Raising Tech

Rachel

Hello, and welcome back to Raising Tech. I’m Rachel Lugge with Parisol Alliance, where we help senior living providers maximize their use of technology through strategic planning and full service IT support. In today’s episode, we are going to explore an important aspect of resident engagement, specifically assistive technology, and even more specifically wireless hearing solutions to help combat untreated hearing loss. And to help us explore and better understand why this topic is so important for the senior living field, I am joined by our friend Matt Reiner, co-founder of Eversound. Matt, thank you so much for being on the show today and helping us better understand the importance of assistive hearing technology.

Matt

Thanks so much for having me, Rachel it’s an honor, and a privilege

Lugge

I’m really looking forward to this conversation. So I’m thinking, why don’t we just like dive in and start with Matt. Maybe you can tell us just a little bit about yourself and about ever sound and kind of your journey in, in starting the company.

Matt

Absolutely. So a little bit about myself is I have no idea what I’m doing. I just keep showing up and trying to learn fast, fail fast, and try and improve the quality of life for older adults. With Eversound, we are dedicated to a improving this quality of life, and we kind of walked into it in a in a very strange and kind of amazing way where my co-founder Jake and I had started another company that was doing things in a special events space, helping people throw silent disco events around the country. Jake was still in college at the time. It was kind of an undergrad project that he put together and asked me to come help start it so he could still focus on class and pass which I think we all wanna accomplish while we’re in school.

Matt

But as we were like doing this company and kind of running it successfully year over year, we started seeing a few things happen right around the same time where we started receiving phone calls from senior living communities, basically asking for help. What they were experiencing was that hearing, especially in group program, so think resident council meetings, worship services, BINGO, I know we can’t forget about BINGO. They started calling and asking for help because what they would say is like everyone’s hearing was at different levels when it came to these group programs and they needed a wireless headphones system designed for groups with individual volume control, which was pretty much the system we were using on the silent disco side. And then right around this time I saw what my grandmother was going through.

Matt 03:06

She happened to be 93, lived in a senior living community and frankly her quality of life wasn’t good. She would just isolate herself to a room, blast her television or listen to romantic fantasy novels through her own headphones system. And I would try to better understand why she wouldn’t go out. It all stemmed from this idea of like, “I can’t hear what’s going on, so why should I even bother?” And then right around the same time too, Jake and I were kind of thinking like, “huh, I wonder if there’s an opportunity here to help more are people and kind of expand the business.?” And we probably walked into every senior living community in upstate New York, where we were based at the time in Ithaca, New York. And some of these early demos would just leave your jaw on the ground. You would see staff crying, you’d have residents coming up and thanking you. You would see people thought to be nonverbal, start singing along with music and really set us on this, this crash course over the last five or six years to where we’re now impacting over 1100 communities in all 50 states and seeing measurably improved quality of life enhancements.

Rachel

Oh my gosh. That’s an incredible, what an incredible journey. So what what year was this? When everything, when you started on this journey?

Matt

So on all of our LinkedIns, we’ve got different start dates, but it was about 2015 or 2016 since ideation and then started creating a product that was more tailored for an older adult user in a senior living community.

Rachel:

Oh that’s impressive. That’s incredible. And then to be at in 1100 communities to date. Wow. What would you say is the biggest pain point that you see in communities? I mean I’m just kind of envisioning like you’re in the former company and you’re getting calls from senior living communities. They’re asking you for help. So, so what specifically was the pain point that, that the community is needed help with?

Matt

Yes. So I think the pain point can be best described and pun intended as a “silent epidemic” in senior living communities today. And it all stems around this idea of hearing loss. So when we were starting Eversound, we started looking into more of the data behind it, coming from people way smarter than us. What they were basically saying was that 80% of people over the age of 85 have some sort of hearing loss, but what the hearing aid adoption looks like, it’s about one in five that could benefit from a hearing aid are actually using one on a consistent basis. You know, price, quality, accessibility, you know, the stigma around it is why we see this gap of about 60 to 65% of people that have some sort of hearing loss that aren’t being proactive in finding solutions to help them.

Matt 06:08

It’s pretty amazing when you think about it and you look at the data around some of the comorbidities associated with hearing loss, and I know correlation and causation, we definitely have to think about the differences between that, but hearing loss has been tied to an increased risk in falls, an increased risk of developing dementia. If have moderate or severe hearing loss, you’re three to five times more likely to develop dementia, which is kind of blows my mind whenever I see that. But hearing loss is also tied to of course, isolation. I think it’s definitely a hot topic in senior living communities today. If someone can’t hear they’re more likely to isolate themselves in and hearing loss has even been tied to increased risk of mortality, which is kind of wild, how one sense can really impact everything. And it’s really everything between the ears. So the brain that’s being engaged and stimulated when someone’s hearing might be a little bit better.

Rachel

Wow. That just some of those statistics are staggering, to know that that’s, that’s probably one of the biggest factors for engagement overall is the sense of how as somebody’s able to hear and understand and process what’s happening in their environment. That’s incredible. Can you tell us a little bit more about how you partner with communities and maybe like some of the key outcomes that highlight the impact of your solution?

Matt

Yeah, absolutely. I think when we partner with communities, what we try to identify in the frontrun end is what are some of their key business objectives right now? You know, is it driving occupancy? Is it helping with engaging? Is it helping with the resident experience? Maybe family visits look a little bit different right now, beause every sound could definitely be used to really enhance any level of communication. Right? I think some people just kind of get stuck in their brain that this is just a solution for BINGO, which it definitely can help with BINGO. We’ve heard stories of people winning for the first time in years where, hey, I’ll always support that, but this is really a tool that’s being used across the care spectrum and wherever communication is used. Those PT or OT appointments, those tours to give them more experiential, or someone might come in who might be a little bit hard of hearing.

Matt

We’re also finding that people are, are using it as a tool to, I think wheret he best kind of case study that we’ve done, and every group we work with has gathered their own data or kind of wanting to test the efficacy of this new technology. But one group that really stands out is the Front Porch Center for Innovation and Wellbeing. Based in California who do an amazing job in terms of really vetting tech. And they did a 12 month case study with over 600 residents that showed ever sound improved engagement by 76%, improved understanding of the event by 76%, improved mood in those living with dementia by 64%. And then they had some other positive indicators that ever sound was actually helping. And we’ve had other communities do other studies, right? Whre they’re kind of making sure that this technology piece works.

Matt

We’ve also seen increased attendance again, increased engagement. And when you kind of get to the simple idea, right, the inability to hear is detrimental to how we experience the world around us. And if we can give a tool that can help for a community to really experience that and a tool that’s tailor made for an older adult user and tailor made for a senior living community. So it doesn’t need wifi, doesn’t need cellular reception, can be used anywhere, just a click of a button plug and play. That’s where we really start to see this positive experience of residents lives being better because they can actually hear what’s going on around them.

Rachel

That’s amazing. I love the research aspect and the partnership with those institutes that I can imagine just how powerful that is and you sharing your story and the impact with communities. So can you, I’m just curious, can you tell us a little bit more about like how the technology works?

Matt 10:10

Absolutely.The way that it works it’s similar to Bluetooth, but it’s actually called DECT so digitally enhanced cordless technology. You can actually think about it as like an old cordless phone, but the way that it works is that there’s a transmitter or the base unit and whatever you plug into that AV systems, computers, laptops, iPods, microphones, you can plug in directly in AV systems, so if you have microphones are using, whatever’s plugged in that transmitter would then broadcast to all the headphones simultaneously. In each headphone you can turn it up or turn it down helps to block out some of that background, ambient noise that might be too much. But it’s really just amplifying what people should be listening to at a level comfortable to them. And then the range you’re looking anywhere like 250 to 300 feet in all directions, so about the size of a football field. And then you can have up to 120 headphones to one transmitter. So it’s not just like a one to one, but it’s a one to many. And that’s where we start to see people doing it. Because, maybe Ruth Anne might need it a little bit higher than Betsy, because like they all want to hear the same thing, but they have different hearing profiles of, of what makes sense for them.

Rachel

You mentioned that the solution can be used pretty much across the continuum and in a variety of settings. How are communities most frequently using technology? Yeah. How are they incorporating it into their programming?

Matt 11:41

Yeah. So I would say it’s pretty much been incorporated to help with things that they’re already doing today. Right? The nice thing about Eversound, it enhances things that are already happening. So wherever there’s been a situation of using communication, right? Which is pretty much every and any program that’s happening today, we see Eversound as kind of being as a tool to enhance that. And then we’ve also got like an online database of grabbing go programs that people can use to really set them up for success that way. So our whole goal here to improve the resident engagement and make the activity professional’s life that much easier, helping to curate all this content for them and that they can maximize their time being spent with the residents and not going and finding YouTube playlist or some of the other stuff that might be out there.

Rachel

What are you hearing from the communities when, after the program’s been implemented? Thetechnology is in use. I can imagine this is a bit of a game changer for the life enrichment team.

Matt

One of the most positive compliments that we’ve gotten is people don’t have to lose their voices anymore. Because usually right, if you’re talking about BINGO or doing something, you’re having to elevate your voice. And especially now in a world where we’re still practicing physical distancing, but need to stay socially connected. So we start to hear things like that. We actually have heard compliments that they’re getting more residents out to their program than ever beforen because people can actually hear what’s going on. And then I it’s like almost every other day we hear a story that would just bring like tears to your eyes because they saw a loved one or a resident that they thought were disengaged due to reason one, but then realize that they just couldn’t hear what was going on and then they start to see these, we call them our Ever moments. They start to see their Ever moments you know, front and center within their own community. And that’ just feel good moments all across the board.

Rachel

No, that’s absolutely. That’s incredible. Can you tell us, I’m just curious too about your team. If a community is looking to partner with Eversound, what are the steps and who might they be working with to get the program launched?

Matt

Absolutely. Myself or Eversound would not be where we are today without the team behind it. We’ve got about, I think just over 30 people full time working with us today and really what that looks like, of course we’ve got the, the community advisors or our sales team that are really working with the community to identify what problems are going on, what packages might make sense for them. And then kind of once we get through that, we hand them off to our community success team, which are really there to help the communities feel comfortable and confident with Eversound. What we’ve learned is that with technology adoption, especially in senior living, there needs to be that coach or that, that extra help there to really help with utilizing help with retraining help. If there’s someone that might leave a community and a new person comes in. So our community success team is the most like amazing people that I think that I’ve ever met. A lot of them are former program directors themselves, and they’re really there to make sure that the communities are able to fully utilize the technology and making sure that it is improving that quality of life for their residents.

Rachel

That’s fantastic. We touched on our ROI. I mean, there’s a lot of it, there’s a lot of return here for communities and impact. Engagement goes up, quality of life goes up, isolation goes down, there’s the team even workforce, you know, this is impacting workforce, this is impacting a high value ads for the life enrichment team. What a tool. Can you give maybe a few guiding print of advice that you might offer a provider who is looking to enhance their resident experience through technology, what they should consider?

Matt

Absolutely. So I think one of the things that I’ve seen, you know, we’re definitely still, I would consider a young startup, but as these reports are coming out about the aging demographics, right, and you start to see more and more of these tech companies and these startups popping up into this space where I think a lot of ’em are really cool in concept, but I think I’ve heard horror stories of communities start working with companies that are startups that end upnhaving a three month runwayand  aren’t around for the long haul. I always like it when we have new partnerships or even current partnerships that are asking us about our what’s our one year, our three year, our five year, 10 year plans, just to make sure that they’re, they’re investing in a company that’s gonna be around for the long haul and not just gonna be there for a year or so where you invest invested all this time and money.

