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SETTING NEW STANDARDS IN PEDIATRIC HOME HEALTHCARE AT ANGELS OF CARE

Brian Singer, Chief Information and Technology Officer at Angels of Care Pediatric Home Health delves into the technology, values and strategy behind the company’s industry-leading home healthcare service provision.

ANGELS OF CARE PEDIATRIC HOME HEALTH (ANGELS OF CARE) IS A NURSE-OWNED AND OPERATED PEDIATRIC AND YOUNG ADULT HOME HEALTH AGENCY THAT PROVIDES CHILDREN WITH COMPLEX MEDICAL NEEDS EXPERT INHOME NURSING CARE, OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY, SPEECH THERAPY, PHYSICAL THERAPY, AND MUCH MORE IN A

LOVING,

COMPASSIONATE AND PROFESSIONAL MANNER.

ounded in 2000 by Bonnie West, a pediatric nurse with years of experience working with children with complex medical needs in pediatric home health care, Bonnie had a vision for how pediatric nursing and respite care should be.

Recognising a growing need for support for families with medically fragile children in the North Texas area, she founded Angels of Care Pediatric Home Health (Angels of Care). Bonnie’s mission was to ensure that each child received the same compassionate care she would have provided as a nurse, and that every nurse felt respected and valued, making every client and staff member feel like part of a family.

The company quickly grew as families and caregivers spread the word about the exceptional care provided. This growth led to the opening of numerous branches across Texas, and by 2006, Angels of Care expanded its services to include physical, occupational, and speech therapies. Notably, the company became the first agency in the nation to integrate respiratory therapists into its team, providing comprehensive care that set them apart from similar organisations.

Bonnie’s daughter, Jessica Riggs, has helped lead the company since inception and has been the CEO since 2013. As CEO, Jessica has worked to continue her mother’s legacy while

improving upon care being provided to clients through her innovative approach focused on clinical excellence and improved client and clinician experience.

Here to elaborate on digital transformation crucial to the growth trajectory at Angels of Care is Brian Singer, Chief Information and Technology Officer.

Launching our conversation, Brian dives into the role of digital transformation in helping Angels of Care advocate for its patients by

reflecting on the company’s origins and its journey since then.

“At Angels of Care, we’re celebrating our 25th anniversary this year and I've had the pleasure of working here over the past 18 months,” begins Brian. “As with any startup, we launched with the most basic of processes. You’re going to be dependent on the limited technology you have at your fingertips. When you think about starting 25 years ago in a healthcare space, as a family- and nurse-owned business, up until about 10 years ago,

Jessica Riggs Chief Executive Officer

managing all that by paper wasn't uncommon.

“In 2013, Bonnie decided to step down, and her daughter Jessica took over the reins as CEO. Jessica is an incredible interpreter of needs, and she’s very quick to be able to associate simple ways to reduce complex problems. She’s an absolute problem solver at her core. And while she's not a ‘technologist,’ she is super focused on leveraging technology for solutions.

“Since then, we have embraced our digital transformation journey, becoming highly involved in robotic process automation (RPA) and agentic AI to solve some of our manual processes that are highly prone to human error.

“Also, and again to rewind 10 years, much of the business was managed through chats, emails, and Excel spreadsheets – with colleagues sometimes having to duplicate effort and follow hundreds of steps or workflows. We identified that there was a better way of doing this.

“It was here our digital transformation journey started out, with the very beginning of the process: how we recruit.

“So at the core of our business, we get referrals. For us, a referral is basically a child who needs care, and where we begin is to consider all the details of that child, such as where they need specialised help. But at the same time, there are several core considerations: their location, time frames, rates, insurance companies, you name it. There’s a range of different factors at play.

“But at a basic level, we wanted to make sure that we could do better from a geolocation perspective as a crucial starting point for our digital transformation journey. For instance, if we received a referral for a child in Dallas, we wanted to ensure that we’re recruiting nurses within a 20mile radius to reduce drive time and reach the child as quickly as possible.

“We asked how we could best plot that consideration before we embarked further into the care plan. And we knew there was a better way to do it.

“So 10 years ago, how we started this digital transformation, and ultimately the building of our proprietary workflow system, was to collaborate with tech partners to help us simply generate a map with geolocation capacity – to help our recruiters make this a little bit more streamlined, targeted and simpler.

