A Shakopee startup that helps address the nursing shortage in senior care is already on the fast track to exponential growth less than half a year after launching.
Nursing homes have lost 238,000 caregivers since the beginning of the pandemic, driving the long-term care industry to a 15-year low in labor availability, according to the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living. Husband-and-wife duo Mike and Lori McGuire set out to solve the issue with Accelerated Care Solutions.
Through nurse interviews and conversations, Lori McGuire found that one of the greatest sources of burnout is a poor work-life balance. The state requires senior care facilities to constantly have a registered nurse available. But when those nurses clock out, they never really get to leave. “What happens is [direct care staff is] calling the onsite nurses all evening, all night, every weekend, to the point where nurses were literally not getting sleep anymore and they were leaving the industry,” Mike McGuire said.
Accelerated Care Solutions solves that, he said, by creating a telehealth platform that the on-site caregivers can connect with. The McGuires call it a ‘virtual nurse triage,’ and it comes with customized workflows and tools like revenue optimization and revenue-cycle management to help support senior care facilities.
Both are well established in their careers. Mike McGuire is a seasoned health care executive with history at companies like UnitedHealth Group and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Minnesota. Lori McGuire has more than 30 years of experience working in senior care as a nurse, caregiver, executive director and corporate regional director.
The company is on path to exceed seven-figures in revenue after just a few months, Mike McGuire said. Since launching the virtual triage platform, the company is serving 30 senior care communities representing about 1,650 residents out of 62,500 senior residents in assisted living facilities in the state. Mike McGuire notes the company has captured about 2.6% of the state’s market share.
Now, the team is pausing on taking new clients for two months to make sure they get it right.
“We probably get upwards of 100 calls on a Saturday morning. So it has gotten so busy. … I don't want to over promise and under deliver,” Lori McGuire said. “I don't want to miss calls, I don't want to create problems at the site level, so just really wanting to do this right so that it benefits everybody.”
Mike McGuire added that while rapid growth is great, “proper growth is better.” The company will look to improve its telehealth platform and internal efficiencies in the meantime. There’s a “tremendous opportunity” for expanding throughout Minnesota before the company starts to look beyond the borders, he said.
To Chris Krebsbach, chief operating officer of Marquis Senior Communities, Accelerated Care Solutions has been a "game-changer." In an emailed testimonial, he said, "It has helped us retain our nurses, maintain a healthy work-life balance, elevate our quality of care, and ultimately improve our outcomes." The organization has decreased nursing turnover by 75% this year, he said.
Mike McGuire said the work has been a labor of love for the nurses on the team who are able to share their expertise without the burnout they experienced working in care facilities. That’s part of what Lori McGuire loves about the startup.
“I'm thrilled. I love what we do, I love serving nurses and the emails that we get from the nurses when they had their kid’s birthday party, and they didn't get a call — things like that are just super close to my heart,” she said. “I just see so much value in this.”
