74. Checked In Care- Bridging Care Gaps in Senior Living

Join us on today’s episode as we connect with John Perkins, founder and CEO of Checked In Care, a pioneering SaaS company from Australia transforming the aged care and senior living industry. We’re also joined by John Boson, president of their first U.S. partner, Advantage Home Care, based in St. Louis. Together, they discuss the groundbreaking solutions Checked In Care is bringing to the care industry, enhancing transparency, reducing inefficiencies, and improving both client and staff experiences.

From Perkins’ personal inspiration rooted in dignity and end-of-life care to Bosen’s firsthand success with the platform, we explore how this innovative solution is bridging communication gaps, solving retention challenges, and streamlining care delivery. Discover how Checked In Care is shaping the future of caregiving with a client-first approach.

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Transcript

Matt Reiners: Welcome back. Today we meet with Checked In Care, a SaaS company based out of Australia who's changing the landscape of customer and staff experience in the care industry We'll meet with founder and CEO of Checked In Care, John Perkins from Australia today.

And we also have on this interview, John Bosen, the president of their first USA customer advantage home care, based out of St. Louis. we'll explore many of the benefits that this Australian company is bringing to U. S. based companies in the aged care and senior living industry.

thanks for joining me today, both Johns. first question I have for you, John Perkins is, can you just tell me the why behind Checked In Care? 

John Perkins: Yeah, thanks, Matt. And thanks for having us on your podcast today. I've been working in the care sector since 1994, 

My great aunt, who was heavily involved [00:01:00] in raising us, went into a senior living facility, And I remember walking in to see her and thinking, wow, you live a meaningful life and this is how it ends. And that really sparked a deep question inside me because the dignity of the end of life wasn't there.

So that sort of lit that spark and led to me starting to work for not for profit care providers. I then started my first technology company in 1995. After selling that company,In 2001, I co founded another company called Ethan Group, which became Australia's largest privately owned IT company, which delivered broad services to the care sector.

But what I noticed during that time was how self service capabilities, such as what you saw in the care retail industry, hospitality industry, even financial services industry, Where people could access what they wanted, when they wanted it, anywhere, anytime. you could go online at 10:30 at night and find out what you needed to know.

That was not happening in the care [00:02:00] industry. when you add the fact that in the care industry, it's quite often families that are calling in and they're anxious about knowing how their loved ones being looked after. That was the core reason behind starting Checked In Care. It was very much around bringing to the care industry the same self service capabilities that was happening in every other industry.

So that if a family member, or even the client, wanted to know what was happening with their care, they could access that information 24/7. What we've done is, we've actually Connect to a broad range of back end systems and bring all that information into a single screen, whether it's an app or your desktop, so that whatever you need to know or you as a family member need to know about the care of an individual is available through that one app.

But also that's extended now to staff, where there is so much app fatigue in the care industry. We bring all that information now into one single screen, one [00:03:00] window for staff to access the five, six, eight, 10 systems that they need to do their daily job.

Matt Reiners: Yeah, it's such a smart idea. I went and spoke to a group late last year, and someone mentioned they had 15 different apps on their phone, all required to do their job, all at different logins, it was a pain in the butt, right?

Like it's just not a way, in a industry that prides ourselves in the care that we provide to have all of this. in one stop shop I love that. I know we'll get to John Bosen here talking from the client experience, but I'm wondering John Perkins, if you can share some of the business outcomes, your clients are experiencing today.

John Perkins: Yeah. So Matt, the global issue that everyone's having is staff availability and retention. And globally, as we talk to our customers, the number one issue they're having with staff and when they do exit interviews with staff, the key issue that staff continually raise is they just don't know what's going on in the organization.

There's not [00:04:00] enough communication. A lot of care workers who are mobile. They actually don't access email, and the standard way that organisations communicate with their staff today is by email. And when our global partners have been looking at the reason why staff are leaving and it's hard to retain staff, it's because staff are saying, we don't know what's going on, there's no communication, and there's too much paperwork.

Even though these organisations have the systems in place, it's too hard to access those 15 systems at the back end. we solve that problem, we connect to those 14 or 15 systems, we bring all that information into one single screen, and we enable that full communication channel.

everything the organization wishes to communicate with their staff is accessed through that one screen, that one app. solving the communication issue and access to those corporate systems. from a HIPAA compliance point of [00:05:00] view, staff are only allowed to see the information they're allowed to see based on their role.

if you're not supposed to see clinical information, if you're a cleaner, you're do not have access to that, our system solves that problem by only giving you access to the information you need based on your role.we have both the staff and the client app from a client point of view.

whether it's the client or family members, you're in a high stress scenario. You wish to know how your loved one's going. And today, 70, 70, 70 percent of all calls into long term care facilities go either unanswered or someone says, I'll get back to you, but they're just so busy.

