America’s nursing shortage and lack of healthcare access for many people are well-documented. Bre Loughlin and her company, Nurse Disrupted, are actually doing something about it. She recently joined The Savvy Entrepreneur show to share her story.
Nurse Disrupted provides a turnkey system where healthcare access is limited, and staffs it with online nurses who screen patients and either assist them or get them to the next step in healthcare treatment. The company started with homeless shelters during the pandemic in Dane County, Wisconsin (the home of Madison). It has since expanded to locations in Milwaukee and elsewhere in Wisconsin, and the calls for help are starting to come in from all over the country.
The system is anonymous and super-easy to use. Payment for the systems comes from public health grants as well as large health systems who are desperate to reach rural, inner city, and other poorly-served populations. The company is now funded through outside investors, and is growing rapidly.
But it wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows and unicorns. Bre shares some of the challenges she faced and how she overcame them. She also offers her thoughts on lessons learned that may make the journey easier for others.
Nurse Disrupted is the inspirational story of a startup company that does well by doing good. It’s a clever product and service, and helps meet a desperate need.
What follows is a transcript of the interview, but if you’d prefer to listen to the story of Nurse Disrupted, go here.
Doris Nagel 0:42
Good morning, everybody. Welcome to The Savvy Entrepreneur Show. If you’re an entrepreneur or small business person or thinking about becoming one, this show is for you.
I’m Doris Nagel, your host for the next hour.
The show has two goals: First, to share helpful information and resources. I have made so many mistakes over the course of my career as an entrepreneur. And I’ve seen lots of mistakes that my clients and friends and colleagues have made. So if I can help just one of you out there not make some of those mistakes, then I’ve been successful.
The second goal of the show is to inspire. I found being an entrepreneur, confusing, and sometimes lonely. You have no idea often if you’re on the right track or not, or where to turn for good advice.
So to help with both goals, I have guests on the show every week who are willing to share their stories and advice.
My guest this week is Bre Loughlin. She is the owner and founder of Nurse Disrupted. And she’s going to share the story of her journey as an entrepreneur and how she got the idea for this company and has grown it.
Bre, welcome to The Savvy Entrepreneur Show. Thanks for being with me today!
Bre Loughlin 2:08
Thank you so much for having me, Doris.
Doris Nagel
I’m looking forward to hearing your story, because it’s not only interesting, but timely. Talk a little bit about your business, Nurse Disrupted. What does it do?
Bre Loughlin 2:23
Nurse Disrupted is a healthtech company focused on meeting health disparities head on. It’s an all-in-one telehealth solution that was designed for underserved communities who don’t have great access to talent in healthcare.
Doris Nagel
Who is it designed to help? Is it for rural communities? Is it for poorer inner city communities, or a mixture of both?
Bre Loughlin 2:47
It really is both. It’s designed for the people who are left behind by technologies or lack access in different ways.
We launched in 2020, really in response to the pandemic. Our first site was a homeless shelter in Dane County [Wisconsin]. The solution was first designed for a shelter that had a low budget and low volunteer staff, minimal resources, and really low trust with the people who really needed health care at the time.
It turns out that story describes a lot of places in America where people need access to healthcare and don’t have great access to it.
The solution we provide is a telehealth solution, but it’s end-to-end, which addresses connectivity and trust.
Doris Nagel 3:47
There’s a lot to unpack there! And I want to dig a little deeper on some of the points you’ve made.
But talk first about your background. What makes you tick? Why were you the right person to start this business? And why this business?
Bre Loughlin 4:04
I like that question!
I’ve been a nurse for 22 years. I always call myself a tech nerd nurse, from the moment I started off in kidney and liver transplant unit in Seattle, Washington at University of Washington Medical Center. That was in the 90s.
Then, I was proud to be carrying my palm pilot, because, well, it was the 90s. But from the beginning of my nursing practice, technology always felt like it was folded in and I could see the potential of it to elevate healthcare and practices through its use.
And so I was always incorporating technology in my practice. In Seattle, I was also a touring musician. I was an electronic musician who was working with software creatively and exploring the bounds of what technology could do in that way.
Doris Nagel
That’s quite a combination!
Talk about how you came to Wisconsin, and what led you to the idea to found Nurse Disrupted, and how you decided you were the right person to do this?
