With its enterprise tracking solutions being marketed by Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel Corp., Gearworks Inc. is now developing a platform for one the fastest growing fields in the country – home health care.
The Minnesota-based company is set to launch OnCare in the first quarter of next year. The mobile application platform is intended to simplify management of health care workers in the field and allow companies to focus on delivering quality patient care.
The company decided to develop OnCare after studying statistics about the projected growth for the home health care market, said Doug Marinaro, Gearworks VP of marketing and business development.
“We are building a platform for the fastest growing market sector that has particular needs,” he said.
Market growth expected
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, the number of home health care aides is projected to grow from 1.5 million in 2006 to 2.3 million by 2016, making this the fastest growing occupation overall.
Reasons for the expected growth are the increasing demands by an aging population and cost. Cost for home care is about $6,000 per patient compared to $20,000 for each patient who is cared for in a group home.
By using Gearworks’ Appmosphere mobile application platform, OnCare can be customized to fit care plans of any home health care company.
Appmosphere is a new Platform-as-a-Service offering that enables carriers to deliver location-intelligent information on demand for any application on any mobile device. With the platform, companies can create mobile applications that fit their business needs. It also allows independent software vendors an opportunity to create applications that can be integrated into the platform.
“OnCare illustrates the power of the Gearworks’ Appmosphere platform to efficiently deliver innovative on-deck mobile applications,” Brent Iadarola, Frost and Sullivan global research director of mobile and wireless, said in a statement. “Utilizing the Appmosphere ‘write one and run any’ capability, Gearworks can customize OnCare to fit the unique plans of any health care enterprise, positioning Gearworks and its carrier partners to serve this fast growing market segment.”
Location is key
Gearworks officials said OnCare will improve home health care because the solution combines patient information with location. Marinaro said this will ensure that health care plans are followed by workers and a record will be in place that a worker was at the home and performed the duties.
The solution is also geared to cut down on paperwork regarding billing, payroll and timecards. The platform will also feature a safety function where workers can call for help in situations they feel are unsafe. Two-way messaging, turn-by-turn navigation and alerts regarding appointments and schedule changes are also part of the platform. A Web portal is also available so companies know where their workers are at all times.
Gearworks will be testing the OnCare platform this quarter and plans to get it out in the marketplace through its relationship with the various carriers. Marinaro said the company is hopeful OnCare will follow the path of its Field Force Manager platform that is available through Verizon Wireless and its Etrace platform that is offered by Sprint Nextel. Both of the location-based service platforms are geared toward businesses that want to track their mobile workforce and manage their fleet and assets.
Marinaro said Gearworks is counting on the numerous software vendors that specialize in the health care market to create applications for the OnCare platform.
“There are more than 50 software vendors in the space,” he said. “We have created a gateway for the software vendors to get their products out through the carriers.”