We help address that issue because those calls get dramatically reduced because the client or the family have access to the information they want when they want it. Reducing complaints, increasing transparency of that information to individuals and therefore substantially reducing staff effort because the [00:06:00] client or family members can find out the information they want when they want it.

Matt Reiners: I love that. I think where we're going in terms of a working force, That transparency is key, And making sure you're keeping that front and center. as we navigate the next five to ten years, I do see transparency continue to playing even that much larger of a role.

And I'm curious, this is for John Bosen, who hopefully gets an award for being the first U. S. based client of your guys. But John, I'm, John Bosen, I'm curious, what is the business problem that Checked In Care is helping you solve? And how'd you learn about Checked In Care?

John Bosen: great questions, Thanks for bringing him up. I met john accidentally as most relationships go, it's right place and right time. I've been on the same software for about 20 years and we're looking to switch we call it E. M. R. S, which is a electronic medical record.

We're looking to switch softwares and the salesman of the new platform Introduced me to John he happened to be coming to the States for an event and we met up the clouds [00:07:00] aligned and here we are today 

apprehensive because I don't want to share the good magic that John's done with the rest of the states. And so I understand that all that stuff that John said is true and great, but I'm biased and that I want to keep a secret for myself. And again, I'm being cheeky. So I hope you can see that.

 in all honesty John's company solves a huge problem that I have in the home care industry it's very segmented. A lot of stuff is still on paper. As John talked about, communicating with your team is a challenge in itself.

And I'll just frame this for you so that you can see for yourself and your audience can see for themselves. here in St. Louis, we have a pediatric hospital called children's hospital. They have about 150 beds. I have 4, 000 clients throughout Missouri, Illinois, Kansas, and Tennessee, administered through 50 office locations out of those locations, about 4, workers.

They don't come in and so they don't have access. You go [00:08:00] to the hospital every seven to 11, those shifts change, There's healthcare workers leaving, there's healthcare workers coming. They have support, they have policies, they have training, and if somebody doesn't do what they need to do, all you gotta do is wait outside the doors and you can intercept 'em and train 'em 

Home care is very segmented and it's done like business was done 30 or 40 years ago. COVID for example. Prior to COVID, there was nothing electronic, no employment applications, or any of that stuff you order an HVAC guy to come out to your house, you get a picture of himhis likes, dislikes, his favorite color, you get all these things that tell you when to expect them, what he looks like and all these things, you order a home care worker, you Something that's pretty intrusive.

You don't know who you're getting. You don't know when they're coming. Sometimes they show up, sometimes they don't. And the lack of communication is missing. John plugged that void by supplying an easy platform that allows them to get the service that they need when they need [00:09:00] it, Imagine somebody interacting with your mom or dad that has dementia. And you trying to maintain a full job 

And so nothing like my mom or my wife managing my mom's needs. And John made that all doable as easy as with an app, as easy as typing in the phone number from my mom's instance, without even involving me and giving her designated responsible party access to whatever information at their fingertips.

So they can make better decisions so that they can give quality care or partner with us to make sure they get the quality of care they need in the comfort of their home. 

Matt Reiners: Wow. Love that. Talk about a testimonial. that's so awesome to hear John Bosen.

I appreciate you sharing that with us. And I can understand being the first you don't want the word to get out for everybody else, but hopefully John Perkins can take care of you in one way or another for doing that. John Bosen, another question I have for you, and you hit on it a little bit, but I always see this probably [00:10:00] more so a hesitation to work with some companies from outside the U.

S. market, bringing in solutions and services into the U. S. have there been any challenges that they're based in Australia? 

John Bosen: Noquite the contrary. I've been in this home care industry for 20 years.

I've been talking about an employee application since cell phones have come out, I'm only 45, but this is the first job I've ever really had. we've been talking about an employee app for literally 20 years. The man delivered that easily and It's a breath of fresh air because what I like about John is he came here without any preconceived notions of what I wanted and in a typical salesman fashion, he listened, okay, but didn't put me on what he wanted to put me on.