Bre Loughlin 5:21
Well, let’s start with the first part of that question – I know there were two parts…
Doris Nagel
Yeah, sorry, I have a bad habit of asking multiple questions! I just get so excited to learn more!
Bre Loughlin 5:33
Well, I love that!
What brought me to Wisconsin? And then why did I start, and why am I the right person to start Nurse Disrupted.
Coming to Wisconsin, my career continued to evolve to bedside nursing. I’m so proud of that part of my career. But as it turns out, nurses are very well suited for business, you have to have emotional intelligence, you have to be able to sweep the room, make decisions, learn from your mistakes quickly, and stand back up and keep moving.
And so I was recruited actually, by a software startup company that had nothing to do with healthcare, I think in 2008. It was called Jobster. And so it was my first adventure into the startup world.
They eventually didn’t make it. But I made incredible friends. And I met a mentor that was really important in my career, who brought me over to Hitachi consulting. Still not healthcare again yet, but working with Microsoft, for instance, and T Mobile on large organizational strategies and change management projects.
So now [I’m] working with this human component of change, and big operational strategies. And laying different stepping stones: a bedside nurse of technology, bending technology to do the things that I want it to do, the startup software world, then the consulting world with these big organizations working on strategic design and changing the hearts and minds of humans so that they’ll use the software in the end.
Well, it seems sporadic. But it really laying this path that brought me then to moving to northern California and joining Sutter Health, back to health care. I joined a cardiology practice that really did not want to adopt their HER — called Epic.
This [was really] change management work, you know. I really believed in smart design and utilization of software, being able to elevate our practice and [I was also] pretty experienced in working with surgeons and cardiologists who maybe don’t want to change.
And so I started with that work, and that was successful. And I enjoyed it a lot. I felt like it was exactly the right space, with my clinical background. And I was still seeing patients at the time. But also the whole software piece and adoption and workflow design were all falling into place at that time.
And I thought, boy, I should reach out to that company. And I did and I shortly got a phone call from a man named Bern Tan, who was on Judy Faulkner’s staff. So as Wisconsinites know, Judy, Faulkner’s the CEO of Epic, the software company, not the Fortnight gaming company.
That was in 2012. And I was recruited to join the clinical informatics team at Epic. It was a little bit different than the traditional hiring structure, [because] I was a nurse executive hire. I worked with the sales team, but I also did product management.
And so here’s another step stone that fell into place, where I was managing products and working with healthcare organization’s strategy on the best use of these products, and also working with the development teams on the design to solve problems and meet the health organization’s needs.
Doris Nagel 8:50
Bre, I begin to see why you’re a natural entrepreneur. You just do can’t stay down on the farm. You know what I mean – it’s a funny Midwestern expression. But you are, it seems to me, the kind of person who just wants to keep growing and pushing the boundaries and looking at things from different perspectives. And I think that’s what makes a lot of entrepreneurs successful.
Bre Loughlin 9:16
I’m glad you say that. Yeah, I’m not a toe dipper. I kind of just jump in. I like it. I’ve enjoyed this journey.
Which brings us to that part of the story, thhe second part of the question that you asked, “Why am I the right person to start and to lead Nurse Disrupted?”
That part of the story comes into play on March 23 of 2020 in working with a homeless shelter in Dane County. I was just pitching in with my daughter because our spring break to go back to Seattle had been cancelled because of the pandemic. We pitched in together to help people who had been experiencing homelessness for years.
[There] we met Karla Thennes, who is this incredible leader, and is the executive director of Porchlight. [And] we found out that there was a gap in the health care resources that they had to [adequately] meet the pandemic, and to protect people who are seeking shelter at Porchlight.
And in looking at what they had – they had provisioned a trailer – and they had a great volunteer staff, but they weren’t a clinical staff, and [were on] a shoestring budget. And Karla was telling us this.
And I thought, “Well, I know how to help here and create a telehealth solution.” And with my background, I knew a few things: I knew it just had to work; there wasn’t time for training, it was a rotating staff. People were wearing so many hats and doing just so many things to make it work under those circumstances. [I realized that] it just had to be simple and ready to go.
I also had an elected position on the Wisconsin Nurses Association, and we had a COVID-19 response meeting that same day. And one of the other members was an associate dean of Marian University School of Nursing, and she was facing [the prospect of ]her nurse practitioner students not graduating because as a clinician, you need to have what’s called practicum hours — hours where you’re engaging with patients.
