Androscoggin Valley Home Care Services Executive Director Margo Sullivan (left), pictured with HealthForce NH Senior Director Kate Luczko, accepted the $100,000 first prize on behalf of her team as the winner of the HealthForce NH Innovation Challenge. (Courtesy photo)
Androscoggin Valley Home Care Services in Berlin was named the winner of HealthForce NH’s Innovation Challenge and awarded $100,000 toward its project, “The IDEA,” (Inter-Disciplinary Elite Aides).
“HealthForce NH’s focus is on the recruitment, retention, and sustainability of the health care workforce in New Hampshire, and AV Home Care Service’s proposed initiative intends to address all of these elements and more,” says Kate Luczko, senior director, HealthForce NH, an initiative of the Foundation for Healthy Communities. “They truly exemplify the spirit of innovation.”
Androscoggin Valley Home Care Services’ The IDEA (Inter-Disciplinary Elite Aides) intends to build a local Licensed Nursing Assistant (LNA) hierarchy, trained in every community health care organization (HCO) serving one rural community. LNAs will be trained, tested and "certified" to work in each HCO, essentially completing an orientation to learn work, its routines, culture, etc. These LNAs will then be eligible to access a web-based scheduling system on which all partner HCOs will post open shifts. LNAs will be able to choose any day/time/shift/health care organization 24/7 to work when they so desire, thereby filling needs on a day-to-day basis and relieving the pressures of real time short staffing, not just short staffing due to vacant positions in the HCOs.
“I like to think of this idea as the ‘Uber of health care,’ transforming the way health care staffing is scheduled and delivered by developing a system that is more accessible, efficient, and user-friendly, and offers schedule flexibility, which we often hear is a top priority for health care workers,” says Luczko. “I believe it has the potential to be a real driver in addressing health care workforce challenges.”
Lightcap Health in Durham was awarded $60,000 for second place in the Innovation Challenge. Its project, “PULSe,” (Personality-Based, Understanding, and Long-term Support for Healthcare Workers), will be a video subscription as a service (SaaS) platform aimed to reduce nurse burnout. The program will do so by offering videos tailored towards people’s personalities based on a holistic approach to education and goal setting for healthy behaviors.
Third place went to NH Hospital in Concord for its project addressing mental health workforce development. New Hampshire Hospital was awarded $40,000 towards their project to recruit and develop a workforce from underserved populations (new Americans and low-level offenders or those seeking a “second chance”) to serve the unique needs of acute psychiatric patients in the Granite State while being paid a living wage during training to meet current and future mental health workforce needs. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and Geisel School of Medicine in Lebanon and Second Start in Concord were also semi-finalists.
The competition was open to individuals, established organizations, or new organizations within any industry. All proposals needed to reflect original thinking or original adaptations and applications of existing programs, changed to be unique, and had to be focused on health care workforce in NH. After an application process that included proposals being submitted, semi-finalists were selected to participate in a live pitch event. The final winners were selected by a panel of judges.
Current Issue - November 2024