Always Best Care senior services recently opened its first Hawaii location in January, expanding the franchise systems’ national reach to Oahu.
The business, located at 1001 Dillingham Blvd., Ste. 317, in Honolulu, is owned and operated by franchisee Tyler Kimura, an entrepreneur and University of Hawaii at Manoa graduate, who has already built a team of more than 75 caregivers.
Honolulu-born and -raised, Kimura has worked in advertising sales, insurance and owns a wholesale fresh-cut fruit business.
“Living and working here over the past four decades, I’ve seen first-hand the need for a senior care business to assist our aging population,” Kimura said in a statement. “Combining my vast knowledge of the island and my business experience with the proven franchising system that Always Best Care offers, I look forward to providing quality care in my community to the people who need it most.”
Always Best Care of Oahu will provide in-home care and assisted living referral services across the island.
The company delivers its services through an international network of more than 225 independently owned and operated franchise territories throughout the U.S. and Canada.
Kimura told Pacific Business News his plans to continue growing the local company; his employee recruiting tactics, keeping up with customer demands, integrating technology, and his advice for aspiring franchisees.
What are your top business goals for the year ahead?
One of my top business goals is to continue growing my caregiving team and the support staff that allows us to provide our clients with the very best in in-home care. In addition to hiring a client care manager and a field trainer, I would like to recruit another 50-60 nurse aides and CNAs, doubling our staff which now stands at 60.
Another goal is to continue growing our staffing business.
Late last year when we were waiting on our licensing to be finalized, I began working with several local nursing homes such as Aloha Nursing Rehab Centre, assisted living facilities and expanded residential care homes like Hale O Meleana.
Those facilities were facing labor shortage challenges, and I had a team of talented aides and caregivers standing by until we opened. We began contracting with those facilities, providing the short-term staff they needed while giving our care team invaluable training.
It’s been a win-win for all of us, and it’s a part of the business model I look forward to growing.
What have been your strategies in overcoming the labor shortage?
One of the best decisions I made when opening the business was to employ a full-time recruiter and a scheduler.
Applicant leads come into us from referrals, as well as online sources, and our recruiter and scheduler are there to focus on vetting and securing them.
We also have a sales and marketing pro on staff who recruits nurse aids for us at several schools, and an administrative specialist who networks with contacts and pursues other online recruiting resources.
Having all these team members working to pull in the best recruits has made the difference in how we continue to overcome the labor shortage.
What investments in technology do you plan to integrate locally?
Always Best Care has always been an industry leader in technological innovation, and I’m taking full advantage of those resources here to serve our Oahu clients. One example is our Balance Tracking & Fall Risk Assessment program.
The system provides an objective, accurate and reliable measure of a client’s postural sway – known as a key indicator of balance ability. [This] helps prevent injuries and will categorize a person’s fall risk across a spectrum ranging from low, to moderate, to high.
A second technology piece we are very excited to introduce in the coming months is Remote Patient Monitoring.
Always Best Care deployed this unique telehealth solution in December 2021, giving us the tools to provide clients with access to real-time monitoring of vital statistics, fall alert/fall detect services, medication management and round-the-clock access to a certified clinician.
We’re going to be able to help patients avoid re-admission or trips to the doctor’s office, clinic or emergency room.
What other senior care trends are emerging and how do you plan to address them?
The pandemic increased demand for in-home care as nursing homes and other care facilities became Covid-19 hotspots.
As a leading provider of non-medical in-home care, Always Best Care has been able to meet that demand by providing affordable and comprehensive solutions that can match a client’s physical or social needs.
We are continually introducing new programs and technology like remote patient monitoring to help promote the safe and timely passage of patients between levels of health care and across care settings.
Our broad range of services and environments means we will continue to help seniors and their families find the right level of care at home, as well as transitioning to facility placement.
As families entrust their loved ones to a caregiver, they have also come to expect more transparency about the care they are receiving. Technology has played a large role in the expectation of real-time information being available, as well.
We provide a Family Room portal that acts as an online hub of details about a patient’s daily schedule, meals, medication, care and health updates, which brings peace of mind to our clients.
What business advice do you have for aspiring local franchisees?
Start as fast as you can.
The main reason many companies struggle, or fail, is from starting too slowly. I tell fellow franchisees and small business owners to go ahead and spend the money right out of the gate to grow their top-line numbers.
Focus heavily on bringing in clients as opposed to managing expenses. For example, I made the investment upfront to hire a salesperson, a recruiter/trainer and a scheduler, and we were able to build relationships with hundreds of contacts – including the staffing partnerships we built with our trusted partners like Aloha Nursing Rehab Centre and Hale O Meleana - while we were waiting on the home care licensing process.
This allowed us to get off to a strong start once we became licensed – so much so that we are already achieving benchmarks we hoped to hit in 2-3 years and we have only been fully-open since Jan. 27.
For more information about Always Best Care of Oahu, call 808-207-8558 or visit alwaysbestcareoahu.com.