“Instead of having this broad state-level blast radius in terms of recruiting, we wanted to make it at least closer based on the number and location of nurses that we had in our database.

“That’s how our digital transformation journey started, and we began to see, almost immediately, the efficiencies that we could gain. This early step

expedited our recruiting and candidate placement process tenfold.

“From there, we said ‘Wait a second, if we could do this by simply creating a map, what other inefficient processes could we address?’ So began a process of exploring technology and software to drive more automation or workflow-driven processes. We moved away from instant messaging, texts, emails – and towards a workflow-driven system.

“We called this environment the ‘Angels of Care Operating System’ (AOCOS), sometimes simply referring to it as ‘The Operating System’ because that's exactly what we built. Today almost every aspect of our

“OUR CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT MINDSET IS ALWAYS PRESENT, WE’RE CONSTANTLY PUTTING OURSELVES OUT THERE IN THIS REGARD”

Brian Singer, Chief Information and Technology Officer at Angels of Care

business has at least a small module incorporated into our proprietary platform, which has been built specifically for our use cases.”

Brian lauds the AOCOS as a major driver for Angels of Care’s success, setting the company apart from other organisations in the space.

“When we've compared ourselves to other pediatric home health care companies, it’s abundantly clear this, plus our culture-led processes, have been our secret sauce,” says Brian. “It’s how we've been able to differentiate ourselves, and it really comes down to we use that system to make sure that we look at all of the needs of that child.

“Then we compare that to nurses we have in our database and the specialities they have, and we match that up with the child to make sure that when we hire or when we present a candidate nurse or specialist to the family, we’re sure they’re going to accept them.

“Now, there are other ancillary factors, of course, like rapport and things like that, but from a competency, skill set and location perspective, we are

positive that we are going to be able to place the right nurse, with the right family, with the right skills right from that first step, and that's all simply because of the digital transformation that began 10 years ago with Jessica’s vision.”

Brian adds that the AOCOS has not only been a key differentiator from competitors, but it has also been fundamental to Angels of Care’s national expansion and growth as a leading home healthcare provider.

“We’ve literally taken AOCOS and made it the forefront of our back office management,” says Brian. “Angels of Care now operates across seven states and we’re looking to expand even further. Each one of those states has many branches. Texas is our largest, but we have about 55 branch offices in total right now – so think of those as hubs, and then our children as the spokes radiating out from them.

“The AOCOS serves as the central dashboard for our office team members. When they log in, they’ll see numerous calls to action, with timings set to flag priorities in red, yellow or

green. We manage authorisations, candidate placements, and referrals to ensure we're not leaving a child behind. But we’re also making sure that we’re not leaving a candidate or clinician behind who wants to be placed to help care for a child. Ultimately, we’re using AOCOS to reduce the gap in closure for care, ultimately, with the child being our first priority.”

In order to fully understand the digital transformation journey at Angels of Care, Brian insists the innovations must be contextualised within the overarching company values.

“Our mission and core competency is called HALOS, and it’s really how we run

our organisation,” emphasises Brian. “I've worked with a lot of companies, big and small. But Angels of Care is the first place I’ve ever worked for that runs so wholly on its mission, which truly starts from the child and works backwards.

“HALOS stands for Heart, Advocacy, Love, Outreach and Speed.

“‘Heart’ comes first because providing the best possible care is paramount and our clients are the heart of everything we do. In terms of ‘Advocacy,’ we want to champion for both our clinicians and our children who need that care. ‘Love’ represents how family and community are

incredibly important to who we are and how that relates to the children and clinicians under our care. We love our employees, and we go above and beyond for them. ‘Outreach’ is about the communities we serve, but also going above and beyond in these places. And then ‘Speed’ is all about how we can improve and move faster, to close the gaps in care, or to close the needs of our children and to make sure that they are always taken care of.

“We enshrine HALOS in all we do through an amazing feedback loop. Engaging with our patients and their families, plus our team members, is incredibly important to us – this allows us to improve continuously,

tapping into these rich insights for opportunities to enhance our technology, software, operations, or approaches.

“For instance, last month, I had an opportunity to attend family visits, and it was an overwhelmingly positive experience. I got so much out of the visits in terms of seeing what we do for the children, witnessing how these families take in the clinicians and make them a part of their family, and understanding how important it is for technologies, response times and communication to be on point.

