Healthcare needs, resources connect
By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer
Kevin Sypniewski knows something about elderly and long-term healthcare and the disconnect between what people need and where they can get it.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
Sypniewski's older brother, Michael, was born with cerebral palsy and lived his life either in bed or in a wheelchair until he died at the age of 31. Sypniewski's mother is a special-education nurse. His sister is a special-ed teacher. And when his stepmother needed hospice care for her mother, she was simply handed a list of 150 healthcare facilities and given no guidance.
Kevin Sypniewski of Kailua gave up his career in insurance to build and maintain Web sites for about 400 elder-care and long-term health agencies — most of them in Hawai'i. He runs his company, AssistGuide, out of his home.
"That's what people confront every day," Sypniewski said. "It's not something you'll do research on ahead of time. You get in an accident or your parent has a stroke and all of a sudden it's the most important thing in your world, but you know nothing about it. A tri-fold brochure just doesn't cut it."
At the age of 37, Sypniewski has given up his first career in insurance and found a second one building and maintaining Web sites for about 400 elder-care and long-term health agencies — most of them in Hawai'i. His company also lists nearly every healthcare resource in the state and offers healthcare job listings on its site, AssistGuide.com.
Sypniewski runs his 5-year-old company, AssistGuide, out of his home in Kailua but includes separate operations in St. Louis, Dallas and Houston, employing a total of about 20 people who each work from home.
It's the only business of its kind in the Islands, Sypniewski's customers say, and generates nearly $1 million in contracted annual revenue. The potential is much greater, Sypniewski said. He estimates AssistGuide could someday generate $50 million to $100 million in annual sales over the next five years.
"There are 300,000 long-term-care and disability businesses across the country today and most of them are not using online systems to help their businesses and reach the masses," Sypniewski said. "And there are 76 million baby boomers that currently have parents and children that need information and services related to long-term care and disability. Over the next 10 years, those 76 million boomers will start to need those services themselves."
Working with government
Sypniewski is working on a $250,000 contract with the state Department of Human Services and University of Hawai'i's Real Choices Access Project on a new site, www.realchoices.org, that will be similar to AssistGuide.com. The new site will help people with long-term needs and disabilities find caregivers, products and information about services.
"It's essentially a one-stop shop for people to bring everything together in a virtual center," said project coordinator Rebecca Rude Ozaki. "There's actually nothing like it in the entire United States."
Originally, some of the organizers had concerns about partnering with a private company like AssistGuide, Ozaki said. But the governing panel of 35 people became convinced "because Kevin's committed to it because of his personal experience," Ozaki said.
Sypniewski's father was a Marine Corps helicopter pilot and he grew up in Kane'ohe and Kailua between the ages of 2 and 5. He basically grew up in St. Louis but gave boat tours along Kaua'i's Na Pali Coast on summer breaks from Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
After he graduated with a finance degree, Sypniewski worked for UNUM-Provident insurance company in Dallas and came to Hawai'i where he managed the office. He testified at the Legislature on healthcare issues and was asked to serve on several committees and boards, including the Joint Legislative Subcommittee on Long-term Residential Care, Catholic Charities and Hawaii Long Term Care Association.
Starting out online
In 1997 he took over a spare bedroom and started tinkering at night and on the weekends with a way of using the Internet to help some of the agencies he had dealt with, such as the now defunct Respite Care of Hawai'i, Hale Ho Aloha and Palolo Home.
Sypniewski was familiar with computers but needed to fly his 16-year-old cousin from St. Louis to learn how to build a Web site from scratch.
He started charging $50 to $100 a month to build and maintain the Web sites, quit his full-time insurance job and for the next two years tried to sell his service while making little money.
"I had a handful of clients and fewer than that were paying," he said. "It was baby steps, but the need for the information was clear. If I could replicate it on a large scale, obviously there would be economic value."
In 2000, Sypniewski got family, friends and some investors to launch his business on a grander scale. Now he has between 100 and 150 Hawai'i clients and sees even more potential here and nationally. Hawai'i, alone, has some 500 care homes.
"The biggest competition is inertia, just not doing it," he said. "For some of these agencies, e-mail is considered a big leap."
Site popularity
Judy Heller of Access Aloha Travel Inc., which specializes in travel needs for blind, deaf and physically and mentally challenged travelers, has a Web site built by Sypniewski and she's one of his biggest fans.
"I've made the comment three or four times in the last week that if it wasn't for Kevin's Web site, we wouldn't be in business," Heller said. "About 62 percent of the business is from our Web site."
Heller's site includes a feature answering common questions for disabled travelers to Hawai'i, such as where they can rent anything from a wheelchair to getting dialysis treatment.
Tourism officials often refer calls to her and Heller is happy to answer them. But her business is booking travel plans, not serving as a nonprofit resource.
"Kevin set that up and it provides information people need, but makes no money for me," Heller said.
Once a month Heller and Sypniewski or his account executive, Kari Jo Hawkinson, go over data on where she's getting the most hits, and they make adjustments.
"Kari Jo even said, 'There have been several months when we didn't have to do anything for you. So why don't we go in and do a complete face lift on your site?' " Heller said. "To me, that's above and beyond."
Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.