And yet here we are, needing nurses so badly, right? The in-person sites [to get those hours] had shut down. One of the nurse practitioner students, I think, was just nine hours away from graduating. And Kim asked, “Is there something we can do about that?”
And so this is where it came together. Then on March 25, the original technology was donated by Epic — I was still working at Epic at the time.
The nurse volunteers were friends and family. [Then there was also] an incredible woman Lauren Jersnack, who was already a nurse at Unity Point who’s devoted to our homeless shelters. She started as our telehealth nurse, as did my godmother, who was in Bend Oregon, who came out of retirement from nursing to help us start. And then we had the Marion University students, who then continued to be the original clinicians.
We’ve since helped six schools of nursing in Wisconsin graduate over 300 nurses through the telehealth program at homeless shelters. We’ve since expanded from Porchlight to the Salvation Army Women’s Emergency Shelter, and the Salvation Army family shelter.
We’ve made more than 36,000 connections, and have already saved Dane County [Wisconsin] almost $2 million in avoidable hospital visits.
Doris Nagel
Wow! Good for you. That is incredible. Well, so what kind of telehealth services are provided? And what is the need? And how you match the need of what these communities in need actually need with providers who can provide it?
Well, there I go again, asking a multiple question. But my brain is just bouncing all over the place with a million questions!
Let’s start first with what kind of telehealth services you provide? I’m sure some people think of mental health counseling, that’s what a lot of telehealth is. Is that correct?
Bre Loughlin 13:21
Well, we’re not a staffing company.
In our origin story, we were the ones who are training the student nurses. I put up a quick documentation system, a scheduling system, you know, just created everything really quickly. And then, we did the management of the nursing students.
Now that part of our company is retiring in May. And the Nurse Disrupted that emerged — where we filled the greatest need — was being that conduit in the community. And what we’re doing is a brand new style of telehealth. It’s a community based style of telehealth.
We provide the setup, the hardware, the software. We designed a provider facing application as well as community facing application, and we provide the technical services. The units actually arrive fully configured and ready to go for our customer sites. All of the training is done and the feeding and the nurturing of the system.
We also do a lot of training and work with, we’re talking now to healthcare organizations, and we’re fitting into their population health strategy. So for non-clinical people, population health is a type of health care strategy and design that looks at communities or subsections of patients, and you see them as a whole. And you work to address disparities or need on this more community, you know, from a 5000 foot level view lens.
So let me answer the simplest thing first. What we do today is, and if you go to our website, you’ll see this animation of an airdrop of telehealth solution going into a community center.
What I learned from homeless shelters, really back at the beginning of my career is that the adoption of technology — the difference between a technology winding up in a drawer versus being beloved and embraced by whoever it is that needs to use it — is that the value of the technology must outweigh the barriers to use it.
And in a community location, barriers are high. You have people who have low tech literacy rates, the hours that they’re able to engage in health care [are limited]. They don’t work nine to five; they get off their hourly job at 6:30pm, without the opportunity to take a long lunch break to go see a physician, maybe there’s a bad connection.
I mean, these are folks that also don’t really have a lot of reasons to trust healthcare technology, right?
Doris Nagel
And a lot of them may not have much in the way of health insurance, if anything, so every time they go see a doctor, it costs them a lot of money that they may or may not have.
Bre Loughlin 16:20
Yeah, co pays are tough. But as difficult as the total expense is the accessibility. So even if you do have Medicaid and technically you have a primary care provider, if you can’t go in during office hours, you wind up on the doorstep of the emergency department. That is your only access, your 24/7 access that is the least optimal, but the most available to people who really need help.
And so what we’re doing is 24/7 access. We have established a partnership with Conduit Health Partners, which is a subsidiary of a large health system called Mercy Health.
They do nurse triage, which I love, being a nurse and knowing that nurse triage is typically a 15 minute engagement. It can cover 700 healthcare concerns that any patient might have. Sixty-three percent of the time that someone would go to an emergency department can actually be handled by a nurse, applying the evidence based protocols that are nurse triage.
This style of telehealth is that the kiosk is not in a clinic room behind a closed door, with an appointment. People approach the kiosk and tap.
I’ve told this joke a million times, but the original design that I souped up for March 25 had four buttons. And boy did I think I was clever. But I’m telling you, it was three buttons too many for the interface to be accepted and usable.