“At the end of the day, the goal is to always put that child first and to

make sure that everything they need to be successful is presented to them.”

As Angels of Care has grown in the past 25 years, from a startup to an industryleading care provider, Brian explains how this success would not have been possible without collaboration, and strategic partners who shared the company’s vision and appreciated the HALOS mission behind it.

“Before joining Angels of Care, we had partnered with a few contracting organisations to help with IT components of the company,” explains Brian. “First and foremost, Angels of Care is a healthcare organisation, not a technology company, so care trumped

IT as a priority. Understandably, as the company grew, it turned towards partners for support on the IT side of things.

“Nevertheless, just like any company, technology is a component of success, and you still have to have some structure and governance around it.

“So prior to my joining, at the beginning of 2024, a private equity firm had partnered with Angels of Care to provide that type of seniorlevel IT leadership, to assist with that dynamic and implement specific technologies to help us with security and compliance.

“WE WERE THRILLED TO FIND THE IDEAL PARTNER IN VC3. THE DIFFERENTIATOR IN ULTIMATELY CHOOSING VC3 AS A KEY STRATEGIC PARTNER WAS THAT THEY SPENT SO MUCH TIME GETTING TO KNOW WHAT ANGELS OF CARE WAS ABOUT, FAMILIARISING THEMSELVES WITH OUR TEAM MEMBERS, VALUES AND MISSION”

Brian Singer, Chief Information and Technology Officer at Angels

of Care

“As Angels of Care was looking to level up the technology component of the business the opportunity for me to join the team was presented to me. Through my conversations with Angels of Care, I was energised by talking with Jessica. I've advised in the home care space, while not pediatrics, but I know I have a good understanding of the industry. I've been in healthcare for the better part of the last 15 years, and I also have big tech experience, so I have that balance.

“I began leveraging my private equity partner contacts, to seek Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs) that could help us with our goals to improve our technology posture; one from an IT, operations, systems and networking perspective, but then also from a security and compliance perspective.

“Once we began to establish a rapport, the collaborative question

of ‘How do we do this together?’ rose to the fore. How could we balance affordability with improving our systems and processes nurturing true external partnerships, but also educating and developing some of the internal management staff?

“Long story short, it became critical for Angels of Care to end up partnering with an organisation that wanted to dedicate time to not just work directly with me, but to work with our senior leaders as well.

“We were thrilled to find the ideal partner in VC3. The differentiator in ultimately choosing VC3 as a key strategic partner was that they spent so much time getting to know what Angels of Care was about, familiarising themselves with our team members, values and mission. In addition, they literally pushed me aside – in the most wellintentioned manner – and worked directly with some of my leaders to help them make recommendations as to why this would be an excellent

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partnership, elaborate on which of their offerings would be most beneficial in both the near term and long term.

“VC3 wasn't the cheapest prospective partner we engaged with, but they were the ones that really stretched themselves to say ‘Hey, we believe in what you do, but we also want to partner with you.’ VC3 made it clear they didn’t want to be this ancillary, outside resource. They genuinely wanted to help Angels of Care, and its

senior leaders grow. And they’ve enthusiastically upheld that promise.

“We’re approaching the first anniversary of working together with VC3 so we’re mature in our partnered processes. In that time, we’ve done a wholesale revamp of all of our technologies and software products. We’re advancing all of our compliance, updating policies and procedures along the way. Last but by no means least, they've also been

lending time to my team so that they’re learning as well. These interactions go beyond calls or demos – they’re hosting interactive workshops or Q&As which are far more useful and impactful. VC3 truly is a great partner to Angels of Care in the most holistic sense of the word.”

Looking ahead, Brian is excited for the future at Angels of Care. With pride in the company’s services as a rallying force, he describes how expansion empowered by digital transformation will help define its growth strategy in the coming years.

“We provide the best pediatric in-home care in the country,” summarises Brian. “We don't just say that – we know it and have the data to back it. Therefore, our goal is to have every child in the US under our care, because we do it best.

“So expansion is always on our mind – whether that’s organic, setting up in new states, securing new licensures, building new offices, or through mergers and acquisitions, which we are aggressive with in terms of looking to consolidate regions or streamline statebased pediatric agencies.