Matt

And then that solution is no longer available, which is just definitely something. So I guess the advice would be to a provider is just press those newer companies. Even the older companies, are they going to be around, are you investing your time and energy with the right company? I would say another just piece of advice is looking for solutions or companies where they’re actually working or talking at least because I think you’re finding more and more companies coming out, popping up that are pretty much designing their solutions in a silo. Which every time I talk to a community or provider, I think of my friend Scott Smith with Five Star basically said collaborate to automate, so us as vendor companies need to be having those conversations and really aligning with what that looks like and making sure that we’re creating a solution to make life easier within the communities and, and not doing that.

Matt 17:26

So I guess the advice to a provider would basically say, ask them who their partnerships are, who are they friendly with? Who are they talking with? What other technology solutions you already have and making sure that it aligns and helps with that and just doesn’t become a deterrent and makes it that much more difficult to operate. And then I think third, and this really comes from my conversation with Amber and I completely agree is that these providers need to identify their tech strategy and their tech roadmap, and then find technology vendors to help make their vision come true. There’s been so many times where, I’ll talk to somebody and try and ask about what their vision or their strategy looks like for their technology. And they’re pretty much asking us to dictate that for them, Where we can do that, but granted they and their leadership team have the best knowledge of what their community looks like. Of course I want them to work with Eversound, I definitely see the benefit there, but I think providers need to take a step back and really look at what innovation means to them, not just give the innovation, the title to someone, because it’s part of your key values, but just making sure that you’re embracing that and coming up with your own strategy and then finding technology providers to help you make that vision come alive.

Rachel

I mean, that’s fantastic advice and in line with what we see as well, for sure. Especially on the strategy piece. We’ve been beating that drum now for six years and it’s just really interesting that the more we have these conversations with providers, the more we find that everybody is aligned in that need. Yes, we need to understand what the end goal what’s the vision and then who are the right partners in helping us get there? And make sure we have that comprehensive strategy in mind along the way. So, okay. So you mentioned your one year, year, three year five, your plan anything you want to share in regards to what’s on the horizon for Eversound?

Matt

Yeah, so I think with Eversound, our mission is to improve quality of life, right? And whatever we can kind of figure out or product suite that we can create towards that, I do see us, not to distill too much information, but moving to a more all encompassing healthcare solutions provider and really trying to become the company that destigmatizes hearing loss because I think hearing loss is still unfortunately stigmatized. We’ve talked about the data and I mean, everyone wears some form of of glasses of some sort, myself, I can’t drive at night without my glasses or it’s illegal. But I think trying to be a company that helps to destigmatize hearing loss, bring forward some good information and good products around that. Because I think what you’ll find is the communities that are prioritizing finding solutions for their residents to help with the more all encompassing census will be communities that continue to stand out in the communities that have higher census because they’re looking for the whole person and really finding solutions like that.

Rachel

You started out this conversation by saying, “I don’t really know what I’m doing. I dunno anything I’m just kind of like have a lot of passion and move forward.” You have a mission, you have a passion that is moving, but you’re incredibly bright in how you’ve gone about building this concept and launching it into the field and injecting this into senior living. So thank you for that. Matt, as we close up, what I hope you know, we have one question we generally close each conversation with what excites you about the future of technology and senior living?

Matt

Yeah. So I think what really excites me is, I think senior living communities up in until recently, especially like before the pandemic, it was a really micro approach, right? So everything that’s happening within the community, what BINGO game are  we running? What outside entertainer is coming in to deliver an experience? But where I think technology and what I’m really excited about is how does that open up the world, right? How does that not just open up the doors to the community, but to the overall world where, people might go take a trip to a virtual trip to Australia, a virtual trip to Paris, and giving people the experiences to really do that. Because I think the point of going into senior living in addition to the care is to continue to have these social experiences. And if we can give communities the tools to really just broaden their horizons and make it that it’s not just what’s happening within that community they’ve got a penpal across the country in Germany. Like I just think it opens up a lot of opportunities for, for social engagement. That’s not just the happy hour that’s happening within a community today.

Rachel

Excellent. I love that. I love that vision. And I agree with you. I think that’s, that’s so exciting. There’s so many possibilities on the horizon and I look forward to, I think we’re gonna see just rapid, rapid movement towards that future as well. It’s, it’s now gonna be accelerated based on what’s happened in the last, just within the last two years, I think we’ve had a lot of destruction.

Matt

One of the things I’ve heard, one of the silver linings coming out of it that I heard from some of our partners was that technology was a nice to have. And then during the pandemic, it became a need to have, and it was a silver lining that it definitely saw tech adoption really skyrocket, and we just hope that it can continue because I think there’s, there’s definitely a lot of great companies out there doing really amazing things and continuing to partner with each other and work hand in hand and side by side to deliver these solutions. I think will set us up as an industry for the better.

Rachel

I couldn’t agree more. Matt, thank you so much for being on Raising Tech and having this important conversation, helping us better understanding.

Matt

Amazing. Well, thank you so much for the opportunity and keep up the amazing work Rachel with Parasol Alliance.

Rachel

Thank you. All right. We’ll see everybody next time.

Amber

Welcome to Raising Tech, the podcast dedicated to transforming technology culture in senior living. I’m your host, Amber Bardon. Today we’re discussing a hot topic that has really come into focus with the COVID pandemic; telehealth. We have with us, Dave Darr and Josh Hofmeyer from Avel eCare. David and Josh welcome, and thank you so much for being here. Would you like to do a brief introduction of yourselves?

David Darr

Sure. Thanks, Amber. We’re really happy to be part of your podcast and we appreciate the efforts Raising Tech podcast is doing to help promote and help educate the, your listeners. So my name is Dave Darr. I’m the national director of sales and client relations for Avel eCare. I’ve been in the hospital and healthcare industry for about 20 years. The last 15 I’ve dedicated to our senior population, both in the hospice world and in telehealth. I’ve been with Avel now for just under six years and have really enjoyed reaching out to the communities throughout the United States to help bring healthcare directly to their residents.

Josh Hofmeyer

Thanks Dave. Thanks Amber. I’m Josh Hoffmeyer. I’m the senior care officer for Avel eCare, and I’ve been here for about seven years now helping to provide telehealth services to seniors in a variety of settings that we partner with. Prior to coming here, I spent several years out in the field as a licensed nursing home administrator and health services executive helping to manage skilled nursing facilities, assisted living, independent living, home health and hospice. And so I truly have a passion for seniors and making sure that they have the quality of care that they need and certainly deserve, but then also helping to support all of the clinicians and local caregivers who are taking care of those seniors at the same time.

Amber

Telehealth is such an interesting topic because it’s been around for a while, but it hasn’t really gained a lot of traction or there hasn’t been a huge widespread use of telehealth up until COVID hit, which obviously really accelerated the adoption of telehealth. With this being somewhat of a more newly in use field with the pandemic, to start with, could you share some terms and a little bit of an overview of what telehealth is in the marketplace today?

David Darr

Certainly. Telehealth is a very broad term and it’s used sometimes interchangeably with telemedicine as well, and so you can hear both of those or virtual care. It can really be a true wide variety of things. Anything from a phone call between a clinician and a patient on the other end, to sometimes they do things via text messages or emails, and as robust as a video system that has peripherals such as a stethoscope or otoscope that allows the clinician to truly dial in and see what’s going on. There’s also aspects of remote patient monitoring technology and different data perspectives and systems and softwares that you can look at and work with to really get in there and telehealth or telemedicine, whatever term you want to use to provide that patient care. And with COVID you’re right. Things certainly have been growing and expanding. And so things have become a little bit more sophisticated lately. There’s more companies diving into this type of work there there’s more physicians diving into this. And patients and their families are becoming more comfortable with it as well, which allows for this to truly keep growing into the potential that it could have.

Amber

Could you give us a little bit more of a deep dive into some of the specific terms such as, such as, is there a difference between telehealth and telemedicine, virtual care E consult, Store and Forward? Could you describe a little bit more detail around some of those concepts for our listeners?

Josh Hofmeyer

Absolutely. So telehealth typically is more of that potential like text messaging back and forth, or it might be emails. It’s a back and forth to really see what what’s going on with the health person, of people monitoring what’s going on. Remote patient monitoring would fall under that category as well. Telemedicine is the practice of actually providing medical services through some type of technology. And so that’s where you get the direct interactions of provider to patient in things along those lines. Virtual care is very similar to that. Making sure that you’re providing care to your patient virtually. Store and Forward is a phrase used for taking a episode of care that might be going on. The best example to probably use would be a skin condition or a wound concern where the patient can take pictures of it, upload them into a software platform, send those to their provider, and then their provider, at some point in the near future, after receiving those, can take a look at them when they have their time. So it’s not an immediate interaction between the patient and provider and that’s where that name ‘store and forward’ comes from. And then that provider takes a look at that can figure out what they want to do and gets back to the patient on what the next terms might be. There’s a lot of terminology out there I would say when it comes to this type of care. Especially as it grows and expands, that terminology just continues to get added to. And so the list keeps growing and growing.

Amber

I’m really curious to hear your observations of the trends in the increased use of telehealth, where have you seen this really take off and grow in the senior living industry? And what do you think is driving that adoption?

David Darr

Great question. Yes. The last 18 months with COVID has definitely helped boost and identify telehealth as as a solution to supporting our local communities, especially our elderly population. So it’s really in the spotlight right now. We’ve seen over the last year additional telehealth platforms coming onto the market, greater adaptation from the traditional brick and mortar hospital organizations, clinics, and primary care physicians. So they’re all doing some type of telehealth right now, and that’s really been spurred on since the pandemic began. As far as the communities that are involved you know, skilled nursing facilities were kind of always at the forefront of it. Assisted living, memory cares are really taking the forefront of telehealth along with home health and hospice situations. But what it comes down to, prior to the pandemic telehealth was really geared towards those rural communities where they didn’t have access to care where you could kind of zoom in and take care of those residents without having them travel a distance. Telehealth today is just as prevalent in the urban areas. So access to care doesn’t matter where you live, whether you’re in the big city or in the country, access to care is out there and providing the support to the staff and getting those quality outcomes is what it’s all about. So what’s boiled down to in the last year, Amber is that if, no matter where you’re at in the United States, if you want telehealth, you have the ability to get it in your community.

Amber

That’s really great insight. What have you seen helps a community get set up for success in using telehealth?

David Darr (08:08):

Yep. Another great question. So it’s really about having a plan, setting up a timeline for what you need. Telehealth, isn’t something you go to the store and you buy and you take out the box and you roll it out in your community. You really have to have that timeline. In some buildings, it could take up to a year to plan it. There’s a lot of things that go on behind the scenes. On the clinical side, you have to identify what your benchmarks are, what your goals are for the program. What are the reasons why you want telehealth in the building? Get those benchmarks down and then track that as the program goes on. Of course the big concerns out there we don’t have the IT connectivity, you know, telehealth technology doesn’t work in our building.

David Darr

Things have really progressed a lot over the years. And that in most cases, if it’s a wireless virtual tool that you have, if your cell phone works in a building, you’re going to be able to have telehealth in that building as well. On the front side of it, it’s all about staff engagement, letting your staff know and understand what the goals are. Not only with the residents and the primary care physicians, but with your telehealth partner. And then also what we found is that provider buy-in is important. Those local providers, these are their patients, their residents, they wanna make sure that we’re filling in the gaps appropriately. And with what we’ve seen over the last 18 months with COVID at least we’re seeing that the buy-in on providers are really seeing more of a collaboration than competition when it comes to taking care of their patients.

