New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
From deli to smart toilets, this business just goes with the flow
MILFORD — Transitioning from restaurateurs to in-home care experts would seem a difficult move, but one local family just went with the flow and is now tops in their field.
Executive Care of Stratford is the only location of its kind in Connecticut, according to Michael Savoie, who owns the business with Robin Zacks and Camille Savoie. The three enjoyed their first success in the business world as restaurant owners for nearly three decades.
But about eight years ago, the family chose a different path.
“My sister Robin, my mother, Camille and myself opened our first business in Milford in 1987 called Park Lane Deli,” said Savoie. “We opened a little luncheonette there for 10 years, and after that, we owned Stella’s Restaurant in Stratford for 17 years.”
In 2014, the business family decided to make the transition to in-home care.
“We owned restaurants for 27 years, but we were thinking of transitioning because my mother was a caregiver for so many, including our dad,” said Savoie. “We made the transition from restaurant to home care, and we haven’t looked back. We enjoy this industry and enjoy helping people.”
When they decided to make the transition the family did due diligence and ended up choosing Executive Care.
“We are the only Executive Care in Connecticut, and we can service anywhere in Connecticut, but for the most part we serve Fairfield and New Haven counties,” said Savoie. “We found this house on Paradise Green, and we like it a lot, and we ended up here in Stratford.”
From the first day when the family started with Executive Care, it was Savoie’s goal to become as educated as possible in the industry. He wanted to be the most comprehensive, preventative and progressive home care business and was always looking for ways to be better, he said.
The passion to improve led Savoie to peruse a non-medical agency accreditation from CHAP (Community Health
“A lot of the elderly might be cognitively impaired, and they won’t understand if their stool is blooding, or their loved ones aren’t checking. The TrueLoo will pick up the anomaly and will send a report right away.”
Camile Savoie, co-owner, Executive Care of Stratford
Accreditation Partner). It made Executive Care the first home care agency to receive the CHAP accreditation.
In August 2021, Savoie had another opportunity to once again be the first in Connecticut to do something with home care.
“Because I love to research, and as we move along, I know technology is going to play a major role when helping seniors and the elderly,” said Savoie. “This is something a first of its kind and unique.”
What Savoie referred to as “first of its kind and unique” is TrueLoo, a smart toilet seat designed to monitor the wellness of clients automatically.
“It took about six years to be developed, and it’s being used in assisted living in California with great success,” said Savoie.
Savoie was first introduced to a salesperson of TrueLoo, and he was impressed. TrueLoo was invented by Vik Kashyap, founder and CEO of Toi Labs.
The smart toilet seat uses a laser pointed down into the bowl to detect clues to potential health problems with high-resolution optical scanning.
Once the specimen is scanned, the home care will receive daily and weekly reports. If the software detects an issue, a live physician inspects the issue and generates a report, which is forwarded to the home care dashboard, which will then notify the family or doctor.
“We are the essential element in the continuum of care because we are the eyes, ears and voices of the seniors,” he said. “So this being a wellness device, we can use it. It uses a laser not a camera, and it is HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliant and not invasive and doesn’t know your identity, so people don’t have to worry about anything.”
Some of the early health conditions TrueLoo has detected for users in California are dehydration, urinary tract infections, infections with diarrhea, pancreatic disorders, upper GI bleeding, colitis (microscopic, ulcerative), enlarged prostate, prostate cancer and more.
“A lot of the elderly might be cognitive impaired, and they won’t understand if their stool is blooding or their loved ones aren’t checking,” Savoie added. “The TrueLoo will pick up the anomaly and will send a report right away.”
The device is useful even for the general population, he said.
“If there is something wrong with their stool or urine if they don’t give an accurate account of what they saw it could be interpreted wrong by their doctor,” Savoie said. “But TrueLoo is given precise and analytical data.”
Currently, two of Executive Care’s clients are using the TrueLoo, and Savoie said there have not been any red flags detected.
“It’s all about helping the well-being of the person, but also it can prevent readmission and admissions, which can save the healthcare industry billions of dollars,” he said.