HOME INSTEAD

Home Instead Senior Care employee Mary Lee Williams, left, helps Mary Henney prepare for a luncheon being held in Henney's Omaha home.

Paul and Lori Hogan's senior-care business seeks to duplicate the way a network of relatives would help an elderly person.

That simple idea, combined with a sophisticated system for building franchises, has connected the Omaha couple's Home Instead Senior Care Inc. to nearly 800 such ventures in the United States and 11 foreign countries.

Four more countries will join the roster this year, when companywide revenue is expected to reach $650 million.

The Hogans developed the business concept in part from his family's experience in the last years of his grandmother's life. Family members helped her with meals, exercise, social involvement, housekeeping and other tasks.

Paul Hogan didn't stumble into franchising.

He studied franchising in college and worked for Merry Maids, a home-cleaning company founded in Omaha. That's where he learned the skills he would need to turn his elder-care concept into a success.

The Hogans implemented many of Merry Maids' other principles, including: "To honor God in all we do."

Hogan said prospective franchise owners should understand the company's spiritual focus, which supports the whole idea of serving other people.

"We want them to know what our values are before they decide," he said.

Franchise owners don't have to have the same values, but he encourages them to write down their values, whatever they are.

Home Instead gets more than 5,000 inquiries per year and selects 40 or 50, he said.

Those who do best on the profile tests used to screen applicants turn out to be the most successful, Hogan said.

Because Home Instead provides no medical care, there is a greater pool of prospective employees.

"We realized you didn't have to be a doctor or a nurse to have a big impact on a senior's health," he said.

Home Instead revenues have more than doubled since 2004, and demographics indicate more growth, he said.

Census figures indicate that by 2030 the number of Americans older than 65 will grow from 36 million to 91 million; those over 85 will double to more than 10 million; and people older than 100 will grow from 200,000 today to 2.5 million.

Many will not need in-home medical care if they have the assistance of a trained caregiver, Hogan said.

In a foreign country, Home Instead equips a "master franchise" company to oversee local franchises, handling training, marketing and other functions of a central franchise office.

Last month, the Hogans were at the White House to receive an award from President Bush and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez recognizing the growth of their international franchises. The company expects $68 million in international revenue this year.

Looking toward the future, Home Instead is working with Philips Electronics to find ways to provide technology that would help elderly people.

Although Home Instead gets buyout offers frequently, Hogan said, there are no plans to sell. Would-be buyers typically want to "flip" the company and sell it at a profit after a few years' ownership, he said.

Hogan, 45, and his wife, Lori, have four children. He said some may want to go into the family business.

RIGHT AT HOME

As a hospital administrator, Allen Hager said, he saw a growing gap in the nation's care of elderly people.

Medicare controls costs by getting patients home as soon as possible and offers home health care to help their recovery.

But when those benefits ended, many didn't eat right, didn't take their medications correctly and in general fell into declining health that sent them back to the hospital or even into a nursing home.

At the same time, he said, people who deal with senior citizens want to help. Those include nurses, lawyers, counselors, ministers, doctors, social workers and families.

So Hager said medical assistance was a priority when he founded Right at Home. His business competes with the larger Home Instead Senior Care, also based in Omaha, but differs in that Right at Home offers medical services.

The future of the elder-care business depends on offering a broad range of services, Hager said.

Hager, who came to Omaha from Huntington, W.Va., as marketing director for Clarkson Hospital, became a certified nursing assistant and opened his own home care office in Omaha to prepare for selling franchises.

Right at Home has 150 franchises and a home office staff of 20. Revenue hit $100 million last year and will grow about 35 percent this year, Hager said.

Recruiting qualified caregivers is challenging, Hager said, but he has found that many trained medical workers prefer to practice in homes rather than in institutions.

That's partly because they see that their work directly helps people preserve an independent lifestyle, he said.

Right at Home does some marketing directly to consumers, but it especially targets professionals who work with the elderly. They, in turn, can recommend Right at Home as an option to potential clients and their family members, Hager said.

Like Home Instead, Right at Home has a spiritual basis. Its guiding principles include: "With respect for all religious differences, a spiritual foundation will guide the decisions and actions of the company."

Hager said one of the qualities of good caregivers is a desire to make a difference in people's lives, a trait often tied to spiritual beliefs.

Right at Home's services in each community depend in part on the medical licensing and skill sets of the staff. The company also contracts with other companies for some medical care, such as servicing ventilators for people who need help breathing.

Caregivers also help with nonmedical chores and establish personal relationships with their elderly clients to head off future medical problems or to spot changes in clients' health, Hager said.

The goal in many cases, he said, is to turn around a client's decline.

That can mean a longer, happier life away from hospitals or nursing homes, Hager said.

"It can be such a relief for a family."

And because the same conditions are true all over the United States and in many foreign countries, "the franchise model makes sense," Hager said.

• Contact the writer: 444-1080, steve.jordon@owh.com