Amber

What we’ve seen with this increase in telehealth is that if it’s used effectively, it can result in reductions in ER visits and reduce readmissions, which causes more unnecessary COVID exposure. It can also empower the frontline staff and improve the resident and family experience. But I can imagine that this still seems very overwhelming and maybe a little bit far off for some communities, even though these solutions are already available and ready to be implemented. Can you share some insight into specifically what the options are that a community or a home care agency may be looking at as available and what would be some of the differences between these?

Josh Hofmeyer

Yeah, absolutely. Amber, that’s a great question. A lot of people need to realize that as Dave was mentioning, it’s important to plan and figure out what your needs are and are you ready? And, and once you know what those needs are, then you can start what I would say, shopping for what services are going to help support those needs and what technology then goes along to help support those services. So I always encourage people to first figure out what those needs are. And then look at the services that are out there. Telehealth companies provide anything from 24/7 urgent care clinical support access, to after hours support, to specialized programs, such as behavioral health or wound care, or something along those lines. And then when you know what that’s going to be and what services you’re going to go after, you can then start figuring out what technology needs to go along with those services.

Josh Hofmeyer

And so in today’s world as most people well know, there’s a lot of technology out there and you could really spend a lot of time looking at that technology and trying to figure out what you need. And so trying to shop around and figure out the, the right solution is important. Do you need video capabilities for what you’re gonna be doing? Most of the timet the answer to that is ‘yes.’ It’s much easier for a provider to do telemedicine services when they have those video capabilities and they can see the patient that they’re looking at. Then there’s also the questions around, do we need any remote patient monitoring equipment? Or do we want peripherals that connect through the video equipment so that we can maybe use the stethoscope to listen to heart and lung sounds, or use an otoscope if we need to look into someone’s throat or into their ears if they’re having issues?

So that’s some of the examples of what’s out there. It’s a wide variety of services and a wide variety of technology that truly help support those services.

David Darr

And I’ll just add to that, Amber, you know, when we visit with communities around the country, the goal is to really fill in that gap of service. So telehealth isn’t really going to replace any services that they have. It’s really going to compliment what they have in their building or further support them. As far as specialty services, that could include the behavioral health. It could include wound care. It could include social work, care transitions in those advanced care planning. You don’t have to have a big need in a building, but sometimes those, you take care of those smaller needs and then you can kind of grow into a larger, more comprehensive telehealth program.

Amber

Do you have any insights that you can share with our listeners around the reimbursement for telehealth and how that has changed with COVID?

Josh Hofmeyer

Yeah, so prior to COVID. First of all, let me say that the reimbursement is payer specific. And so you need to know the payers that you’re working with and what their rules and regulations around  the reimbursement for telehealth are. One of the biggest ones, of course in the industry that we work in with seniors is Medicare and Medicaid, and knowing what the CMS rules are and what the state Medicaid rules are when it comes to billing. And prior to COVID, whether it was the CMS payer sources of Medicare and Medicaid, or it was other insurance companies, Medicare replacement plans, those types of things. It was rather limited on the reimbursement options for billing through those payers for telehealth services. You had to be in a rural designated location. It could not be urban. You had to be in a qualifying originating site, such as a skilled nursing facility or a clinic.

Josh Hofmeyer

It could not be a person’s home or an assisted living or other settings such as those. You could only have an encounter with certain CPT codes billed once every 30 days or so, depending on what it was. And so when COVID happened and the public health emergency came out, they really started to look at how can we keep these people from that unneeded exposure, as you referenced earlier Amber in our conversation,  and having to health and telemedicine capabilities was key to that plan. So they opened the doors and eliminated a lot of those restrictions on the payer side. And so you saw CMS coming out with allowing any location to truly be an originating site. You saw those 30 day qualifications, or if it was a billing code for one third, 14 days, those things go away and they were able to more freely use telehealth and have more frequent visits as needed. A lot of the other private payers and different things too started opening their doors a little bit.

Josh Hofmeyer

And now we’re still in the pandemic. There’s still a long road ahead with COVID, but as we start to hopefully turn the corner, everyone’s starting to say, well what now? What are these payers gonna do? What is CMS gonna do? And actually just in the last few days, CMS did release a new final rule for Medicare and Medicaid for 2022. And they’re saying that their telehealth billing changes are going to stay in, in effect until December of 2023, because it takes legislative action to truly change these rules and regulations. But with this public health emergency they can push out what they’re doing to allow time for research, to be done and see what the impact the telehealth actually have been the last couple of years with these lifted restrictions. So it’s a complex world. Certainly something that you have to do your homework on, talk with the experts, get a really good understanding of it so that you know, what the reimbursement’s going to look like based off of what we just talked about with the services you select and the type of technology that you’re considering.

Amber

I imagine that all this information is a little bit overwhelming to any listeners who may not have started down this telehealth journey yet. To put things in perspective. Could you share a specific story or case study about a client, maybe share a little bit about where they were before telehealth, how they actually went about implementation and then some of the outcomes?

David Darr

Sure. We’ve been rolling out a lot of buildings over the last 18 months.  Just for reference here at a value care, we provide kind of the soup to nuts. We do everything for the telehealth. We’ve got physicians, a full geriatric team of nurses, pharmacists, social workers, behavioral health specialists, wound care specialists, so we can handle pretty much anything. So just depending on what that specific community needs is kind of how we set up that program. We did a lot of go lives, adding new services to new buildings virtually of course we just rolled out a small assisted living building in Alaska. We’re in the middle of South Dakota, all of our clinicians are located here. And so we really had an opportunity to reach out and help anyone anywhere.

David Dar

So just this morning, Josh and I were in the clinical hub doing standup, finding out what’s going on. And we had a phone call at 3:00 AM last night from a universal care worker that had just started working there two weeks ago, so she hadn’t been quite fully trained on what the telehealth capabilities were in the building. And so she called in not really paniced, but the nurse said call in and, and Avel can kind of help out. Well our nurse picked up the phone right away, kind of found out what was going on. She was able to give her a quick tutorial on our cart review all the peripherals, kind of explain what our role is and, and helping out. And within a few minutes we had that resident up on video and we were able to do a video consult and ask some questions and look into their EMR to find out what was going on with them and address the issue right away.

David Darr

So in that area there, like most parts in the United States staffing concerns are a big deal. Not having to send a resident out because of a small issue is a big deal. And we were able to kind of help out in a big way. It was a small situation up there, but in the end, it turned out to be a pretty big deal for that building. We just found out that the clinical concerns that we had were address right away and we’re moving on and we’re waiting for the next call from them.

Josh Hofmeyer

It certainly can be overwhelming though, as you said. And I think that’s why it’s important when you’re looking to pick a partner for your telehealth that you find a team that has done this work before, can help you walk through this implementation, is there to help train your clinicians because you do have that staff turnover at times, and you need to know that they’re gonna have a reliable source that they can, that they can go to.

Josh Hofmeyer (19:30):

And the example Dave shared is just one of hundreds that happen each and every day with the work that we’re doing here at a Avel. And I would also just throw out there as people think about, “well, what would we use telehealth for?” Besides Dave’s example, we get calls on a variety of different things, anything from acute changes in condition, like what was going on at this resident in Alaska last night, to falls and needing to do an assessment to make sure there’s no injury, medication questions and issues, behavioral health, skin concerns, exacerbation of some of the comorbidities that they might be dealing with such as congestive heart failure, or COPD, or diabetes. So the list goes on and on, but I just wanted to share some examples. So people also had an idea of the types of things that you can truly handle from a telehealth perspective.

Amber

That’s really great insight. I think that’ll be really helpful to our listeners. And it’s also really exciting. I think the widespread adoption of telehealth is one of possibly the silver linings of the COVID pandemic. One last question I have for both of you, what excites you the most about the future of technology in senior living?

David Darr (20:45):

Well, I’ll start with that. I think the title of this podcast today says it all, Telehealth is Here to Stay. I mean, at aVel we’ve been doing this for well over 25 years, and there’d be times that we were wondering, “do people get it? Do they really understand what telehealth is all about?” And it is here to stay and part of that on the technology side, at least Amber, with how it is we take telehealth anywhere. The use of the peripherals is wonderful. I mean with our system, we have a stethoscope. We can listen to the heart, the lungs, the stomach, the bowels, you name it, the dermcam, the otoscope, tongue depressors, blood pressure. I mean, it’s as if you’re there having a full assessment with that patient, but there’s a lot of things going on now.

David Dar

We have access to a multi call. So if we’re doing a social work encounter, we can bring in family members from other parts of the country to sit in on that call. So that’s a wonderful thing. But they’re adding EKG machines, scales. So this is going to go from the stiff world to the assisted living world, to home health and hospice down the road. So it’s going to be available to almost anyone for any reason at all. So that’s, that’s probably the most exciting part about it is that this technology is helping sell the service and show up front and close just how well we can help.

Josh Hofmeyer

Yeah. And I would just add on what excites me besides everything that Dave just shared is the true impact that it has on access and quality of care and making sure that patients are getting that quality of care that they need, and that it’s a accessible when they need it versus having to wait. And as we see workforce shortages and more and more providers retiring or changing careers, that access becomes harder and harder. And telehealth is one way that we can broaden that perspective and have support there for more and more people. It could be for the residents that we’re serving through Avel, it could be for our families. It could be for any of us that are doing this podcast today. At some point, you’re gonna need that access and need that service, and it might be telehealth that helps you get it in a timely fashion.

Amber

Dave and Josh from Avel eCare. Thank you so much for joining us today on today’s episode of Raising Tech, really appreciate all the insight and knowledge you shared with our listeners. And thanks for joining us today listeners.

Amber

Welcome to Raising Tech, a podcast about all things technology and senior living. I'm your host, Amber Bardon, CEO of Parasol Alliance. Today, we have a very special guest, Jack York, co-founder of iN2L, an engagement company for older adults and senior living communities. Jack, thank you so much for joining us today. You've been in this industry for quite a while, and I would really love to hear your story and how you got started in this field, and how that led you to co-found iN2L. Can we start with having you share your story with our listeners?

 

Jack

Oh, you are right, a long while. I call myself the Jimmy Stewart of agent and technology companies, but most people don't know who Jimmy Stewart is, so I need a different analogy. I spent my early career in the Silicon Valley world working for a large semiconductor company called Siliconix, and then Vishay and people think I'm a technology guy, I was a total sales and marketing guy. And when I was moving in on 40, a friend of mine, Leslie Sweeney, who's one of the co-founders of the company, she had the idea to donate some computers to a local assisted living community in Long Beach, in Southern California. And never thinking of it as a business, I had money and no time and she had time and no money. So we donated some computers and it was just, it was fascinating to see what happened. It was very small, you know, this is 1998, right as the computing world was starting. So it was way ahead of the curve in terms of the technology impact in older adults. But it really struck a chord with me. And then it's a long story that I won't go into all the details, but about six months after that my mom died and I was turning 40 and it just, yeah, I just wanted to do something that I felt better about. And so my nickname has always been, “Ready, Fire, Aim.” So my brother and I and Leslie jumped off a cliff, and started the company without having any idea of what we were getting into.

 

Amber

I am curious about the name. How did you come up with the name of the company?