“But the success of our expansion hinges on leveraging technology and digital transformation to continue improving our solutions and services. Whether this comes in the form of new tech or equipment, communication capabilities or development projects – the ultimate goal is to grow and develop so more children and their

families benefit from our best-in-class homecare across the country.

“Some of the avenues we’re exploring rely on identifying a new development partner, something we’ve been working on for some time now.

“Our existing development partner has been absolutely paramount in terms of getting Angels of Care to where we are today. We couldn't have done it without them. But at the same time, just like any growing organisation, certain partners were great to move you from A to B, but getting from B to C needs a new approach.

“So we’re looking at how to advance this initiative, seeking to partner with new development organisations that are going to help us take AOCOS to the next level.

“Other priorities include new technology implementations and better integrations across our electronic medical record (EMR) systems, as well as other possibilities such as RPA processes, agentic AI, expanded mobile offerings and a better master data management strategy for business analytics that can prove to be proactive and informative, as opposed to reactive.

“Other in-home care organisations have a one-to-many approach, so one clinician has several patients. We are many to one – the exact opposite. We sometimes have as many as six

clinicians that are caring for one child, so they are really, truly getting that HALOS attention.

“This necessitates holistic care, which in turn requires UX development. If a team member or clinician has to spend significant time looking at screens or devices, that’s less attention directed towards the child. By developing our UX and tech integration, simplifying

ADDED VALUE

The unifying power of Annual Goals

“One thing that’s great about Angels of Care is we have an Annual Theme to guide us for the year,” shares Brian. “Last year, it was ‘Level Up,’ which manifested as everybody in the company having the opportunity to take a step up and think like their manager or senior leaders.

“This year, it's ‘All In’ which encompasses different meanings for various folks. In my personal case, it coalesced around feeling stretched thin. For instance, budget season is always stressful, but the Annual Theme helped me reframe the situation, reminding myself that we’re ultimately here to put the children first.

“With ‘All In’ front of mind, I felt reenergised about how I could contribute and add value – either by tweaking

and enhancing with efficiency in mind, our staff can spend more time on what matters – focusing on our clients.”

Wrapping up our conversation, Brian reflects on the ever-evolving nature of innovation and digital transformation at Angels of Care.

“Our continuous improvement mindset is always present, we’re

processes, adjusting accountability in certain areas or diverting unnecessary expenses back into the business.”

On the importance of mentorship

“I've had the pleasure of learning from a great many mentors in my life, and I’ve also relished the chance to mentor people in return,” says Brian. “My mentors are still a part of who I am today, and as such, I also do that in reverse. There are people that have been a part of my career from years and years ago, that I continue to mentor to this day.”

Community engagement

“I try and stay really close to the local communities I work in,” explains Brian. “I'm involved with a CIO and CTO group here in Dallas, plus some other local groups.

constantly putting ourselves out there in this regard,” concludes Brian. “It's like any technology company that continues to reinvest in itself. We are reinvesting in our confidence to continue to drive other opportunities. There's not a day that goes by where we aren’t trying to figure out ways to improve ourselves, to develop in ways that will make both the patient and family’s lives, plus our clinicians’ lives, better.

“This is super critical to how we are constantly innovating – embracing organic, digital transformation where everybody contributes to better care for the children we serve.”

Learn more at angelsofcare.com.

“Not only does this help me feel connected, but it also benefits the business from a networking perspective by getting our name out there, assisting in recruitment and generally raising awareness of who we are and what we do.

“But more than this, it allows you to share your pain points with your network. When you connect with the community, you realise many people are having the exact same challenges that you are. From here you can problem solve creatively, tapping into the broader wisdom and experience of those around you.”

Celebrating company culture

“Angels of Care does so much for its employees and their families, it’s just so humbling,” celebrates Brian. “We have an annual Employee

Appreciation Day where everybody gets together in the summer, and we give a car away to an employee. Last year we gave away a Volkswagen Atlas, and this year it’s going to be a Ford Mustang. There’s water slides, balloons and activities for everyone. All our employees’ families are invited, and it's just amazing.

“As a company, we also coordinate drives and other fundraising initiatives. For instance, right now there's a t-shirt drive to help support an employee’s family member. I just love this community aspect, and it’s so important for what Angels of Care represents, for who Jessica is, and her mother Bonnie’s legacy.”

Connect with Brian