And that’s just as true for the community side today – it’s a one touch interface that makes it simple for people to engage with the kiosk. The kiosk is de identified. So there is no login. Someone can have a truly anonymous interaction with a health care provider, no information from your phone is passing through. If people don’t feel comfortable identifying themselves, it’s perfectly fine.
If they do, our Conduit nurses do have the ability to do an integrated record. So people can come with their care concerns after hours.
You know, when we started off with COVID-19 screening, I was one of the nurses doing that, and we had to be very specific in our scope of practice so that it was limited onlyto COVID-19 response. And it was so hard, I’ve got to tell you — the family shelter when we have a new mama who had something like her baby rolled off the bed, and she just wanted to know that it was okay that she didn’t need to go to the emergency department.
So those are the types of things now with the expanded nursing services that we can help — families and patients with 24/7. So it doesn’t have to be a nurse triage services with health care organizations. They provide the care providers, or they can use our partner, Conduit Health Partners.
And that’s where we’re expanding now — from COVID-19 response to expanded nurse triage services.
And then [there is] also the opportunity with health systems for them to get their specialty providers into community locations. So [at Nurse Disrupted], we have homeless shelters. There’s a specialized community center in Milwaukee, which is in the fifth poorest neighborhood in the US.
But they have a very progressive forward thinking Chief Executive Officer, Art Serna, who is at the head of the City on a Hill. He reached out to us, and we’re now going live in a specialized community site in Milwaukee in three different locations.
You know, for the people there, it’s not just the homeless shelters, it’s a community that has some of the worst health outcomes and the worst racial disparities in the US. So there, we’re expanding their access to health care.
And it’s not the emergency department, or the bills that come with it, or the hours of waiting. It alleviates the pressure on our health systems, especially given our nursing shortage. Every person who comes into the Emergency Department that doesn’t need to be there is putting pressure on the health systems in these difficult times. So we’re expanding to communities to help get healthcare diffused from the Emergency Department out into the trusted community sites that people really depend on.
Doris Nagel
It sounds like originally you went out to these different shelters and community settings to say, look, we have a service available for you. Here’s how, if you’re interested, in how we can help your population.
I’m guessing though, that at some point– and maybe you’ve already reached the tipping point –some of these organizations are going to start proactively reaching out to you.
Bre Loughlin 21:95
Yes, we’re getting there. And we’re getting a lot of excitement at the promise of this style of telehealth.
And so now, the next page of the story is the conversations that we’re having with health systems. Right, that that we continue to work with homeless shelters. We’re having conversations now with systems across the US. Like you said, you know, the phone calls are coming in.
That’s in contrast to the first shelters where we expanded to the community – there, the Dane County community was coming together, and we were having meetings with Department of Health. And because of that, the two other Dane County shelters — the Salvation Army shelters — went live within a month because we were all working together on how we could help alleviate pressure on our emergency departments [during the pandemic]. Also, there’s a hotel respite program here for people who don’t have homes to quarantine, and we had to make sure that wasn’t over utilized. So the Dane County expansion was a natural step because we were all working closely together.
But now people are learning about us. The press has been great. Being on your show is fantastic. We’ve also had news outlets like US News and World Report feature us and Johnson & Johnson celebrated us as well, to help let the world know.
But the next step is helping health organizations accept this new model of telehealth, this more self service, community based access to health care, and people are getting excited about it.
Doris Nagel 24:16
I’m sure they are! The potential is so great!
I’m sitting here thinking though, that if the growth of Nurse Disrupted isn’t managed carefully, you could be inundated at some point, because the need is so great.
Bre Loughlin 23:03
The need is great. But the economics are also great. I want to talk about the growth point that you brought up.
But first, I want to point out that I do a lot of educating and, for the other entrepreneurs out there, we closed our seed round in December. And one of the challenges that I had in talking to people about our origin story is that the as soon as I say “homeless shelter,” a lot of people shut down. They assume there’s no money in homeless shelters. They don’t have money, by definition, right?
Doris Nagel
They probably think they are nonprofits, right? And that you should be, too.
Bre Loughlin 23:37
Exactly. But Nurse Disrupted is for profit. Because the economics for health systems work out. Health systems are putting huge dollars into their population health strategy. They are devoted to addressing health disparities. And we are that part of the population health strategy that’s proven.
Doris Nagel
You’re like their arms and legs – you provide a way to actually access it and deliver something that’s valuable.