 

Jack

Yeah, so we kind of go by iN2L now, it’s abbreviation, but it was, “It’s Never Too Late.” And it was funny, cause it looks like we were trying to be clever with the number two, It's Never Too Late. And it was just a matter of trying to find a URL in 1999 that we could use. We were trying to be, It's Never “T-O-O” Late “T-O,” all these things. We couldn't find it, but it was with that number that we got it. But, and I like it when people ask the question, because it was my brother. My brother unfortunately died about four years after we started the company, and the name was all him, and it was really just trying to convey a context of don't put limitations of aging into doing something that's new and different, and that's really, that's what it was, what it was, what it was kind of all about.

 

Amber

Can you describe how that initial donation of computers led to the creation of the software and what exactly it is, and that it does?

Jack

Yeah. Well, I think, I mean, you know, in a 22 year retrospect, I think it was beneficial, frankly, that I didn't have any experience in senior living, cause I didn't look at it through, you know, ‘well, we do things this way because that's why we do things.’ And so, like I said, I had no idea about the industry. I had no idea about what we were kind of getting into. But as I talked to people and as I observed, you'd go into a community and you'd see people that were there were full of life and vibrancy, in their seventies, eighties, nineties. And when you looked at the activity programming, you know, incredibly well-meaning people, but they were being treated like 10 year olds. It's teachers and welders and lawyers and doctors and, you know, whatever they were in their life. But you’d walk into an activity room and they’re like, you know, let's throw a beach ball around. And things that just made no sense to me. And so I think it just was a lot of, you know, there's gotta be a more dignified way to do this, but still let people enjoy where they are; wherever they are physically or cognitively. So one of the things really, to answer your question about the product, one of the things that was really interesting for me in this industry, relative to what I came from, I came from this, like I said, this whole Silicon Valley world where a Compaq, wasn't going to tell a Dell, wasn't going to tell an Apple what they're doing. Everything was so closed that it was fascinating for me, how open senior living providers were. And so you'd ask them for advice, and you'd ask them for this, you want to try this and would we try that? And people, so many people, opened their arms up to what we were doing, to my brother and I, and it was such a cool industry in that context. And so we just started trying to figure out, you know, I look at our early systems, it's kind of like, I'm almost embarrassed. It was, at that time, it was state of the art, but it felt like touch screen was a relevant thing to do, but to do touch screen in the early nineties, early two-thousands, you had to have a docking, a laptop go into a docking station, and then the wires all connect out of it. It looked like, you know,it wound up looking like something out of an old Twilight Zone episode, what the systems were. But it was what we've, really, what we've done from the beginning, and haven't changed, is try to just become a content company, and no matter where people are physically or cognitively, you want to be connected to things that are meaningful to you. Whether it's your music, or your spirituality, or your family, or games you want to play, or newspapers you want to read. And so what we've tried to do is just curate content and then make it just readily accessible, both in a group context for an activity director or a therapist, but also from an individual standpoint. You know, my parents have been gone forever, but my dad, if I was helping build a profile for my dad, and that's kind of how our software works is that each person has their own experience, I know that my dad would have The Wall Street Journal, the rosary, the Nebraska Cornhuskers, and I know exactly the music he would like. And again it has nothing to do with how old we are, we all just want to be relevant. And that's what we try to do with our technology is make it relevant for that individual person. 

 

Amber

Is the software used primarily in the skilled setting? 

 

Jack

Yeah. You know, I mean, it can be used in any setting. I think I am kind of equal parts so proud, and equal parts frustrated. But a lot of times we've kind of been pigeonholed into a memory care context, the dementia context. And I think a lot of that is, it's so hard to find meaningful programming for people living with dementia, especially mid to late stage, and we've really excelled at that. But the ability, the content that we have on our system is we pride ourselves on the fact that it really does span the horizon cognitively. And you want to kind of balance the content with ‘where is that person,’ and you don't want to make it demeaning, and you also don't want to make it too difficult. So a lot of the games and some of the interactive content we have in the system is curated for different levels of cognition. So someone that is more independent, and they want to go to Paris, they're going to have a different experience than a person far down the cognitive path that wants to go to Paris, where that would be a little bit more visual and audio, as opposed to a quiz about The Louvre or things like that.

 

Amber

Your product is the original resident engagement application, and resident engagement applications are such a buzzword now. And it's something we hear so much about is a must have for communities and a competitive edge, and I'm curious to get your perspective on how you've seen technology in this space change during the time you've been in the industry.

 

Jack

It's funny you say that because everybody has their own definition of engagement, and people turn on a vacuum cleaner and go, ‘oh, this is an engagement: vacuum cleaners.’ I mean, it's like an adjective that goes in front of everything. So I mean, I think our definition of engagement is just what makes a person enthused and captive, and want to be connected and want to be relevant. So, you know, to be honest, I feel it's kind of funny because, I don't mean this to sound self-serving, but I do personally get a lot of compliments as to how ahead of the curve we were, and innovative we were, and to me it was just like such common sense, you know. What would my mom or dad want? Just make it. It's such a simple concept that you're just trying to let people get what's relevant for them, make it age appropriate, make it relevant, make it non demeaning. There's an art to doing all of that, but the concept itself is just very simple. To be honest, I think the reason we survived and have thrived when so many people haven't is, I, and I'm such an aberration compared to other startups, it’s funny, it is the funniest thing for me, Amber, when I go to say this to like people starting a company and they asked for my advice, cause it's just like the biggest buzz kill you could tell a 20 something is, cause what I did is when I was like 25, 26, I knew I would want to do something later. I didn't know what that would be. So I just started diligently saving money and saving money and saving money and investing that money and saving money. By the time I was 40, I had enough money to start a company. And then the spark came to me through the donation of the computer, but I didn't have to, for the first six, seven years in the company, I didn't have to spend one minute looking for money. And if I would have had to do that.. It took me eight years to get a paycheck, it took the company 10 years to turn a profit. Any normal investor would have shut us down. And I think that that's the big difference to me in my old life to this new life. My old life of technology in the Silicon Valley is, customers would make quick decisions with no loyalty. In the world of senior living, at least the experience I've had, has been people take forever to make a decision. But if you do a good job, the loyalty is unbelievable. And I think that's what, you know, we've gone through some transactions and have done some things over the last few years, but it was from a position of strength, not a position of gravelly for money. Now, I did. Eight years into it, I ran out of money and I had to go through the 'grovel for money’ stage. And so I've kind of lived all that different stuff, but I just think that, I dunno, long way to answer to your question. I love to see different companies popping up. I love to see how engagement does matter to people now. COVID so accelerated that, it's a great thing. And so I love the fact that what we're doing now is not a novelty. It's much more mainstream, which is great.

 

Amber

I attended Leading Age National in Indianapolis a few years ago, and I attended a presentation where there was several physicians talking about how they had done a case study, where they had removed psychotropic medications in a memory care unit and replaced it with your product and were able to show clinical results of using the software that were equal to the medication. Which I find really fascinating, and I talk about that a lot as an example of how technology can be used in this industry. I'm curious if you have any stories you can share or impacts that you can share with our listeners of something like that or something similar.

 

Jack

Yeah, no, what's funny is, the whole research thing is hilarious, I'm such a hypocrite. I'll open myself up to hypocrisy. Because the first 10 to 12 years of the company, you know, I was so dismissive of research, and I do still kind of feel this way, is that, I think a lot of times lack of research becomes just an excuse to not do something that you know you should do. Cause like where's the research that a Ruth’s Chris steak is a lot better than a McDonald's hamburger. Do you need to research to say that someone putting a puzzle together, if it's a picture of their grandson, they're going to be more engaged than if it's something shoved down their throat. So anyway, but then what I finally kind of started realizing is that research does matter, and outcomes do matter. And so, we were fortunate to be a part of several projects. I mean, I'll kind of answer it broadly and then specifically. Broadly, we had the good fortune to be a part of several case studies, several research projects, and we have Dr. Lydia Nguyen, who works for iN2L now, we have a PhD on our staff. She's phenomenal, and it's really cool to be able to take what we've seen anecdotally over the years and turn it into research. For me personally, I still get more juice out of an email from a daughter saying, mom was so depressed all the time, and now she's doing this or that on our system, whether it's a game or just virtual chat kind of feature. I just, I love going into communities and just seeing people doing things and hearing their stories and all that kind of stuff. So it's nice to be able to have kind of a mix of the big, broad picture outcomes of what we do mixed. You know, at the end of the day, it's just a whole bunch of individual interactions that it's really cool that you know that they do make a difference. 

 

Amber

What was the tipping point for iN2L?

 

Jack

From a technology standpoint, I was like a kid in a candy store when HP came out with their touch smart, that all of a sudden integrated the touch screen into a relatively compact PC, so that was a technology transformation. We did a major project with Brookdale. In the first 10 years of the company, it was so frustrating because we'd have all these non-profits, that I loved to death, we love the leading age world, but they would go get grants to buy our systems and the for-profit world, I just didn't get it. Cause, you know, you'd read their mission statements, ‘we put the residents first’ and ‘we do this’ and ‘we do that,’ and they wouldn't buy our product. And then we had kind of two things happen fairly close to each other. A company called, well they've changed their name. They used to be Pinion Management in Colorado, and then Brookdale. I mean, those two for-profit entities bought into iN2L, they just budgeted it and bought it. And all of a sudden, it really flipped the switch that, you know what, the families are starting to demand this kind of thing, and then we were able to kind of really be able to have a product that was worth people budgeting and buying. And then also, so much stuff is incremental, but just such cool people along the way, and so many people that have worked for the company. I was a pretty mediocre CEO, but I was passionate. And I think people, I always felt like people would run through walls, for the company. And so that's hard to make it a one-time transformational thing. But I always feel like, I don't know, the analogy I use is that I was good at getting customers to want to date iN2L, but then our team behind us made us want to marry us. And that was just the way we treated customers and we still keep that philosophy to this day. You know as you get bigger, it's harder to do all the same stuff we used to do, but it's kind of fun to kind of put that puzzle together.

 

Amber

Are you able to share how many communities are using iN2L?

 

Jack

Oh, sure. Yeah. We're tipping in on 4,000.

 

Amber

Wow. That's pretty impressive.

 

Jack

Yeah, no, it was fun for me personally. I remember this tangibly, when all of a sudden I'd hear customers' names that I wasn't involved in. It's like, wow, that's cool. I don't know who they are. I guess we're bigger now.

 

Amber

Are you able to share what the future holds for iN2L?

 

Jack

Yeah well, we were acquired by a phenomenal, a massive private equity company called The Vista Equity Partners, and that's always a transformation for the company, because you want to hold on to the culture of what's made you who you are, but they provide a gravitas and a resource space that we've never had before. So I think that our direction is really to keep doing what we're doing in the context of engagement, but just keep making it bigger and better. Start to tip toe into the at-home world. Not so much that we would directly market to the consumers, for now anyway, but to partner with entities that are providing technology, partner with the AAA world, agencies on aging, we have projects going along those lines. And also look at other integrations that take our engagement, and then add some of the more practical applications. We don't need to be that company, but you want it to be that the engagement just seamlessly fits into the whole ecosystem of the clinical side of things. And so there's lots of conversations going on along those lines that are exciting to be a part of.

 

Amber

I think the technology world in this industry is really exciting. I think there's so many opportunities and so many new things happening. What do you see as the future of technology in senior living?

