How St. Croix Hospice's Early Adoption of nanaCONNECT - BEREAVE Boosted Patient Engagement [Case Study]
In May 2026, Maxwell TEC's nanaCONNECT platform crossed a communication milestone that stopped us in our tracks: one million text messages sent to home health and hospice patients and their families.
That's one million moments of connection—such as a check-in after a difficult procedure, a reminder that a caregiver is on the way, or a gentle word of support during the hospice bereavement period. Each message is a small but meaningful thread in the fabric of care that home health and hospice agencies weave every day.
Why a Text Message Changes Everything for Care at Home
For patients receiving care at home—many of whom are elderly, managing chronic conditions, or navigating their final chapter of life—the distance between a question and an answer can feel enormous. Meanwhile, their family members juggle work, caregiving, and the weight of their own lives, often left wondering what is happening between visits.
nanaCONNECT bridges these gaps. Through simple text messages, the platform keeps patients and families informed, engaged, and supported throughout their care journey. No complicated technology to learn, no apps to download, no portals to log into. Just a familiar ping on a phone screen and the reassurance that someone is paying attention.
"Reaching one million messages is a tremendous milestone. The nanaCONNECT platform offers proof that when you meet patients where they are—on their phones, in plain language, at the right moment—they respond. Care becomes a conversation, not just a transaction."
Technology Built for the Realities of Home Health & Hospice
Home health and hospice agencies face ongoing tension when it comes to communication. The need for human connection has never been greater. Yet staffing pressures, growing caseloads, and compliance demands can make personal, consistent touchpoints with each patient a challenge.
nanaCONNECT was built to provide this connection at scale. The platform's four modules work across the full care continuum and are compliant with healthcare regulations:
- NOTIFY keeps patients informed with real-time caregiver arrival alerts, appointment confirmations, and visit feedback surveys.
- ENGAGE delivers daily check-ins and satisfaction surveys, giving agencies real-time visibility into patient well-being.
- REACH supports patients after discharge with personalized guidance and resources that promote successful recovery — without adding to staff workload.
- BEREAVE modernizes hospice bereavement outreach, offering families compassionate, personalized grief support powered by AI-driven risk insights.
Together, nanaCONNECT's modules enable meaningful contact with hundreds of patients simultaneously—all while highlighting those who require more immediate attention.
Closing the Gap Between Visits
In home health and hospice, some of the most critical moments happen between visits:
- A patient wakes up uncertain about their medication.
- A family member notices something has changed but isn't sure if it warrants a call.
- A recently discharged patient starts to disengage from their recovery plan without anyone realizing it.
- A loved one quietly struggles to manage their grief in the weeks following a passing.
Outcomes can quietly unravel during these kinds of gaps between visits. And that’s where nanaCONNECT quietly steps in.
“The instant connection to our bereaved through the BEREAVE platform is amazing. When we updated our website to share more resources and support, we sent out a broadcast message, announcing the change and within seconds we saw the results. Our bereaved were clicking on the new links and interacting with our new content within seconds. We are grateful to have a platform that connects us with our bereaved in this way and be able to track the results that continue to build over time.”
Leigh Merrihew and Dayna McAllister
Bereavement Team, Mission Healthcare
Through timely, relevant check-ins and prompts between nurse and clinician visits, the nanaCONNECT patient communication platform provides a consistent presence that patients and families can count on, from first check-in to final comfort:
- For care teams, it means arriving at each visit with real-time data on how a patient has been feeling, whether concerns have surfaced, and where extra attention may be needed.
- For nurses and field staff, it means more productive visits. They walk in already knowing what's changed, what questions a patient has been sitting with, and what the family is concerned about.
- For patients and their families, it means peace of mind. They feel genuinely supported and cared for across the full arc of their care journey, with agencies commonly reporting that patients reply back to texts with key questions or express gratitude to their care team!
What a Million nanaCONNECT Messages Tells Us
Behind each of those million messages is a real-world outcome: a patient who knew their nurse was 10 minutes away, a family member who received a check-in survey and flagged a concern before it became a crisis, a recently discharged patient who stayed on track with recovery because helpful reminders arrived right on schedule.
Those messages also tell us about nanaCONNECT’s adoption success. Home health and hospice agencies embrace text-based communication because it works best for patients who aren't comfortable with apps or web portals, and for staff who need scalable tools that don't add to their burden.
"Hitting one million messages is a proud moment for our team, but what it really represents is one million opportunities where technology helped a person feel less alone during one of the most vulnerable times of their life."
Looking Ahead: The Future of Care Communication with nanaCONNECT
This milestone marks a turning point in nanaCONNECT’s impact on care-at-home communication, but for the Maxwell TEC team, it’s only the beginning.
"With nanaCONNECT, the goal has always been to support patients through the care journey in a way that's easy to act on. That philosophy is what keeps us iterating. There's always more we can do to make that experience better.”
As we continue to fine-tune nanaCONNECT, our focus remains on making the experience more intuitive and impactful for both patients and care teams. That includes expanding customizable surveys to better align with agency workflows and patient populations, strengthening compliance and regulatory alignment, and introducing a more robust customer scorecard that turns engagement data into clear, actionable insights.
Each of these enhancements is grounded in the same belief that has guided nanaCONNECT from day one: the best healthcare technology doesn’t replace human connection—it protects it, scales it, and makes it accessible to every patient, every day, throughout their care journey.
One million messages sent. And we’re just getting started.
