evaluation will remain with you. 

6. When we hire ECTC, how does the process work?

Once you contact ECTC, our Care Manager will meet with (preferably) the senior and their family to discuss the situation and evaluate care needs and options.  The Care Manager will evaluate the senior’s medical, social, financial, and environmental situation.  This initial meeting can take place either in the senior’s residence or in the hospital or care facility.  The Care Manager will ask the family to sign a contract that lays out the services to be provided and their pricing and will ask for a check in payment for the anticipated charges, as appropriate.  If the need is for ongoing care management, the family and Care Manager will agree on an hourly rate and anticipated scope and frequency of services to complete the contract.

For a facility or home health provider placement assisgnment, the Care Manager will depart to research and identify three (or more, if desired) providers of services (home health or alternative facility) that provide the most appropriate (services, environment, cost) level of care and also identify any community-based services for which the client is eligible.  The Care Manager will return and present recommendations and will then, if desired, accompany the senior and family in visiting or interviewing the recommended providers to insure that the family asks critical questions.  Based on evaluation of the senior’s financial and legal situation, if appropriate the Care Manager will also provide referral recommendations to elder law attorneys, financial planners, and transition (relocation) professionals.

The Care Manager will provide the client with an Organizing For The Future document to assist the family in gathering critical documents and information and, if the recommendation is to stay in the senior’s current residence, a Home Safety Checklist to eliminate unsafe conditions in the home.  If desired by the family, the Care Manager will conduct the evaluations suggested by both documents at an hourly rate.

Once the family has decided on a care provider, they will contract with and pay fees directly to the care provider.  ECTC will continue to be involved in an informal, monitoring role with the contracted care provider, but will always be available to assist the family to evaluate escalating care needs and future provider decisions.

Our process follows your needs

At each step of the process, the family and the care recipient are the decision-makers. Our role is to:

• provide care management services that best fit the needs of the distant family
• save the family time by reducing the wide variety of options to a manageable number of quality providers to review.
• provide objective information and guidance to help the family make the best decision possible.
• coordinate the provision of supporting resources.

Typically we meet with the family members and the care recipient to identify family circumstances and needs. Based on that understanding:

1. We might conduct an in-home geriatric assessment and draw up a formal care plan.
2. If it is at all possible for the senior to stay in their home, we will locate, qualify, and recommend the appropriate level of in-home support resources – from companionship and light housekeeping through fixing meals and preparing and administering medications to full 24X7 nursing care.
3. If a move to a different level of care facility is needed, we will clarify the family’s selection criteria and conduct a search and evaluation of area facilities, including a review of the facilities' compliance with Federal, state and local regulations and inspections.  We will then visit those selected facilities, along with the family members, to assist the family in asking the right questions and providing an impartial basis for a decision.

If desired by the family we will bring in organizers, estate sale or real estate professionals, or movers and arrange for the disposal of physical assets and the move to the new environment.