 

Jack

From a broad standpoint, I think that engagement, which, as you said, has different definitions, but I think engagement now has a seat at the table of all of the other applications. And so it's ludicrous to have to buy different devices, different products, that do different things. So I think that there's just going to be over the next, you know, this has been said for a long time, but I do think over the next couple of years, there will be some synergies and companies coming together to do some of that. So, I just think a lot more integration along those lines. I mean, what do you think? You're a thousand times smarter than I am. How would you answer that question?

 

Amber

I don't know about a thousand times smarter. I think that there is definitely a big application in the home market. Like you said earlier there's an opportunity to bring more technology and more engagement and connection to people in their homes. We see technology becoming almost like a utility at communities, where it's expected that this technology will be there and be available, and not just be available, but be supported. And I think that one of the things we're seeing is communities just struggle with how to pay for that. You know, what's the ROI on that? But it is becoming something that just, it has to be there both for the families and the residents, and the staff.

 

Jack

Yeah. And the other thing I was going to say is for me personally, I am becoming obsessed with the stories of the residents that aren't told. And I think you knew a little bit about the 60/20 tour that I did a couple of years ago, where I turned 60 and the company turned 20, and I went all over the country in a van. We were doing carpool karaoke, and we had all kinds of cameras in the van. And you know, I'd spent 20 years going into senior living communities and, you know, you'd see the residents and you say hi to the residents, and there's always those guys on the outside that are like in their wheelchairs, usually smoking that are like the outside Walmart greeters from the senior limited standpoint. But really the reason I was going into a community was to sell iN2L to an administrator, and ED, an activity director, or a therapist, whatever it may be. But the 60/20 tour was the first time that I really engaged with the elders, and the stories they had to tell, and people living with dementia when they'd get out of their kind of confined environment and be their person. So I'm still kind of getting it put together. I don't want to talk too much about it until I get it put together. When you, Cheryl and I are together at our next cocktail event, I'll tell you more and more about it, but I'm really putting something together that's going to be going all over the country, it'll still have an iN2L flavor to it, but it's really, my own way. This sounds hokey, but it's real to me that I just feel like this whole industry, this whole profession has given so much to me, and it's because of the residents. And to be able to kind of highlight their stories and help change the perception of, you know what? There's cool people inside the walls of these communities, and it's kind of becoming the next chapter of my life a little bit.

 

Amber

That's really fascinating. I really love that that's your focus, and that is what you're obsessed with.

 

Jack

Especially on the dementia side, it was just fascinating. So, I would take people around for a ride for like 45 minutes, and don't worry anybody, any listeners, there was always staff and people that were with me, but a lot of times the staff would so negatively frame the person. They might do this, or don't ask this, or be careful about this behavior. And, you know, I probably took a hundred people living with dementia on trips, nothing bad ever happened. It was just joyful. And I think that it was so opening for me, the stereotypes that I had after 20 years of doing this. And so I think that I have a platform, a little bit now, to run with, and to try to kind of help change that perception a little bit. I'll look for your help, and also the Bridge the Gap folks that I do want to publicly say that Sara does all the work, that as pretty as Josh and Lucas are, it's really Sara doing all the work.

 

Amber

Sara is fantastic. Well, Jack York from iN2L, thank you so much for joining us today. We appreciate your time and sharing your story with our listeners.

 

Jack

The work you're doing is fascinating. I think there's things that we could talk offline about company-wise, but I love meeting people, doing creative things for the right reasons. And that's you Amber, that’s cool stuff.

 

Amber

Thank you for joining us today on this month's episode of Raising Tech, and special thanks to Jack York. Tune in next month for new episodes on Raising Tech, a podcast about all things technology in senior living. Thank you for listening.

Rachel

Hello, welcome back to Raising Tech. I’m Rachel Lugge with Parasol Alliance and today’s episode covers part two of All Things Resident Technology. We’re breaking this topic into two episodes because there’s simply so much to cover regarding resident technology programming. The options are truly limitless when it comes to how a community designs a resident technology program that will fit their unique needs for their residents, as well as their organizational philosophy. In last month’s episode, we talked with Laura Edwards from Clark-Lindsey in Urbana, Illinois, and we learned how Clark-Lindsey infuses technology into their campus culture. We covered everything from strategic partnerships with a local university to one-on-one hands-on tech support for residents, and how Clark-Lindsey was integrating technology into their future care and lifestyle models for their campus expansion. It was really a rich discussion. So if you missed it, please be sure to go back and check out episode four. So today we are excited to be joined by our guest, Haider Mahmood, Senior Director of Vincent Hall Retirement Community, in McLean, Virginia. Haider, I look forward to learning more about your community’s approach to hands on, on campus resident technology support. Before we dive into the discussion Haider, can you tell us just a little bit about yourself and Vincent Hall, what listeners might need to know about you and your community?

Haider

Thank you for having me on here today to discuss a very important topic. And a little bit about myself, I’ve been in the senior living world for almost 20 years. That has been my very first job, and I never left the aging industry. A little bit about the community in McLean, Virginia. Vincent Hall retirement community has been here for over 50 years, but it is a continuum or a life plan community with roughly about 400 residents. The beauty of our community as a military community, you have to be at least GS 14 or higher level to be able to qualify to live in this community. I’ve been here for roughly about three years now. It is a beautiful 22 acre community, and I encourage everyone to look it up and the rich history that it has.

Rachel

Excellent. Thank you. Well, yes, we love your community and we love your military residents. And I wonder that demographic that you serve, your military population, what type of programming do you have in place for, for your residents? And this can be general, your general programming and then how does technology factor into that programming?

Haider

Sure. I mean, we have a vast array of life enrichment programs, whether it is the shows that they attend down to opera shows, or if it is a wine pairing meal happening in another part of the state, as well as on campus programs like our IT committee working with other different residents to incorporate a different technology and the impact that it has on the day-to-day residents lives here. And we have a full fledged fitness program that we’re working to also include additional technology to manage some of the additional data points for more or tech savvy residents as well. This community has almost, if not, more programming, just like any other life plan community might have from a life enrichment program to a chaplain program, to a full-pledged dining program that the residents are engaged in on a day to day basis, whether it’s learning how to cook or taking part in the culinary program within our different dining venues.

Rachel

Wow. That’s fantastic. How has technology, how has your technology programs, so you kind of mentioned there’s the technology committee you have, I know your residents are highly engaged and have a higher need for technology amenities, and then, kind of have expectations or how your community can support them in using that technology. So can you tell us just a little bit about how your technology programming has evolved? Maybe where it is right now, but also how, how has that evolved over the last couple years?

Haider

Sure. So we do have a residence called a technology IT committee, and they’re very engaged. I think the last 18 months to two years has triggered further engagement in that area as with the pandemic and lockdown and lack of ability to move around or go into or see family members. I think that helped a lot of our residents to trigger, to learn the additional aspect of technology, where we have created classes on how to utilize, whether it is an iPhone, or a tablet, or any technology that they may have. And not only that we helped support purchasing technology for them along with their family members as well. And tech at home has been a huge component in advancing that growth on campus for our residents, where their family members weren’t able to come and teach them how to utilize, whether it was Skype or Zoom,

Haider

it was our onsite IT that was able to provide that support and say, “here’s how you create a username for yourself.” Here’s had to do a couple of these different things. We didn’t have that much of a need for residents here didn’t want to have that level of technology usage before the pandemic as well. Where now technology has driven a lot more on campus to help combat a lot of their day to day, whether it is loneliness or depression for certain residents, and it has an impact in a positive way where they can FaceTime their family, they can instantaneously FaceTime other residents on the campus. So from where the program was say, couple of years ago where those infrastructures and things were not to the level where they needed to be to now, we’re able to support and conduct classes based on the need of our residents, as they determine and send those information out to tech at home or ourselves that we like to learn a little bit more on how does our wifi work? Or how to work an iPhone when these different things happen to them more. How to fix these things? They are leaps and bounds from where they were several years ago.

Rachel

I think there’s probably listeners that are on the same journey and feeling and experiencing the exact same scenario that you mentioned where technology is now, it’s a must have for our residents and as a result of the pandemic. So what I think is unique about Vincent Hall and your approach is you have this, you have, your residents are pretty heavily involved in the technology planning and programming and help identify what supports need to be put in place. Can you tell us a little bit more about that resident, the IT Tech Committee and how maybe that sparked the evolution with the on campus tech support program?

Haider

Sure. Yeah, our residence IT committee, well, first off it’s extremely important to have the buy-in of your residents, the stakeholders for any program to be successful. You have to have their buy-ins as they are the end users. It’s important for them to understand what that technology is going to look like and the impact it will have on their day-to-day life. With that in mind, it was important to have them as the main stakeholders initiate and be part of the process and understand their needs and wants in terms of overall quality of life on our campus and beyond. And so that was one of the main highlights for engaging our residents and them wanting to be a part of it. Again, they took time out of their day-to-day routine to, A. learn the technology, a different technology aspect of it, and then form a committee to say, “we like to be part of one of the IT committees, and we will just be an additional wing of Tech at Home so that if there are certain things that we can help other residents and educate, we want to be able to do that.”

Haider

So while Tech at Home can also concentrate and work on expanding the program and educating and training on the other things. It’s a rewarding feeling for all of them to be able to help their colleagues and their neighbors with the advancement of technology.

Rachel

Yeah, absolutely. And you mentioned Tech at Home and just for listeners who might not be aware, Tech at Home is actually the technology on campus resident support program offered by Parasol Alliance. However you could create or develop an on-campus resident technology support program without using tech at home, but to have this dedicated resource onsite. Now that involves something else I think that’s interesting about your evolution in your technology programming, is this a tech at home person. So this technician that was coming to your community was early on a part time person who was maybe coming to campus one or two days a week to meet with residents one-on-one to help troubleshoot with technology problems and teach an occasional class that has now grown because of the outcomes of your IT committee and identifying that there’s a bigger need. And there’s more opportunity for advancing technology on your campus.

Haider

No, absolutely. I think it was extremely important for the success of the program and advancing our technology and need and want of our residents on-campus. It’s so important having that person on campus because it improves efficiency. It builds that person-centered relationship with that resident when they see that individual on a consistent basis, yes, and that trust level with them. So it was extremely important for us to be able to have that dedicated and consistent full-time person rather than for those residents. I think as we continue to get residents involved in technology and be part of the technology, you have to have additional support, hands on support for them to be able to feel comfortable, to be part of that technology move. I think without it, it wouldn’t be where it is right now. Our residents or residents in general will just not want to engage in it just for the fear of it’s too hard or too difficult to learn because somebody’s on a remote and is trying to teach it, rather than a one-on-one with a resident and where they’re able to ask questions in the comfort of their own home as well, and feel that high level of comfort and security, and that has helped a lot in in our community.

Haider

I mean, I can tell you, I have seen more residents with their iPhones and tablets within the last two years on our campus than I have probably ever done before. And it’s amazing. I mean, you have a hundred year olds walking around with their iPhones, and they’re taking pictures and using technology to enhance their quality of life on a day-to-day basis. Whether they’re taking pictures from outside and utilizing that picture in the art studio to create, make that into a real life art. That wasn’t part of their day-to-day living before the introduction of that technology. So it was huge.

Rachel

That’s great. And what a Testament to be able to witness that, and just say like, there’s a clear difference between prior to having the technology available and the support, because that’s as you identified key, key to the success of having these technology amenities on your campus is the proper support. I love that. And I think it’s also influenced some of the new programming that you’re bringing to the campus and the willingness and openness of your residents to receive that new technology. So I think more recently you launched a resident engagement platform. Can you share a little bit about how your, the receptiveness of your residents, how they were involved in that as well as your tech at home technician on campus support?