Bre Loughlin 23:38
Right! We have to help people understand that there’s a reason why 50% of their patients haven’t been able to log on to their home health app. More of the same thing is not going to create change.
And so we’re really, we’re the expert in these communities. And we’re working with health systems to pivot to a new model of telehealth.
We talk a lot about privacy and regulation – truly what the HIPAA rule does and does not cover and the acceptance of people in having a more kind of common community space where they can more conveniently engage in their health care. People want it, and the HIPAA rule doesn’t say you can’t do it. Now, you have to be meeting the requirements of the rule, but this style of telehealth is absolutely wanted. It’s well-adapted to their communities and can be compliant with those regulations.
Now as for growth, we have a fantastic lead investor in Mark Bakken, who is principal of Health Accenture. We’re not a health X company, but Mark has been so generous with his time and expertise. We are fully Wisconsin funded, including funding from WHIP.
Doris Nagel
Tell people who might not know what WHIP is.
Bre Loughlin
Yes. It’s a group of investors that come together as a follow-on investor in different companies.
Doris Nagel
Wisconsin-based companies specifically, right?
Bre Loughlin 25:37
Correct. Yep. And so we’re proud to be fully Wisconsin funded.
But what WHIP also did is provide us a mentor. Bob Wood is well known in the Wisconsin investment community. He’s very experienced and has been a mentor for me, and for Nurse Disrupted as well. And so having people who know what it takes that are in your court, that are helping you push things forward, including scalability,and connecting you to the people who can help you make it.
You know, Mark and Bob have been absolutely crucial in helping me and the company navigate these steps as such an early-stage company.
Doris Nagel
That’s amazing! Congratulations!
It occurs to me that you’ve got a lot of different customers with your business model. You’ve got the people who need health care and use your services and platform — they’re customers for sure. Then you’ve got homeless shelters that are kind of your customers, too. And you’ve got these health systems, who are your customers as well, because they provide the funding and the drive for change. And you may have more.
Bre Loughlin 26:41
Yeah, that’s right. And people do ask a lot, “Who is it that you’re selling to?” And originally, the shelters had emergency health care grant funds that allowed them to invest in health services.
Now, we have since launched a crowdfunding arm for our shelters. And so if you go to our website, nursedisrupted.com, you’ll see where you can donate a telehealth visit or two to one of the shelters or to City on a Hill, this specialized Community Center in Milwaukee. And we’ll continue to try and spread the word on the crowdfunding piece.
But, as you say, the shelters themselves are our customers. Systems are our customers, working with them on getting into those neighborhoods that they have not made great inroads into. Those are the conversations that we’re having with the health systems is using telehealth as a nurse retention strategy.
Doris Nagel
Talk about that. There’s been a lot in the news – during the pandemic especially – about the tremendous nursing shortage, not just in Wisconsin, but almost everywhere.
Bre Loughlin 27:59
Yeah. What’s amazing is that the telehealth companies like Conduit have more applicants than they have physicians. It’s very attractive for nurses. Acute care floor nurses, you know, we’re very proud, but sometimes I describe an example of a shift that I had when I was in kidney and liver transplant. I’m so proud of the work that I was doing. But imagine — you have four patients that are post surgical. You have at times people who are even bariatric patients. You can’t see me, but I’m five foot, 140 pounds. And I would have patients that would be 300 pounds. You don’t have anyone to help you, but you need to help them, you need to turn them, clean them, get their IV set. So nursing in the acute care setting is this incredible combination of science, pharmacology, psychology, physical, and …
Doris Nagel
Body building!
Bre Loughlin 28:59
Yes, and body building! [laughing].
But a lot of nurses wind up injured, you know. I remember one night when I was working with a family. I had been working with them for a long time. When we say you’rwe’re working with the family, you have the patient that you’ve been caring for, but also their spouse and their kids.
And I had this patient go critically wrong, and he was transferred to the ICU and didn’t make it. His family was beside themselves. And I cared for this person, too, You’re allowed to care for people as a nurse. I see patients who needed me.
But as a nurse, it’s not like you get a break, be able to say, “Hey, I need a moment. I need a break. I need some time.” Because you have three more people who need you just as badly.
So it’s physical and emotional. We nurses can be proud and it’s an incredible profession.
Now, what I’m offering to health organizations is giving your rockstar nurses a chance to be part of a nurse telehealth unit, but not give up the rewards of the acute care setting.
