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Dennis Brown
R.N.B.C.B.S.
Marie Brown Care Advisor
About Us
Marie is the
telephonic care advisor most care seekers first come into contact with via
our 24 hour direct referral 800 number. Her compassionate and personal
approach to gathering detailed information about potential residents and care
homes is unmatched in the direct care home referral industry, as a former
RCFE owner, she knows care homes from the ground up.
We are Dennis and Marie Brown, real people,
a husband and wife team running a small mom and pop online elderly care
referral business in Fresno, CA.
We are experts in the care of the elderly and helping them find the
best licensed care home available in the location and price range they (the
care seeker) desire. We benefit
the public, seniors and their loved ones by saving them money, time, and
stress, while allowing them to feel secure about finding the best care
solution for their elderly parent.
I started out in my Nursing career as a Vietnam Era
veteran in 1964, trained as an Army Medic at Ft. Sam Huston, Texas. Turned 18 the day I arrived in Germany to join
the 31st Medical Ambulance train (Rail) transporting wounded
troops back to the states.
My first job upon my return from overseas was as a
night shift orderly in the Emergency Room, at
Community
Hospital, Fresno, Ca.
So one day I was a young Army Sergeant giving orders and the next day
taking orders from a woman, she was a Registered Nurse, no less.
So in order to provide financially for my family I
became a Registered Nurse, Board Certified in Psychiatry, 10 years with the
Department of Mental Health as a psychotherapist in individual and group
psychotherapy sessions and Psychiatric Assessment Team Leader for Crises
intervention.
In my opinion, dressings are like IV’s, if you’ve
changed one IV, you’ve change them all, but people are psychiatrically so
different, it just keeps on getting more interesting.
At 38, I went back to school at
California
State
University,
Fresno for a
B.S. in Business (Marketing Option).
My first marketing job out of
Fresno
State was as a Health Care
Linen Specialist for National Linen. As I once told my mother, I was
basically “hustling sheets on the streets”.
My slang terms for negotiating linen contracts with Hospitals.
But I got the job every Marketing Graduate would want,
complete with a company car, salary plus commission, stock plan and of
course the coveted expense account.
Even with the added accoutrements, I took a 50 Percent cut in pay but
I was using my business and marketing skills and learning more.
After 2 years in Marketing for National Linen, Marie’s
mother required more care and Marie quit her Medical Assistant job to care
for her. To supplement our
income I took a position as a Director of Nursing in a skilled Nursing
Facility specializing in Alzheimer’s.
We are care giving experts because together, we took
care of my Mother, Marie’s mother, and my father for the last 20 years of
their lives.
We are care home experts because Marie and I opened
Pearl Garden Elderly Care 6 bed RCFE (Residential Care Facilities for the
Elderly) to take care of Pearl Brown, my mother.
She passed away before
Pearl
Garden was completed and
licensed. We then took care of
Marie’s mother for another 5 years after our home was licensed as an RCFE.
We are referral experts because together, we founded
and developed Care Provider USA Dot Com in 1998 to provide an online link
between care seekers and care providers.
In the past 14 years we have visited hundreds of Care homes all over California. We took pictures, interviewed
Care Home owners and reviewed them based on a Top Care Home rating scale we
developed using specific measurements of care home levels and owner
experience.
We started the referral business based on doing
something no one else seemed to do.
ANSWER THE PHONE. So when the phone rings, we answer it.
Not me, that’s not my job.
It is Marie’s job is to answer the phone.
My job is to make the phone ring.
I do that by staying at the top of Google through writing relevant
content and building 5 web sites as well as performing RN consultation and
elderly care assessments.
We are experts because we are real sons and daughters
and had a lot of real people to take care of along the way.
In 1997 I was pondering what I could do to use this new
media concept of the internet to advertise my business,
Pearl Garden Elderly
Care Home.
My research indicated that the most commonly used term
to denote an elderly care provider are the words; Care Provider. USA was only
added because the domain name Care Provider was already registered.