Haider

Sure. We engaged again, the residence IT committee as part of that as well, along with Tech at Home to make sure the foundation was strong as to what is it, the expectation of this portal? What is it? What are the gaps? What are we missing? What is it that residents would like to see on that portal so that it has the highest level of impact and the functionality of the portal is at the highest level. And so they have taken it among themselves, the IT committee to ask and create a survey for other residents to say, to check, “what is it that you would like to have on there?” And after they have done their survey and brought back that data and saying, “here’s some of the things that we’re looking for within the portal,” and then going through the process to selecting the right partner that’s going to be able to provide all of those different different things that our residents are looking on that portal.

Haider

And then, of course, Tech at Home, engaging them to make sure that they’re with us every step of the way. So then they can support us and teach us as to how, from a technology standpoint, how the portal will work and the managing of that portal. And continuing education on the portal. So from day one, they were all involved, including the residence IT committee, and as we went through the project and implementation, our resident IT team was there to see how to do different steps within the portal. So that they wanted to continue to stay engaged and help their peers, those that may not have been here at the time on how to sign up on those portals. What are different information sets that can be viewed? And then our Tech at Home training residents on what is the portal, it’s a new concept in the community.

Haider

And so what is a portal? What can be done on the portal? What’s the level of security on the portal? This is a military community with residents that have done very high level classified jobs. So safety and security was the highest sort of a pinpoint for them to make sure before signing up for it, how secure is it? So having them buy into it and having our Tech at Home educating them on that aspect of it. But that was huge for residents to be able to start signing up and start seeing the level of documentation or things that they wanted to see there. I tell you, I was so excited as soon as we had a launch and we started the whole campaign and we were having residents sign up. Within, I think it was a day or two.

Haider

I’m seeing residents posting their pictures, family pictures, and this and that under their account. And that was amazing. I didn’t expect such a quick turnaround and its success and utilization of that portal as I did to some of these residents. Where now I think it has created so much efficiency because I can post a document in there and they will have access to it instantaneously. And then they can always reference back to. Where previously, it’s a hard copy, that’s going door to door. So the level of efficiency is huge through the portal as well. And again, it is an ongoing development off that portal because every day there’s something different than they like to see on there that would help and benefit the whole community. And so we’re continuing to make sure that we can book that program in advance with the support of tech at home. And then we continue to do classes. We do class as one-on-one education with new residents here. Here’s a portal. Here’s how we can help you sign up. And they all have, it’s their choice if they want to sign up or not. But I can tell you, we had about over 130, I believe it was last week I checked, 130 independent living residents that have signed up on the portal out of 280 some residents. That was a pretty good number to have it on there. I’m happy with it.

Rachel

Yeah. Especially for a relatively new initiative and it took off well. So thank you for describing what elements added to the success of that launch. I think that’s great. And then having that resource, that on-campus tech support for your residents is going to help in launching what comes next after this. There’s already trust and buy-in and a feeling that there is support in place. If there’s something new that is incorporated, their willingness to move forward and try and know that they can, they have the support to learn and grow is going to help as you continue to advance technology on your campus.

Haider

No, absolutely. I think trust, that’s a huge, huge component of it. Trust and credibility for any of those programs and the individuals. Had it just been a remote service, as a contractor where that’s implementing the portal aspect, or the software aspect of it. But our residents want to be able to know that they can go to someone here on campus, that after the implementation, that team is not going to go away. And so that trust level, they want to have that and they want to see that. That’s what makes it also such an important program and initiative. And the success of the initiative I think was driven a lot more so from that end where they’re able to see that the person is there, best support services there. If we ever need any help on it, those individuals are going to be there to help us.

Rachel

Excellent. And also, you talked about efficiency. I think there’s also, if there wasn’t a dedicated resource or team person in place, who would that fall to? It would be like enrichment?  Your activity directors, maybe receptionists, maybe the server in the dining room, helping with an iPhone question or something. So a question that listeners might have as they’re kind of hearing you describe your program is the return on investment. So you talked about impact and efficiency. That’s excellent. And I think it’s very easy to understand that this is worth the long term investment. Can you talk a little bit about how your team kind of justified making the investment in having an onsite resource and really how you’re going about paying for that program?

Haider

Sure, I look at the ROI, the return on investment both the tangible and the not so tangible. So implementing this and starting to work on reducing the number of flyers and number of other documents that gets printed and sent out to the residents. So, on average, what that looks like from a cost perspective, from a labor perspective, the individuals that are delivering those flyers door to door throughout our two two buildings, just alone that one area will give us our ROI on it. But then again, you look at the impact the social cycle impacts on residents’ quality of life, and the reduction in depression and loneliness. The introduction of this technology so that they’re able to be closer to their friends and family. Whether it’s through Zoom, and whether they’re playing different games with their friends on those and helping them learn that aspect of it.

Haider

Continuing to measure that aspect, of course we’ll take longer, but there’s been absolutely studies done on that, where how technology has helped reduce loneliness and depression and therefore reduce the cost of overall healthcare. And so it’s connected in all of those aspects. But the immediate impact for our community will be, there’s a lot less printing. There’s a lot more efficiency involved in communicating our message to the broader population. There is that sense of happiness that I see in a hundred year old taking pictures, and then incorporating that into their art studio. Whether they’re painting it or whether they’re creating, working with a photography class to make it and display it on our semi-annual art show. So that is priceless. I mean, that alone covers my ROI there many times over. And so that’s how I would quantify that investment and continue to invest within a technology, whether it’s within our dining program or other program to create efficiencies. Enhance the program, enhance the quality of life for our residents. I see it going very, very far.

Rachel

I love the story of the hundred year old, taking a picture with her iPhone and then turning that into a digital print or painting. I mean, that gave me chills because you’re right. That’s exactly what this is all about, right? This is what we’re trying to achieve, improving quality of life and opening doors and enhancing lifestyles. And I think I imagined this is also a great opportunity from a marketing perspective to showcase this as you’re part of your competitive advantage.

Haider

Yeah, no, absolutely. And again as more and more baby boomers retire and move, getting closer and some already moving into a life plan communities like ours, this is a huge competitive edge to be able to say, “here is where we stand from a technology standpoint. Here’s our resident portal. Here’s what you’re able to do and have access to on our campus.” I’m looking to see how we can further advance that to those on the waitlist. Here’s what you have to look forward to and potentially triggering some of those wait lists, individuals say, “well maybe I am ready to move in now, or they have all these other things going on. I think I may be ready.” So, I continue to look to see how do we use technology to innovate, but also what additional competitive edge will they provide us and how do we display that to the broader community, to the waitlist individuals, to the family members? And so we continue to do it in that manner as well. So I’m looking to see how to advance it and potentially add on the waitlist member and create an additional portal for them so that as that group works to move in, they will also already have a certain level of connectivity amongst themselves as well. And to the community that they will live in, to their new home.

Rachel

What advice would you give a listener who is exploring creative solutions for their resident technology programming?

Haider

I would say definitely get the buy-in of the residents. You’re not going to get every one of them. So create that IT committee. Create those immediate stakeholders that are going to be your voice in the community amongst their peers to help make that program a successful program. But then also don’t think of immediate need, think of the long term next three to five years what that looks like. So that you’re investing. But that in mind, so your infrastructure is solid and is set for the future as well. So as you advance it, implement and upgrade, you won’t need to really change the infrastructure. And so there’s less costs associated and a higher level of efficiency as well. Always think what’s the impact in the next three to five years as well and build it from there?

Rachel

Well, I completely agree with Parasol Alliance, we specialize in technology strategic planning, and so amen to that. We are always talking about making sure you have the right infrastructure and foundation in place. I think especially over this last year, there’s just been this boom in technology amenities available and technology solutions that look so appealing and so attractive, but do you have the right foundation in place to support that solution? Do you have the right infrastructure? Do you have the right resources. As we talked about, as far as human resources that are going to be available to support that technology. But that’s great advice. One final question as we wrap up the conversation. Haider, what excites you most about the future of senior living as it relates to technology?

Haider

I’m excited to see how we can continue to have that personalized approach to technology so that human factor doesn’t go away. I’m excited about seeing how can we continue to advance the technology or different things that are in place without having to go a hundred percent digital for those residents? Cause I think we’re, I know we’re in the business of people, and so we need to make sure we continue to emphasize that. But I’m excited to see how technology can be further incorporated in dining, in life enrichment. In different aspects of day to day resident living. I know tele-health is huge, and there’s a lot of advancements that are happening and have happened there, robotic, AI, and the impact that it will have on residents day to day life. I’m extremely excited about seeing all of those. Some I’ve seen already implemented, whether a delivery robot and some of these other things. I’m looking forward to seeing what is a future life plan community with hundred percent or at least pretty close to advanced technology implemented already in those communities looks like.

Rachel

How exciting, right? The future. The future is so exciting. There’s so much opportunity. Especially for senior living. I too am excited to see what comes. Thank you Haider for joining me today. This was such a great conversation. Thank you for sharing your insights, your journeys, in regards to technology. I know it’s going to be a huge value to our listeners. So I think that’s a wrap for us today. Thank you everybody for listening to another episode of Raising Tech. Be sure to tune in next month when we meet with Jack York of iN2L, as he shares his passion for engagement in Bridging the Gap between technology and older adults. You’re not to want to miss it. Okay. Thanks everybody. See you next time.

Rachel:

Hello, and welcome back to Raising Tech. I’m Rachel Lugge with Parasol Alliance, and today we are diving into all things resident technology, one of the hottest tech topics in senior living today. Resident technology programming is so popular, in fact, that we are dedicating two episodes to this topic. And because there are so many aspects to explore, we’ve grouped the discussion into three key areas. So, the first is using technology in your community to support and care for your residents, like medical records systems and tele-health. The second would be residents using technology in your community, such as smart home devices and resident engagement platforms. And then finally, what kind of support is needed for the residents themselves as they use the technology that’s available to them? So this could be like a resident help desk. So before we dive in, let’s introduce who’s at the table for today’s discussion. We have our host Amber Bardon, CEO of Parasol Alliance, and our guest Laura Edwards, Vice President of Strategy and Innovation at Clark Lindsey in Urbana, Illinois. So Laura, we are thrilled to have you with us today, especially because Clark Lindsey has always been known in the field as a front runner and a pioneer in the areas of technology and innovation. So why don’t we start with you? Can you tell us just a little bit about Clark Lindsey? What do our listeners need to know about you and your community?

Laura  2:01:

Sure. Thanks so much for having me. Clark Lindsey was founded in 1977. We’re right next door to the University of Illinois. We’re a single site, nonprofit life plan community. We have about 300 residents and around the same number of employees. I’ve been here for 10 years and in a variety of different roles, have seen our community evolve in the way that we use technology and the way our residents use technology. So this is a topic that is near and dear to my heart, and I love to see the ways that our residents can use technology to improve their lives.

Rachel:

Excellent. Amber for anybody who might be tuning in today for the first time. Can you tell us just a little bit about yourself and Parasol Alliance?

Amber:

Sure Rachel, I’m Amber Bardon. I am the CEO of Parasol Alliance. Parasol Alliance is a technology solutions company. We focus exclusively in the senior living industry and we provide strategic technology solutions as well as day-to-day IT support.

