Our Web Site is Up!

Yesterday, I worked all day on the web site and got it finished! I also got us listed on google maps, although I'm not sure what the problem is, because when I search, it's hard to find still. Today, I'm totally exhausted! 

Our web address is:  http://www.caringheartsdunlap.com/

Please check us out!  We are searching for 2 part-time CNA's in the Dunlap area and a part-time Food Manager. If you know of anyone that is interested, please email me at: linda@caringheartsdunlap.com

Keep checking back at the website as I will be updating it as soon as we hire some new staff.

New Web Domain for Caring Hearts of Dunlap!

What a terrific day I've had!  I worked all day on our web page files and finishing and printing employee manuals.  Then I purchased our web domain! I haven't had a chance to load the web page up on the domain yet or read all the instructions on the domain site yet.

We went out to dinner with our daughter and a Nurse Practitioner friend and had a mini-business meeting to go over some things in the employee manuals that we needed to discuss.  After that, we went to Staples and purchased a 4-in-1 printer, copier, scanner, fax machine for the business.  It was on sale today only!  We got there just before closing.

Just another day, filled with all kinds of exciting and new things, getting ready to open our new business!

Watch this page for further information about our web page.  As soon as I can get it uploaded, I'll post the web address!

In the meantime, feel free to post any thoughts you have on adult day care or caring for elderly relatives. I'd be interested in hearing about some of your experiences or ideas!  I have to plan a daily schedule of activities and also a menu!  All help or ideas welcome!

Training Day

Today was spent in training on QuickBooks with our Accountant for the Day Care.  Very interesting all the things this program can do!!  Can't wait to play with it!  While we were in training, I received an Email from the Fire Marshall with his report and the changes we need to make.  He said as soon as we get the changes made on the building, to call his cell and he'll come out and do our final inspection!  We're getting so excited as we get closer and closer to opening!  Our contractor will start on the building right after Memorial Day!

Yesterday, while I was out with my Sister, I stopped by Office Depot and picked up some Invitation paper to print invitations for our Open House!  I'm planning a barbecue and Bluegrass music (if I can find a group to play!) for the opening.  I plan to invite the Dunlap city officials and business owners to get acquainted with us and we'll have an Open House on that day also so that everyone can see the Day Care inside.

After we finished training, it was already almost 6:30 P.M. so we went out to eat and on the way home, put the car top down and stopped at McD's to get an ice cream cone! Oh how I love summertime!!

Fire Marshall Visit

The ReMax Southern Properties building we will be leasing for our business.

Monday morning, we received a call telling us that the State Fire Marshall was going through the area and would come and do our inspection!  It was very short notice, but we've been waiting for almost a month now for this visit, so we high-tailed it up to Dunlap to meet him!  He was such a nice, friendly person!  He completed our inspection and okay'd our plans and told us what we needed to do before we could be approved and get a license. We're approved to take "up to" 23 clients in our day care.  We are thrilled!!  

Our contractor met us there also, and we appreciated him so much for coming on such short notice.  Especially since he had a badly sprained ankle and was supposed to keep it elevated for several days.  He will start making our changes on June 1st!!  He thinks it should only take about two weeks to complete them. Then we will have to call the Fire Marshall again to come out and do a final inspection  and he has to approve all of the changes before we can get our license.


On our way back to town, we picked up our Staff Shirts with the new logos embroidered on them and they turned out beautiful! 

     

My head is spinning now with all that needs to be done yet before we can actually open!!  Once we've purchased all the things we'll need, before we open, we are planning a "Grand Opening" celebration and cook-out!  We'll invite the City Officials and local business owners so we can get acquainted with all of them.

These days are getting very exciting! And are about to get VERY BUSY!

What is Adult Day Care? Who Benefits?

We are so excited to be so close to beginning such a wonderful and beneficial business. We don't look at this as a "business" so much as a "ministry", where we can 'minister' to the elderly people of Dunlap, TN.


I think back to the strain that my Mother was under, when she was trying to care for my Dad at home, and go back and forth to the Nursing Home where her own Mother was being cared for. Those were very hard days for her! My Dad could not be left home alone as his Alzheimer's progressed. He was a danger to himself as he was also at high risk of falling. My Mom was pretty much a prisoner in her own home and if she did have to go out to the store or post office, she had no one to leave my Dad with and had to take him with her. He usually didn't want to go, which presented another problem. Add to this the fact that she was not getting any rest at night, because my Dad was up and down all night long, preventing her from getting a good night's sleep. If she had a job she had to work also, you can imagine the difficulty that would cause.
There are thousands and thousands of people in this situation right now as our population ages. Many are working full-time jobs and have children at home involved in various school activities, and yet, the full-time care and responsibility of caring for an aged family member has fallen upon their shoulders. Adult Day Care can give them some respite and some peace of mind when they have to be away.


Here is an excellent explanation of what Adult Day Care is; who uses it and who benefits from it.


