CareFlash Partners with Six Hospices to Enhance Patient Experience, Marketing and Fundraising

Online, November 10, 2011 (Newswire.com) - WHO: CareFlash-Offering "CareCommunities," social media for friends and loved ones around those in need
WHAT: CareFlash Inks Deals with 6 Hospices, Partnerships will Enhance Patient Experience, Marketing, and Fundraising
WHERE: Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, San Angelo, Bryan/College Station, Waco and Jasper, TX
WEB: www.careflash.com + twitter.com/careflash + facebook.com/careflash
MEDIA: For interviews and details, contact [email protected] and 512/450.4395

CareFlash-an Austin, Texas-based company offering specialized social media called "CareCommunities" for those in need-today announces partnerships with six Texas hospices to enhance patient experience, word-of-mouth marketing and viral fundraising. Founded in 2006, CareFlash is a unique service people can use to quickly and easily create their own centralized CareCommunity for facilitating an engaged support network of friends and loved ones during times of need. The tool is also a powerful approach for businesses.

The partnering hospices are Community Hospice of Texas, Dallas/Ft. Worth; Houston Hospice, Houston, TX; Hospice of San Angelo, San Angelo, TX; Hospice Brazos Valley, Bryan/College Station, TX; Providence Hospice, Waco, TX and Lakes Area Hospice, Jasper, TX.

"Although much of hospice care is for the benefit of patients, we are also committed to supporting families left behind who face ongoing emotional and spiritual pain. CareFlash expands our effectiveness in this regard," said David McBride, Executive Director of both Hospice of San Angelo and Texas Non-Profit Hospice Alliance.

An Aging Population
Ten thousand people will turn 65 years old every day for the next 19 years. The busy professional and personal lives they lead, and the ever-growing social circles they develop powered by social media exemplify the importance they place on 'community'. It's these factors, and their level of wealth that explain why boomers are the most attractive marketing demographic.

Branded social media CareCommunities continue gaining favor as a unique avenue that helps hospices enhance outcomes and drives convenience and effectiveness for these boomers - in regard to their parents' care - while creating more widespread, durable and viral business benefit for hospices powered by compassion, not ads.

"Baby boomers are the fastest-growing demographic adopting social media - and they continue to redefine how people interact," added Andrea Green, CEO of Community Hospice of Texas. "CareFlash is a helpful tool people can use to effectively communicate with family and friends during a difficult time. This online technology allows families to have one central location to share information through their CareCommunity, freeing them to spend more time with their loved one."

CareCommunities that are created via the link on each hospice's website are custom-branded to expand the breadth and durability of their viral word-of-mouth and fundraising through empathy and goodwill, not ads - enhancing engagement among the family's friends and loved ones.

"CareFlash never dilutes a hospice's marketing by asking for donations," said Jay Drayer, CareFlash founder and CEO. "We believe the goodwill that arises in connection with hospice care should benefit the hospice providing that care. The most powerful advocates for, and donors to a hospice are those friends and family members whose loved one benefited from the care and compassion provided by that hospice, regardless of whether they reside across the city or the country."

About CareFlash
CareFlash is a unique, free service people can use to quickly and easily create their own centralized CareCommunity for facilitating a meaningful fabric of love and support. CareFlash enhances the experience hospices provide families, helping improve outcomes by removing the emotional barriers that explain why most people find it difficult to become meaningfully engaged around their loved ones who are approaching a loss or, equally effectively, in the months that follow - while enhancing the marketing and fundraising success of the hospice through goodwill and empathy ... not ads. CareCommunities allow members to blog and share status updates, engage involvement from friends, celebrate their loved one's life and rally 'round that family in tasteful ways. Members are enabled to learn how their help would be key, and to conveniently sign up for specific items. This eliminates anxiety of continually asking for help and the headaches of 3 families bringing casseroles the same evening. Also, information about medical topics is made available through hundreds of plainly narrated 3D animations by Blausen Medical of Houston, TX.

CareFlash also provides a straightforward, measurable way for organizations to leverage a complete social media strategy that enhances outcomes while at the same time driving their word-of-mouth marketing and fundraising in predictable, viral ways.

Non-Media Contact:
Jay Drayer
Founder, CEO
CareFlash
512-368-5421
[email protected]
http://www.careflash.com

Denise Procaccino
Public Relations/Development Coordinator
Community Hospice of Texas
(817) 546-2175
[email protected]
http://www.chot.org

David McBride
Executive Director
Hospice of San Angelo and Texas Non-Profit Hospice Alliance
(325) 658-6524
[email protected]
http://www.hospiceofsanangelo.org/ and http://www.tnpha.org/

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Testimonials

Taylor Willingham, an internationally known thought-leader in Civic Entrepreneurship, Community Engagement and Change Management, said of her CareCommunity: "CareFlash helps us get the right resources in the right place at the right time in ways we could never have done otherwise. I mean it's amazing for keeping everyone engaged and everything organized. People are just jumping in there. If I post something on CareFlash and then wait a couple of hours and don't see replies from anyone ... I wonder, where are you guys?!! Cause they are typically so fast to respond! People were always offering to bring us food and I had visions of food arriving en masse and then nothing, which had me thinking what a long, slow haul this was gonna be. Mom and I were trying to figure out how this 'bring us dinner' thing works (using the CareFlash iHelp Calendar). So we were sitting in the hospital and we posted a request for a meal as we were playing around with iHelp and, before we could take the post down, a friend had already volunteered to bring us a meal which she literally brought to the hospital which was great because we were so tired of the hospital food. And that was within 20 minutes probably of posting it on CareFlash." (Taylor lost her battle with cancer in September 2011.)

"Not only does each social media community website provide an important service for family members and the patient themself, it allows hospices to differentiate themselves in their marketing efforts which can lead to increased referrals and giving," observed Jim Monahan, a hospice industry executive who serves on the CareFlash advisory board. "Traditionally, hospices have been 'high touch, low tech,' but the CareCommunity allows them to be both, which drives a better outcome for both family and patient. Families can communicate with each other and rather than asking 'what can I do to help?', friends can engage in meaningful involvement and interact with the family's ongoing needs and practical matters in a manner that doesn't add to the family's anxiety nor impose on their privacy."

Learn More
Interested hospice personnel may learn more about CareFlash by attending a brief online webinar. The service is activated by simply placing a branded video and link on the hospice homepage (Ex. http://chot.org), which navigates the patient/family member directly to the hospice-branded CareFlash homepage. Creating a CareCommunity is fast and easy, even for people who are not technically proficient. To ensure privacy, each member must be proactively invited and accepted before gaining access. Each CareCommunity is tastefully branded in multiple ways that can drive the hospice's patient and family care, marketing and development objectives.