Now nurses are applying to be part of nurse “call centers” in droves, but they are purely call centers. Because they’re burning out in the acute care setting. But we need to keep our nurses inspired in the acute care setting.
And so what I’ve been telling healthcare organizations is give your top performers two telehealth shifts in your call unit. You’ve got this model where you have to have the call units. But we’re talking about expanding it. I’ve been talking a lot about putting the stations in community centers.
But I’m working with health organizations to put the care stations right outside the emergency department and using their nurse triage arm to engage or at least have an opportunity for the patients to engage to get nurse triage. Use telehealth unit or the call center nurse that’s part of a hospital that’s manned by nurses. And there’s been surveys that have been published recently that say if a nurse was offered a telehealth shift, that that would be something that would help keep them in the profession.
So you wouldn’t have to choose to either be in acute care or in this call center unit. All of them are part of the organizational structure of a health organization. But you can give two shifts to your acute care nurses to give your body a rest.
Doris Nagel
You’re letting them help, but help in a different way, with different stressors.
It’s kind of like an exercise regimen. If you’re running and training hard for a marathon every day your body breaks down. But if you mix the training up, you end up stronger, and can hang on longer, and have better endurance and better mindset, less injuries.
Bre Loughlin 31:55
Agreed. And I think you were touching on this. The nurses, for instance, from Conduit have expressed the way that it makes them feel, knowing they are going to be working with people at shelters, it’s gratifying. Being on the floor is gratifying. But sometimes you’re just at that point, and the opportunity to work with the community brings back the gratification.
You know, we don’t join nursing for the promise of a big paycheck or a lot of prestige. I talked about how I was a biology major. It was very competitive at the University of Washington School of Nursing — it was the number one school of nursing in the US at the time, but I got in there. Even though I also loved computer science, I chose nursing between the two. And I did it because I wanted to work with human beings directly and feel like I was making a direct impact on people. And that’s where a lot of nurses come from.
So being able to have a physical respite, but also that gratifying breath at the same time to just re inspire us as to why we got into nursing in the first place. And so I think that people are excited about this as a nurse retention strategy, as well as the community expansion of telehealth with nurse triage protocols.
Doris Nagel
Bre, we’ve kind of talked about this at a theoretical level, but you’re touching lots of real people every day. Share a story or two about how your services made a difference with people on the ground, with any one of your customer groups.
Bre Loughlin 33:46
When I think of the early days, we started incorporating a lot of compassion training with our technology training. That’s part of our system today — we have this air drop system. And part of our training to our providers is how to make it feel like a very human interaction, even though you’re using telehealth technology.
And that came in in each day when I was the nurse on the other end of the telehealth unit. And the people who came up to me would say, “I didn’t know how to this is something that I could have gotten over the phone.”
People have a lot of ideas about people who don’t have homes. I’ve heard, especially with the hotel program, people would say, “Bre, they’re going to try and game the system, they’re going to try and just get into the hotel, instead of being the shelter.”
But I’ll tell you, not a single human being that got in front of me to screen was gaming the system, they were terrified to admit that something was wrong with their body. And telehealth is amazing in two ways. First, that I could feel and look and see the fear but I could look into the camera, which is interesting with telehealth, right. If you and I are looking in zoom, and we’re actually seeing each other, it looks like we’re not looking at each other at all. But when you look into our camera, it’s feels like the person on the other side is looking directly into your eyes and you could see the trust and the connection.
We did a survey and I’m really, really proud of this. The original grant for Porchlight was through the WPP program. And we did a survey of the experience of the shelter guests, and 96% of them felt respected and felt compassion. You know, it’s just the worst day year moments of their life, and they had really positive responses in their experience.
And I’ve talked to people about it, but it’s also about how we train providers in using our app — just that simple piece of compassion, humanity and kind of the tricks of a few tricks with your technology.
The other thing that I really love, and I wish I pulled up, is what we learned from our first cohort of nursing students. They had never engaged before with people who don’t have homes, in shelters, it was their very first time. And they wrote reflections about what it was like, because now they had that opportunity, the telehealth opportunity.
They were an hour and a half away, so there was a physical distance. But it wasn’t a space that they had thought of being in. And their experience was just compassionate.