Rachel:

All right. Thank you. Well, thank you both. I am so excited about today’s conversation. So to get started, why don’t we start with the big picture? Let’s start with innovation. Why is resident technology, why is innovation in resident technology and senior living so important today in this very moment, perhaps versus even a couple years ago?

Amber:

Rachel, this is definitely a big area of demand and we’re seeing this at all of our client locations. We have an open project, or a project on the roadmap focused on resident technology for pretty much all of the communities that we work with. Most of the projects are focused around resident engagement applications and in the communities that are working on campus expansion projects, including Clark Lindsey. We’re looking at things like smart home applications, or we’ll get into this a little bit more with the conversation with Laura, even things like robotics and other ways that we can be innovative with solutions for residents when it comes to technology. We’re also seeing much more of a demand for our Tech at Home program, which is a technology support service offered directly to the residents. And that actually, we saw much more of a demand for that with COVID.

Amber:

One of the things that we’ve heard Ziegler’s say is that COVID had technology as a silver lining, and we definitely see the adoption and acceleration of technology use not only in the senior living community staff, but definitely on the resident side. And just, I think the overcoming of some of the fear of technology use and more of an appetite for technology in the senior population. And that led to just really more use and adoption of technology overall.

Rachel:

So, Laura, can you tell us a little bit about what’s been going on specifically at Clark Lindsey around this aspect of technology with the seniors?

Laura 5:12:

The way we see it, residents are at the center of our, ‘why’ we do what we do. We acknowledge that as a community, we can only be as technologically advanced as our residents are willing to be. If we support residents in the technologies that they want to use to live their best lives, they will be more willing and more efficient users of the technologies that we as an organization wish to adopt, especially to optimize our operations. And this is exactly why we never skip over that resident technology piece in our strategic planning process.

Rachel:

I love that you start with the ‘why,’ and the residents are at the center of your ‘why,’ as far as the philosophy and the kind of the approach that you’re taking with your technology planning for residents. We know the ‘why’, and what’s driving your philosophy towards technology in your community. You’ve adapted some really unique and multifaceted resident technology programming. Can you describe some of that programming, what you’re currently doing at Clark Lindsey and how the programming has impacted your residents in their day-to-day?

Laura:

Sure. We’re pretty lucky to be neighbors with the university, which influences the perspectives of our residents. When they come to live at Clark Lindsey, they’re coming in with preset beliefs around technology. And by that, I mean our residents are willing, are more willing to try new things, learn about new technologies and support the research around developing new technology in general. Which in turn influences the philosophy that we can use to design our programming. For example, one piece that we’ve implemented a couple of years ago now is our Innovation Suite. We use one of our guest suites on our campus and in it we’ve installed a number of lifestyle and home automation technologies to create a welcoming and really non-intimidating space for residents to play with new technologies, to experience them in a home-like environment, to see how those technologies might improve their lives.

So this space pre-COVID is still a functioning guest suite. So families can experience the technologies and see how some of those technologies might benefit their loved one or even themselves. We also have a satellite university research lab called Collaborations in Health Aging Research Technology, or CHART. It’s a one bedroom apartment that we rent to the university, and residents and community members can come in and participate in research around technology and aging right here on our campus. Because driving to campus and finding parking on campus is overwhelming for me, let alone anyone who might be challenged with driving and vision and things like that. We host a Masters in Health Technology, Capstone Project this fall that we’ll be working on fall prevention technologies and passive sensors in our skilled care setting. So overall technology is so invasive in our community from digital signage, and right when you walk in the door you sign in with an automated kiosk, and we have our portal kiosk stations throughout. It’s really hard to ignore how prevalent technology is at our campus.

Rachel:

Yeah. I mean that’s incredible. I think listeners are going to be very interested in hearing how you got to that point. It’s so multifaceted, so ingrained in your community, and so visible throughout. You also have, and maybe you can speak a little bit to this Laura, you also have a resident support program in place, to help the residents basically thrive using the technology that’s available to them. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Laura 9:27:

So about 15 years ago before my time, we started a weekly tech help program with student volunteers on Friday afternoons from three to 4:00 PM. It would only happen during the school year, and it excluded any holiday breaks. So the month that they take off in the winter. and the weeks of spring break. and summer was off. And that really fit the needs of the residents at the time. Anything over and beyond that they would call a local company in if it was something really drastic. But a lot of the things were issues that our receptionists could fix or our Activities Director could help with. And about eight years ago, we noticed needs started advancing. And we played around with having our managed service provider at the time provide resident tech help. And after trying that, they told us, ‘no thank you.’

That’s when we learned that it takes a special person to have the empathy and patience to be doing resident tech help. So around five years ago, we explored hiring our own resident tech help assistant. We shared an employee with the local park district to do this, and we learned a lot through that process. This person got quickly involved in other projects, committees, and other initiatives that were loosely related to technology, but sometimes it was a little bit of a stretch. So what this meant for residents was less availability for that one-on-one tech help that was truly needed. So today we use Parasol’s Tech at Home, which has allowed us that structure we needed to provide the services residents need in a way that made the most sense for us as an organization.

Right. We heard loud and clear from our residents that the way that we were doing things wasn’t working. That they needed a dedicated person with specific hours, days, and times that they would know that they could rely on somebody to respond to a request. So when our previous tech help assistant was getting pulled in all sorts of different directions to manage other types of initiatives, that support wasn’t there. And we heard about it. So that made it evident. We really needed that person who was devoted solely to that one-on-one tech help with the residents.

Rachel 12:09:

So Laura, I’m sure that our listeners probably have two questions that they’re thinking of as you’re describing this dedicated tech support. One question is, how do you pay for this? So what is the return on investment? Are you charging residents for this? If you’re willing to share any information on that? I’m sure that’s a big question listeners have. And then secondly, how are you, or are you incorporating this into any of your marketing materials? Are you using this to be competitive or to differentiate yourself from your competitors?

Laura:

Definitely. So to start with, how do we pay for this? Yes, we do charge residents for the one-on-one support services, and we aim for a majority of the Tech at Home Program to be paid for by resident hourly tech support fees. That’s our goal. But we do budget appropriately for additional hours because we have our Tech at Home technician doing things like leading classes, which ultimately benefit our operations of how we use the technologies that we’ve implemented such as our portal, our engagement portal. So using the portal impacts our operations. And if our residents are using the portal efficiently, then that benefits us as an organization overall. So we do budget for additional hours that can be spent on those group classes and a little bit of portal management, portal education and things like that. We also think that it’s really worth it because we’re investing in our future. To your question on the marketing piece of things, we know that the residents of the future expect these sorts of things. So we know by investing in these, we’re investing in ourselves and the potential for a prospect to choose us over a competitor because we are with it in terms of technology.

Rachel:

Well, I love that. And I think that I can see how that would clearly differentiate your community and be a huge support for residents as they’re considering their options. Now, we know the menu of options for older adults is much greater. So I’m curious about, I’m thinking about the process and kind of our listeners, I think are probably going to want to, they’re probably thinking ‘this is very attractive,’ like to have this culture of innovation, like I’d love to have something like that in our community. But the steps in getting to that point may vary based on where the community is currently at. You know, some communities might be a little further or behind in the process. Can you describe some of the steps that you took to maybe initially just get buy-in in this direction before, as you developed this kind of strategy and supporting programming?

So the first and most important piece I believe is the top leadership buy-in. So there needs to be a hundred percent buy-in enthusiastic support from the top leadership and the supporters of the strategic plan and the technologies, or technology services that the organization is wanting to implement. Then beyond that, finding the right partner and or vendor, who’s going to be implementing these technologies with you. We’ve had our fair share of both good and bad experiences with vendors, whether or not they really get it and can fulfill what they say that they will and meet our expectations as an organization with fairly high standards for how we believe a technology should work. And then beyond that, getting the residents involved early. So we have residents involved in even the selection process of technology. So when we are looking at resident engagement portals, we had a resident on that selection.

Laura 16:37:

We actually had two residents on that selection committee with us, and we were strategic about the two residents that we picked. We picked one who was our most tech advanced resident we could think of that was asking for this sort of technology, who was wanting to put in their work orders themselves and order dinner delivery to their room without having to make a phone call, and be able to look up a directory of residents. All those things that the portal would do. And then we selected a resident who describes herself as a ‘technology neanderthal.’ And we had them both sitting at the table with us as we were looking at different options for an engagement portal. And then those residents, even our Neanderthal became one of our coaches and helped to roll out the portal to other residents. And when other residents knew that this resident who usually is anti-technology is standing behind this, that was huge. So I think in some ways it’s a natural instinct to, ‘oh, let’s pick our most tech proficient residents to be a part of this,’ but to really intentionally pick at least one resident who is anti-technology to sit on those teams with you.

Amber:

Changing topics a little bit, Laura, I wanted to touch on another project we’re currently working on, which is your campus expansion project. Given Clark Lindsey has such an innovative culture of technology. We’ve been having conversations about, ‘what does this look like’ for your new buildings that you’re working on right now? And I know you and I have had multiple conversations about some of the frustrations we’ve experienced, you know, specifically looking at how can some of these low voltage systems for the residents specifically when it comes to life safety systems, be more of a concierge feel? I know specifically we’ve had this conversation about traditional nurse call systems. So why do they look like they were made in 1980? Why can’t pendants look like Apple watches? Why do the devices that go on the wall look like they’re from 1970?

These big plastic, not attractive devices. And we worked together trying to talk to vendors, trying to find and find innovative solutions. And it’s very frustrating that there hasn’t been a lot of change in this area. I want to hear from your perspective, what are your thoughts on, what do you think that the future is and how can the industry innovate a little bit more on this and what are the needs? What are you hearing from your leadership team at Clark Lindsey and from the residents? What is really the future of resident technology, both from supporting the residents, innovating and kind of what you envision or what the leadership team at Clark Lindsey has envisioned for the future?

Laura 19:50:

You’re right, Amber. It is incredibly frustrating to meet with vendors and look at their products and what they’re offering. I would never want to wear any of these devices that they’re trying to sell us. These wearable pendants that are truly straight from the seventies. They’re horrible. And when we ask, because we’re fairly vocal, when we talk to these vendors and say, ‘why is your equipment so ugly? And they are clueless. They don’t even know that their equipment is horrible looking. And it all comes back to dignity for our residents. If I wouldn’t want  to wear this around my friends and family, why would we expect our residents to? So the more that we speak up as an industry on these things, that these are not meeting expectations. So the next time any of your listeners are meeting with a vendor, be really honest about this is not meeting expectations.

The more that they hear that the more it might actually sink in that they need to change what they’re doing. And especially a lot of the big players in emergency response, I’m really disappointed in what’s out there. And you would think as the biggest players, that they would be embracing some innovation and some modern design for their devices they’re offering. So off of that tangent, our vision for our new expansion is complicated because we are balancing out the cost of what our dream is, to the reality of what makes sense financially for this massive project. So yes, in the perfect world, we want every apartment to be completely covered in home automation technologies, and concierge innovations for emergency call. And we struggle with the market not being able to offer solutions to us that makes sense. So when we talk to a nurse call vendor that checks the boxes in this column, they completely miss what we want in our innovation and automation column.

So to find that ‘do it all’ vendor is tough. And when you have to piece together multiple vendors to try to make a solution work, you’re making it so much more complicated for the person who has to manage those technologies and for the resident. Especially if they are technologies that the resident has to be engaged with to actually have that technology work, it gets complicated really fast. And I can honestly say it’s fairly frustrating at the moment. And I will be curious to see how things shake out for us when these buildings are complete. I’m hoping, fingers crossed, that maybe a vendor will come through that says, ‘we do it all,’ but we have really high expectations for our vendors that we work with. And I think that’s our biggest challenge right now.

