Over 30 years ago, Edgewood Healthcare was founded after CEO and owner Phil Gisi recognized a need for more choices for aging seniors. Most cities could offer skilled nursing or independent senior housing at that time. Unfortunately, these two service models didn’t fit everyone’s needs. The demand for choices laid the groundwork for more than 60 senior living communities to span seven states across the Upper Midwest and Great Plains decades later.
The Times Are Changing
Gone are the days of seniors spending their golden years in rocking chairs or surrounded by white, sterile walls. Edgewood offers choice and independence and strives to promote an active and dignified lifestyle for every resident.
After years of successful business and blending the expertise of outstanding staff members, Edgewood has expanded not only through the number of communities but also through partner companies. The vision that began with Mr. Gisi has grown, spreading through the caring hands and hopes of healthcare professionals, nurses, caregivers, housekeepers, dining staff, clerical personnel, executives, and volunteers.
Raising the Bar
Many senior living communities today pride themselves on amenities. However, by shifting the focus from offering beautiful apartments to providing all-around wellness, Edgewood is helping seniors flourish.
Here are some of the fantastic healthcare services that offer hope to those planning to age in place:
- On-site physical, occupational, and speech therapy
- Case management
- Health monitoring software and wearables
- Regular and routine medical care services
- Nursing oversight
- Chronic disease management
- Referrals
- Wound care
- Prescription medication monitoring/management
- Hospice/palliative care
Edgewood Healthcare’s first initiative to bring residents quality, professional medical services was creating CaringEdge in 2018. They offer home health and hospice services. They also provide outpatient physical, occupational, and speech therapies to help seniors return to being independent with their daily activities.
Care Where It Counts
The tremendous success of CaringEdge opened the door to further expansion. Legacy Medical was established in 2020 to provide medical directorship services. They serve Edgewood residents on-site and other senior living providers in the area. They also recently opened a walk-in clinic in Grand Forks, North Dakota, offering primary care services to people of all ages.
Legacy Medical helps to provide primary and express care services conveniently, whether on-site at senior living or through the doors of their new clinic. When illnesses are addressed and treated quickly without delays, people can get back on their feet and do the activities they enjoy with fewer setbacks.
Through providing preventative care on-site at senior living, Legacy Medical helps to reduce the risk of complications from common illnesses that often send residents from their homes via ambulances to emergency rooms or hospitals for treatment.
A Proactive Approach
After bringing primary care, home healthcare, and hospice services on-site, it was determined that even more could be accomplished to better the lives of residents. Another of Edgewood’s sister companies, Aspire Clinical Intelligence, supports this idea.
Aspire Clinical Intelligence created software that acts as a virtual information hub. It helps healthcare professionals connect seniors’ health and wellness information based on current and historical findings to suggest proactive healthcare. They have also expanded to provide on-call nursing services at each Edgewood location to support the need for medical consultation after hours and on weekends.
Most recently, Edgewood residents have been using wearable devices from CarePredict. Residents are provided with watches that collect data based on how much they move. Each wearable tracks vitals, nutritional habits, and movement throughout the community. The data is sent and organized into a dashboard for staff to review.
If the data indicates that a senior is moving less, making fewer trips to the restroom, and eating or drinking at a decreased rate, this information can provide clues to potential health problems. Based on those findings, users and skilled clinicians can make recommendations for medical consultation more timely to improve outcomes. This thoughtful process hopes to reduce the instances and severity of common illnesses, injuries from falls, weight loss, and other routine problems that seniors face.
Expanding Support
Edgewood has formed additional partnerships to offer more people quality services and convenient healthcare. Specialty care services in North Dakota and Idaho are available through Home Care Companions, Pioneer Family Medicine, All Care Home Health Solutions, and, most recently, OneSource.
Home Care Companions was created in 1990 and provides personal care services, homemaking, errands and appointments, and companion care to the general public and Edgewood residents. Pioneer Family Medicine, based in Meridian, ID, was established in 2002 and offers primary care services for all ages at their clinic and healthcare services to seniors on-site at Edgewood.
All Care Home Health Solutions was established in 2010. They provide home health and hospice services to residents in Edgewood and several cities in Idaho. Lastly and most recently, in 2023, Edgewood partnered with OneSource to offer home health, hospice, and personal care services to senior living and private residents. They operate in Idaho Falls, ID.
Edgewood Healthcare has become a premier provider of senior living services by bringing quality care and medical services where seniors need them most: at home. Edgewood and its affiliates are shining a positive light upon the future of aging in place. If you’d like to learn more, please contact Edgewood at info@edgewoodhealthcare.com.