So many people appreciated the new contacts, and exposure and opportunity to work with people that had a very different social and economic ecosystem from what they were in. So to see these reflections and the provider impact was pretty awesome.
Doris Nagel
I can only imagine.
Bre, you’re based in Wisconsin, which certainly is not among the poorest of our states in the United States, but I’m sure the unmet need is enormous there. But then there’s all the unmet outside the state.
Where is Nurse Disrupted headed in terms of growth? Is your focus just on expanding in Wisconsin? I have to say, your model seems like it could scale, and that, with the right structure, it could be in almost any state, although I guess you’ve got some restrictions in terms of nurses who are licensed in one state who have to work there, but I’m not sure how that all works.
Talk about that.
Bre Loughlin 38:07
We are in conversations from Maine to Florida. And so the system can be maintained remotely. So for instance, we designed the system, and that piece was important to me, that it had to be lightweight in nature, so that we could service and troubleshoot from afar.
If any piece breaks, we can overnight it because of the lightweight nature – we designed the entire system to be mobile and lightweight, but it also has a lot to do with technical services. If I had a heavier system, we would need more on site resources for servicing versus really being able to do this through shipping or from afar. And so, yeah, we are in conversations everywhere in the US.
Doris, help me out with the second part of your question?
Doris Nagel
Oops, I did it again! I was curious how the fact that I think nurses –like a lot of professions — are licensed by a state. So how does that play into how you deliver services?
Bre Loughlin 39:15
Ah, thank you for that. This is an important point.
There’s two models of what we do: use your own nurses, or use the Conduit Health Partner nurses that we have.
Or, you don’t have to use nurses at all, you can use your therapist or cardiologist, whatever specialty you’re trying to get into a particular high risk area or underserved area.
We don’t say you have to use nurses. It just so happens that the nurse triage service is where we’re expanding. And it’s with the nurses of our health organization, or they can use the conduit, nurses now, nursing practice.
Now, the way that we’re regulated across state lines is different than prescribing provider practice physician. There is this concept of compact states. That’s a multi state agreement, so if I have a license in Wisconsin, I can practice anywhere across the compact states.
Doris Nagel
Well, that makes telehealth with nurses so much easier than trying to do it with physician practices or therapists.
I personally think this whole notion of state licensing for a lot of professions is gonna have to get re- thought in a lot of a lot of ways, especially with more things being virtual. But it’s good that nursing is more flexible than many other state-licensed professionals.
Bre Loughlin 40:40
It helps. The compact states cover about half the country. And then in the other half the country, it varies. California is a great example: you have to have a California state license.
Our nursing partner is licensed in all the states. So when the compact license helps you cover this big swath of 25 states where it’s fine, but then they’ve had to staff to the additional locations where they provide care.
So that’s how we’re a little bit different than prescribing providers. We can provide regional coverage, but also because that’s what Conduit does is cover the rest.
Doris Nagel
Your opportunities for growth are tremendous. You mentioned funding, and pitching and that you’ve found investors. What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs, based on what you learned through the pitch process and finding funding for Nurse Disrupted?
Bre Loughlin 41:41
One, it never stops. So [you need] grit and resilience to things
Something that made a difference for Nurse Disrupted was the Wisconsin Governor’s Business Plan contest. It’s fantastic, and gave us tremendous exposure. I think all of the investors that wound up being part of this round had heard me pitch at that particular contest. Now it took a lot more beyond that. But that initial engagement was a big deal for us.
The second thing is, I found a great accelerator, called HealthSpark Accelerator out of Traverse City, Michigan, specifically designed for startup health tech companies in the Midwest. So it was very focused on healthcare technologies, and Midwest based companies.
And you know, they were fantastic at bringing together speakers that could help with what to expect. I know that you know, because of what were talking to you in the introduction of your show – how lonely and isolating it can be to start a business as an entrepreneur. So an accelerator, or at least the one that I was a part of, with the speakers and the pitch coaching, the constant feedback and putting you in uncomfortable situations, giving you hard feedback.
Doris Nagel
It sounds like a toned down version of Shark Tank!
Bre Loughlin 43:05
Yeah [laughing]. And I got some absolutely soul-crushing feedback, but I wrote it down, and really took what I could from the feedback Now, it’s not always right. But it’s darn good. And it’s coming from people or expert who’ve been at it for a while. And so, some of the most soul crushing feedback was some of the best feedback.
And just the consistent advice and the mentorship that I received – it was at the right time to help me keep going.