He put on, put me on a problem and trying to solve something and that goes a long way. he didn't try to sell me something out of the box. He came to. solve my problem. in all honesty, that's how the conversation started.

It's not this is what we think [00:11:00] it's tell me what you need. And he'll tell you anything's possible. It's just how much it's going to cost you. if he's committed to it, He's committed to making it work, 

The hardest part is he's on a different schedule but he'll get up and have conversations with me And so I think that's a, he can tell you how that converts in Australian time, but I sure don't have a problem. 

Matt Reiners: No that's awesome to hear. And I know right now I just had to Google it.

It's 6 20 AM in Sydney. So John Perkins waking up early to take part in this. And it's so refreshing to hear. And I think John Bosen and you kinda, you mentioned like a typical salesperson my problem is I see typical salespeople are not like that. John actually coming in and listening and building a solution that makes sense versus forcing something upon you.

That's where I've seen the most successful. Partnerships, not just a vendorship release is when you can work off the direct client feedback of what works well, what's not working well and create a best solution for that. And then John boasted another question back to you. When you think about the [00:12:00] future with your partnership with Checked In Care, what do you hope as it evolves over time?

And would you recommend them to other us based providers that are not your competitors? 

John Bosen: Yes, absolutely. You said it right there. 

We are here in Missouri. we started with the caregiver side of it. The future is both a client side and a caregiver side of the app. in all honesty, more and more. Five years from now, it'll be 22, five years from there it'll be 44.

the answer is as fast as he can develop, we'll continue to bring. More and more functionality to the table. And really it's just as fast as what problems come up and how can John solve them? What I have now is a virtual mailbox. in front of every client and every caregiver that travels with them.

I've been waiting for that for 20 years. So I'm excited about our future. 

Matt Reiners: I love that. question for you, John Perkins. It sounds like you've got a raving client and the St. Louis, Missouri area, but what are some of your other future plans for North America? 

John Perkins: thanks, Matt. We've hired people in [00:13:00] North America now, and it's a matter of building the team and scaling our capabilities into the market.

What we see in this part of the world, in Australia, New Zealand is we are consistently allowing or achieving a 40 percent reduction in inbound and outbound calls. Why? Because clients families and staff have access to what they need when they need it so they don't need to call.

Substantially reducing complaints and we typically see an increase in revenue per client of 1, 000 per annum. because the family and the client can see the whole range of other services that they can access through, through that one provider. So really it's about bringing that same capability and business outcomes to North America.

And to do that, we're building the team, we're scaling the team in North America. It's really a matter of our growth and the great work thatwe love working with John Bosen and his team. And it's a matter of [00:14:00] replicating that across many more customers. very excited to be in the States.

Very excited to see our growth and keen to bring the same outcomes that we're consistently saying to providers in the U S market. 

Matt Reiners: Awesome. Super exciting. And I'm always excited when I see new companies breaking into the North American market. at times we think we've got all the solutions here, which is just not the case at all.

I'm always looking for other people to bring innovative ideas into it. last question, either John can take it. Any final thoughts you want to share that you haven't had the chance to share quite yet?

John Bosen: Matt, we call him internally. We call him me the States, John, and that's Aussie, John. And so there's the first two things you didn't know about our names. And so we'll give you that. But then for me and all honesty, I think the takeaway here Is that John brings flexibility 

He's not bolted onto any platform. He's going to solve your problems and address your needs and bring his solution and try best to go after your specific problems. For me, I think that's the takeaway [00:15:00] here. It's not a it's not a specific solution, but it's a solution that has the right back end and the right customer service to streamline any kind of software you need.

Matt Reiners: And then Aussie John, anything else? 

John Perkins: Our mission as a company is a world where all people live their best lives with choice and dignity. it's about putting that choice into the hands of the consumer and staff what 

excites us about the North American market is it's very heavily privately paid. Where the choice is much more in the hands of consumer. Whereas in our part of the world, it's very much government funded. we're seeing enormous amount of excitement for our solution in North America because the, the nature of a more properly paid system.

We're very excited to be there and watch our growth as we go forward. The customer and potential customer we've met so far in North America have been awesome. John Bosen, certainly the top of the tree, butwe love working in the North American [00:16:00] market.

Matt Reiners: Awesome. Thank you, Aussie John andUS John, this was a great episode and really grateful to hear the success that US John you're having with Aussie John's service. Awesome job, guys. Thanks, man. 

John Bosen: Nice talking to you, man. Thank you, 

John Perkins: Thanks for having us. 

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