Please follow the link below for a wonderful explanation about Adult Day Care:

http://www.archrespite.org/archfs54.htm

Monograms!

 

This afternoon, I took our staff shirts to the embroidery place and dropped them off to have our company logo and name put on them!! Tomorrow we'll check with the Fire Marshall's office to see when they can come out to do an inspection of our building!!  It's getting exciting as I think that we are another step closer to opening!!  On Friday, my daughter and I will go for some training at an existing Adult Day Care!

Day By Day, Still Waiting!

I

I haven't posted anything lately, because we've been in Chicago this past week.  

We finally heard from the Fire Marshall's office.  Our Consultants had been trying to get in touch with someone there, without success, to find out what the hold-up was and finally, after several unanswered phone calls, used a different number to call.  This time they got an answer!  They found out the request for the Fire Marshall's visit was still on someone's desk.  In all fairness to them though, their office has been closed for a while, due to the flooding in Nashville! 

When asked to try to find it, they emailed me the form to fill out to request the Courtesy Inspection.  The form arrived in my Email along with a request for a check for $250.  This charge was a surprise to us, but I mailed it off today and hopefully, we will be hearing something in the next day or so about an inspection visit.

I purchased some staff shirts last week and checked on getting the logo and company name embroidered on them.  I'll take them over there tomorrow to have the name and logo embroidered onto the shirts.

More to come when I hear from the Fire Marshall's office!

Friday and Still Waiting!

Well, today is Friday and it's been over a week now since we had our initial inspection of the property and we're still waiting to hear 'something' from the Fire Marshall.  This is the hardest part--the waiting!  We can't move ahead at all until we get these inspecions out of the way and get the "ok" to move forward.  There are so many things to do yet, so it's hard to just have to sit and wait! 

Yesterday my daughter rode along with a Nurse Practitioner to visit his home-bound patients and tell them about the benefits of the Adult Day Care.  She found several of them to be very excited and looking forward to it!  They sit alone in their homes all day!  The problem  for some of them is that they are on a Medicaid Waiver and receive Home Services like meal deliveries, assistance with bathing and light housekeeping.  They have to be home for these services, but many of them were already thinking they could come on the days they don't have to be home for the services. 

There's not much else to report right now, except that I found some really cute shirts that we can use for Staff.  I need to take them to an Embroidery place and have our logo embroided on them!  

Our Logo:                                              Caring Hearts of Dunlap

Busy Day!

Even though it was a gorgeous day today, I spent the day in front of my computer working on printing more brochures out.  My daughter called and said that we had an appointment to speak to the Senior's Group in Dunlap tomorrow and then after that, she has lined up an appointment/interview with a possible CNA for us to hire.  So after that phone call, I also printed up a bunch of flyers that can be posted in businesses there and doctor's offices.  Then I worked on setting up this Blogger page and worked on a Newsletter, that is about half finished.

The problem with all of this is that, until we get our inspections from the Fire Marshall, we're stymied.  There's not a lot more we can do until we get the full OK from the State of Tennessee.  The other problem is that we have to be in Chicago next week, and that's probably when the Fire Marshall will come! Our daughter will have to handle it along with our Consultants and our Contractor friend.

More tomorrow after we have our meetings!  Hope you'll follow our progress!

New Beginnings

This is the first post of what I hope, will be many.  

My husband, daughter and I, are opening a new business!  This idea came about as my daughter was worried about her parent's old age and retirement. She wanted to do something or start her own business, to enable her to make enough money to help take care of us in our old age. (We have a sweet and caring daughter!) She came up with the idea for an Adult Day Care business, because she has some friends that have one in Hixson, TN (Caring Hearts, Inc.). After talking with them and getting more details, she came to us with this idea and brought it to us. 

We have been watching our retirement funds dwindle, like everyone else's, as the economy slows down.  We decided that opening a business with our daughter, would be a better investment than the stock market!  We had meetings with the owners/operators of the Caring Hearts Adult Day Care in Hixson, and decided that this is where we would invest our retirement funds!

The past several weeks have been a whirlwind of information and meetings! We hired the owners of Caring Hearts, Inc. as our consultants on our new business.  We will be working as partners with them until all of our licensing is completed and we are up and running on our own. They have been in this business now for more than 4 years so we value their expertise on getting through all the papework and forms necessary to obtain licensing!

Our daugher, Frankie, works as a Medical Equipment Marketer and has much experience in this area.  She will be doing our Marketing for us and also serve as the Day Care Director, as she has more than 13 years experience in a medical or health-related field, as well as connections with the Home Health Agencies in Dunlap.  Already, she has lined up an Interview with a CNA for us for this week! 

I will be posting more as we progress, to let you all know what is happening and then, later on, I will keep you up to date on some of our clients and day by day life in the Day Care also.   

We are so excited about this new road we are taking in our life!  We want our Adult Day Care to be top quality and to serve the elderly with the respect and dignity that they so deserve!

We are hoping to be able to open on June 1, 2010!

Taking Life One Step at a Time! 
More to come!