But there were terrifying, terrifying moments. I mean, I put all of my retirement and savings into the company –I personally invested in Nurse Disrupted first. It was my money that got the company started.
I just believed that this was a care delivery model that will change the way we get into our underserved communities, and I stood by it, and I have a great daughter who’s 10 years old, and a fantastic husband, and they have stood behind me every step of the way.
Doris Nagel
So it sounds like another piece of advice you have is that having a great support network is really important.
Are there other resources that you would recommend or that you found were particularly helpful? And, you know, overall, what advice would you give to help entrepreneurs find those resources and build that network?
Bre Loughlin 44:33
There are certainly local resources here in Madison, like Gener8tor [a local, award-winning accelerator], the Wisconsin Technology Council, and I think every state has their entrepreneur community—you need to go find it. You don’t have to be alone. There are people who have been through it. What you don’t know you need to learn it, and you need to learn it fast.
It’s not a method and this is the coaching that I have. And the reality that I’ve come by is that you don’t hardly get anything right in the beginning. But are you learning? And are you learning fast? Are you going out there and engaging with the community?
Honestly, the people relationships, the importance of being hungry and meeting and connecting with people and business people who are in the VC community, other entrepreneurs, being humble, but also really being committed to connecting is key. And it’s so hard because you’re doing everything all the time, right? There’s not enough hours in the day. There’s not enough money and there’s not enough brain power.
It’s all about being smart about the limited resources that you have all the different resources. Another thing is that I have a great lawyer. He actually was a dear friend of mine for years before I ever thought I’d start a company.
And so I had started Nurse Disrupted. I know other people sit in a room with their idea, and they want to incubate it and then they pull the trigger. But for me, I was doing telehealth and in homeless shelters, and then later decided to leave Epic and a nice, cushy, executive job — and they stood behind me and were supportive. And I felt so strongly that this was a transformational healthcare thing that I was exactly positioned to do that I have never looked back.
The other thing with venture deals be smarter than your lawyer and venture capitalist. There’s a book that I think is pretty good by Brad Feld and Jason Mendelsohn. It helped me understand what a convertible note is. I needed to understand what I was doing this so that I don’t get myself back into a corner.
And I also know that female entrepreneurs get 2.3% of all venture capital money. So I’m always thinking, “Okay, I’ve got to hit this and I’ve got to personally understand.” And that book helped me with the just fundamentals of a lot of startup VC-world pitfalls. And so, the pitch is gonna be great if Brad and Jason knew who I was, but it helped me understand a ton about the world that I needed to get into in order to make Nurse Disrupted go.
Doris Nagel
Before we sign off, let listeners know how to reach you if they want to brainstorm or they want to be part of Nurse Disrupted or just want to know more or want to engage with you and your company.
Bre Loughlin
Our website is nursedisrupted.com. I actually read all the stuff that comes to the contact us page.
There’s also the donate page. So, if you want to donate a telehealth visits to a community that really needs it, please do it through nursedisrupted.com.
The hardest thing about getting hold of me is knowing how to spell my [first] name. It sounds like the cheese. But it’s only three letters, Bre, so bre@nursedisrupted.com is my email address.
You can also find me on LinkedIn. I’m very easy to get ahold of, and I welcome it, because I really value my connections.
Doris Nagel
Thank you so much for your time today, Bre. It’s been really inspiring to listen to how you’ve taken the pieces of your life and pulled them together in a way that is making a truly a tangible difference.
It’s really been a pleasure and an honor to have you on the show today. There’s thank you so much for what you do.
Bre Loughlin
Thank you for having me, and thank you so much for letting the world know about Nurse Disrupted.
Doris Nagel
Thank you again, Bre. And thank you as well to all my listeners – you’re the reason I do this.
You can find more helpful information and resources for small businesses and entrepreneurs on my consulting website, which is globalocityservices.com, as well my new dedicated radio show website at thesavvyentrepreneur.org. You’ll find on both sites things like blogs, tools, podcasts, and other free resources for entrepreneurs.
My door is always open for comments and questions, suggestions, just to shoot the breeze. Email me at dnagel@thesavvyentrepreneur.org. You’ll always get a response back from me.
Be sure to join me again next Saturday at 11am Central noon Eastern.
But until then, I’m Doris Nagel, wishing you happy entrepreneuring!
Leave a Reply