At that time I perceived a marketing void in the way
the two major players in the Referral business assisted the Care Seeker
Community. Elder link, and
California Registry, the two earliest online referral agencies provided
information about RCFE’s but they
didn’t provide prices or pictures of Care Homes an 800 number or free
Registered Nurse consultation.
Although I had never built a web site, I did have a
pretty good idea about what information the care seeker would need to find
the right home and make a purchase decision. At that time no one was doing
web sites for elderly care and so there was no one to copy, I just had to
build it myself.
I would take the typical 4 P product marketing mix,
PRICE, PRODUCT, PLACE, PROMOTION, and add a 5th P “ PICTURES”.
This would give the care seeker some visual idea of
what a care home and it would aid to my mission of “linking care seekers to
care providers in the USA.
While our free online business model is based on
nursing ethics of honesty and confidentially, our significant capital
investment in education, time and communication costs is partially covered
by a small fee charged our directory members.
With only 26 million people online in 1998, I thought
this new media would some how change the way people shopped for elderly
care, now longer would the yellow pages be the gold standard.
Unlike many who thought the internet was a short lived fad only for
geeks, I figured some day people would use the internet to buy cars, homes
and make elderly care decisions.
About
Licensed Care Homes in California
These are regular private homes located in cities all
over California.
They are licensed and regulated by the Department of Community Care
Licensing under the Department of Social Services.
This is where it can get confusing for the 1st
time care seeker (we coined the term Care seeker to denote the identified
caller for elderly referral services) who may not be able to differentiate
the many terms used in the medical hierarchy and nomenclature for various
levels of care provided by many different tags which may or may not meet the
care requirements of their loved one.
To add to the confusion there are numerous names denoting the same
level of care. For instance, an
Assisted Living Facility and a Board and Care Home are under the same
License category of RCFE.
Usually small 6 bed Elderly Care Homes have a larger ratio of staff per
resident. A small 6 bed may
have 1 or 2 caregivers on duty providing a care level of 1 to 6 or in the
case of 2 care givers providing a care ratio of 1 to 3.
In larger Assisted Living Facilities minimal individual care may run
in the 1 caregiver for 12 residents in a 250 bed facility.
While Care Home Administrators must pass
finger printing, back ground checks and education courses, some
Administrators are also Registered Nurses and have specific training and
experience in Geriatrics, Dementia and Psychiatry.
Private Care Homes that are owned by Registered Nurses may provide a
higher level of care and even be suited to accept Medicare payment or long
term insurance. While
approximately 60 Percent of Care Home Residents are wheel chair bound, the
individual care home must be licensed as such and meet certain wheel chair
requirements for ramps and door width.
Like in Real Estate, location of upscale
Care Homes and the skill level and experience of the Owner/Administrator
along with the individual Care required will determine the monthly cost of
care. Dementia, incontinence
and special care needs of the Resident may lead to increased care costs.
Typical Care Home costs in California run from $1800
for a shared room to about 2800 a month for a private room.
Final care costs are usually based on level of care required.
Care Homes providing care for Dementia patients may require special
training and monitoring for resident safety.
Call us and speak to Marie, our Care Advisor in California about your
loved one, maybe we can help you find the best Location, price, and care
level for you or your loved one. We are available 24/7 at 559-277-1666 or
Toll Free 1-800-330-2533.
ABOUT YOU
80 percent of our online visitors are
female with some of the following characteristics:
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Working, white-collar baby boomers.
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Well educated and very internet savvy.
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Know the approximate price range and location they desire for their
loved one.
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May not have previous care home purchase decision experience.
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Is having difficulty connecting with care home owners to get prices.
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Wants to compare homes and be in control of the final purchase decision
without being pressured.
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May be unaware of what level of care is provided by specific care homes
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May have limited time to “shop” for the right Care Home.
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Have made many phone calls and no one answers or will call back.
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Have a loved one with special care needs, Dementia or Diabetes.
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Know how to buy a new car, but have never shopped for Elderly Care Homes
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You found us.
For more information call us at (559)
277-1666 or toll free 1-800-330-2533.
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