Rachel 23:29:

Wow. Yeah. That’s really interesting. And thank you for sharing that perspective. I think that’s so real. I would imagine there’s probably a lot of nodding heads from listeners as they’re kind of hearing your experience. Amber, I’m curious from your perspective in the work that you’ve done, that we’ve done, the conversations we’ve had with clients and communities. What are you seeing as far as gaps in resident technology planning?

Amber:

I think that often communities can go about it somewhat piecemeal. So they may come across a product that may be very intriguing or interesting to them and decide to implement that product without perhaps considering the implications of that, or ensuring that they have the right stakeholder buy-in, the right project champions, or the right infrastructure in place to support that product. You know, one of the things we hear over and over again is that they didn’t have probably two major things that may have led to lack of success would be project champions. So maybe they were able to get a project implemented, but then they didn’t identify the right support and ongoing maintenance of the data in that system, or making sure that they had the right support team to make sure that the residents had, the ongoing training and knowledge to continue using that product where the data was continuously put into the product to make sure that it was usable.

And then again, infrastructure. So we’ve talked a lot about wifi on other episodes. If a product is heavily reliant on wifi and there isn’t wifi throughout the building, then there can be frustration. That this, maybe this app doesn’t work, or smart home feature doesn’t work. And really it’s because there’s inadequate wifi to support it. And then that can lead to a lot of frustration and then possibly abandonment of that product. So I would say as much as possible, we always talk about strategic planning here, but having really that comprehensive plan of knowing what are the pieces that need to happen, understanding the comprehensive approach and plan, making sure the right stakeholders and people are involved, and then understanding the full implications in the project life cycle, including post implementation support and ongoing training.

Laura 25:52:

All right. Great. Well, let’s close it out with a final question. So, because we have listeners of various backgrounds, size of organizations. If you could give a piece of advice to an operator who is beginning this journey, or maybe they’re at some point in the journey, but maybe haven’t achieved their full vision. What advice would you give a listener who’s exploring a creative solution to meet their resident technology needs?

Laura:

I think the biggest piece of advice that I would give to another operator is that you cannot underestimate the importance and the value of one-on-one dedicated resident tech support. We’ve tried lots of different options and we have not found a better way to ensure success of the adoption of technologies on our campus than through that one-on-one dedicated resident tech support.

Great. Thank you. Thank you so much, Laura. What about Amber? Anything else kind of in closing that you would give as far as advice for listeners?

Amber:

Again, I would just circle back to just understanding the role of technology in your community. Who are the right players and the right stakeholders? And understanding where do all of the different components of technology, whether we’re talking about infrastructure, resident engagement, apps, smart homes, making sure that you have the right support pieces and resources needed in place to make sure that you can be successful.

Rachel:

All right. So Laura, what excites you most about the future of senior living as it relates to resident technology?

Laura 27:48:

I’d have to say automation. The staffing crisis we’re in right now is terrifying. And one thing that gives me hope is around automation technologies. So how we can have the people do the people things, the necessary human tasks, and replace the non-necessary with automation. So whether that’s something like vacuuming, and cleaning the floors, and how we can use more automation in how we’ve gone from having a person sitting at a desk for our COVID screening to automation. Where when we struggle with staffing, we need a person to be providing care. We don’t need a person sitting at a desk checking people’s temperatures. So that is the piece that gives me hope as every day, we are challenged with these staffing issues, and we know that we’re not alone. We know that nearly every industry is struggling with this. And in order for automation to be successful, resident proficiency with technology and their comfort and openness to using technology is essential for the success of those sorts of technologies. So overall I’d say automation, it gives me the most hope for the future of senior living.

Rachel:

All right. Well, thank you. Thank you both. This was a great conversation. Laura, I imagine there’s going to be listeners who may want to find out more about what all you have going on at Clark Lindsey, and perhaps even reach out and pick your brain. How can people find out more about Clark Lindsey?

Rachel:

You can give us a call, go to our website. You can email me if you call us our number is (217) 344-2144. And you can ask for Laura Edwards. My email is LEdwards@clark-lindsey.com. And our website is Clark-Lindsey.com.

Rachel 30:03:

All right, thank you so much. And we can always link that information in the show notes too, information so people can easily find you and your community. So I think that’s a wrap for today. Thank you everybody for listening to another episode of Raising Tech. And thank you, Laura Edwards, our guest. We were so enjoyed having you and having this conversation. Amber, thank you again, and be sure to tune in next month for part two of all things resident technology, where we’ll be talking with another community to learn more about their unique approach to resident technology planning. All right, we look forward to catching up with everyone next month.

Amber: Welcome back to the Raising Tech Podcast. This is Amber Bardon, your host. On today’s episode, we’re going to be discussing one of my personal favorite topics: the technology roadmap. For us at Parasol Alliance, we believe that the technology roadmap is the foundation to a successful technology vision at every senior living community. You have to know where you are to be able to know where you want to go. So today we’re going to unpack what a technology assessment is, what are some key outcomes, and we’re going to learn how your community can get there. We’re going to be talking with Karen Layman, a client of ours who recently completed a technology roadmap, so we can get her fresh perspective on that process.

Karen Layman is the President and CEO of Mennonite Health Services, which is a member association that also includes the MHS consulting division. So Karen, can you please just give us a brief introduction of who you are and what our listeners need to know about Mennonite Health Services?

Karen: Thank you, Amber. Thanks for inviting me to be part of this podcast today. So MHS, Mennonite Health Services, we have about 78 members all across the United States. And we also have a hospital system as a member in Puerto Rico. All our health and human services organizations serving primarily senior living. But we also have intellectual disability organizations and a number of mental health organizations as well. So we are fairly large and we also with our consulting practice, serving our members and also serving clients outside of our membership. So that’s MHS. I personally do a bit of member services with our members also do quite a bit of consulting services as well and work with many organizations throughout the country.

Amber: Thank you for that introduction. So Karen, you have so much experience in the field and it was such a pleasure to work with you specifically on this project. So Karen and I met and we worked together specifically in a community in Oregon called Mennonite Services Northwest and more specifically at Mennonite Village, which was the primary senior living community as part of that organization. So to kind of set the stage because Mennonite Village was a pretty typical client of ours in terms of their pain points with technology. Karen, can you tell our listeners what drove you to seek a technology assessment?

Karen: I stepped in, was asked to help the organization really discern their future direction that there had been a leadership change and the organization managed two assisted living entities and also had three affiliate organizations. So it’s a system in Oregon as you described. So when I stepped in trying to figure out what’s the services being provided, how complex is the organization, what’s the satisfaction of those that are being managed? I mean, just an overall assessment. And I learned pretty quickly that there was a real disconnect when it came to technology. So there was the sense at a corporate level, that technology was being served and all was great. But then at those service level, more at the customer service level, I found that there was a huge disconnect. And so there was this disparity between what some, some persons in responsible positions thought was happening. And those that were actually on the receiving end, who said, no, this is not happening. And when I tried to figure out, you know, from my own background, I have limited IT knowledge. I saw there was no way that this was something that I could figure out. And I knew that if I was going to help this organization, we had to give them a roadmap or a plan in terms of their technology.

I mean, several of the organizations are still doing manual payroll. I was shocked at that. And so I knew I needed help. Somebody to help me figure out where to prioritize and how to even analyze the situation.

Amber: This is a really great example of where a technology is more than just the computers that sit on people’s desks. We started out with the interviews with the key people in the organization and with the affiliate affiliate organizations. And it was clear pretty quickly, that there was a lot of process issues going on. Like you said, there was a lot of duplication happening. You know, there was a lot of manual things, things on paper, and this was a huge source of employee dissatisfaction. It was actually really exciting to me that pretty quickly we were able to identify some pretty easy, or maybe not easy, but some easy to identify changes we could make in the technology environment that could address those issues. And I love that that’s the beauty of this technology roadmap that we can really look at this holistically. We can include the multifaceted pieces of technology to really provide this comprehensive solution.

So I just want to take a step back really quick, before we continue on with the Mennonite story, just to talk about the foundation of how do we build this technology assessment and roadmap? So it’s kind of two parts. So one really key part of building a successful technology strategy is these interviews that I just mentioned a few minutes ago. So I think that that’s really important. And I think that maybe that’s one of the benefits of having a third party come in and do these assessments is because possibly you might get some more openness with staff to have somebody come in and conduct these interviews. And we typically do these interviews over a period of about three days onsite. And it’s up to the community who you include in this interview process. But we recommend really meeting with key people across the organization. So really anybody who’s using technology from a residential services, assisted living, independent living, skilled nursing, dietary, social work, all the clinical areas, of course the administrative areas, executive leadership, and the kind of questions you want to ask them: what are you doing manually? You know, what are the things that cause you frustration and your pain points? And staff, they have ideas. They have things that they want to share with you. They think about this a lot. They think about what could I do that would make my job easier. Maybe there’s something that they were told to do a while ago that nobody ever told them to stop doing so they keep doing it. So it’s a really great place to generate ideas and identify places for process optimization.

And it can be really effective when you can take that feedback and then actually implement that and show action items and what you can actually accomplish with technology. So that’s one part to the technology roadmap.

The other part would be what you would think of as IT side of things. So that would be conducting a full it system review. Now again, when I talk about it, I’m not just talking about the computer piece, I’m talking about the servers, the network, security. I’m also talking about things like your low voltage system, your door access system, security cameras, your phone system. And I’m also talking about things like your business systems like we were just speaking of. So the, the enterprise systems you use to run your business, your HR systems, your scheduling systems, your dining systems.

I like to envision this like a pyramid. So the foundation you’ve got your core, it systems, computers, switches, IT operations, servers, things like that. We want to make sure that that base is up to date. It’s being replaced on an ongoing basis. It’s appropriate for the size of the environment. It’s got built in disaster recovery, backups, all of the things you need to do to have a stable network and system that is able to be maintained, recovered, and secure. And then on top of that, we’ve got what we call business systems or applications. So what we’re looking for here: are these systems effective? Are they optimized? Are they the right systems? Are they integrated with each other? And are you even maybe lacking systems? Are you using paper? Like we just spoke of in this situation specifically. So we really want to get those systems as effective as possible because time is money, right?

8:57 – So we don’t want your staff doing things. On paper, we don’t want them double entering data. We want systems integrated as much as possible. And so through those first two parts of the pyramid, we’re really making your organization use technology as effective as possible.

And then the next level on the pyramid would be security. And security is really this lens in which we view the other parts of the pyramid through. There’s always this balance of security versus convenience, and that’s for each community to decide for themselves what that balance is. But we want to be looking at each decision we make, what’s the most secure and also will cause the least amount of convenience to the end users? And this is just becoming so much more important every day. And then above that, we have residents, residents are a key part of this, and we’ve done a couple of resident technology plans independently of the community resident strategic plan. And resident technology is a whole separate topic. We’ll be talking about that more in future episodes. But that’s kind of the way you can think of the technology strategic planning. So Karen, after we went through this process and sort of this pyramid fashion I just described, can you tell me a little bit more about some of the key takeaways you had?

Karen: I have to just say Amber, that there was a lot here. Like, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. And it was the same for many of the staff as well. And I just have to commend you that you did a marvelous job navigating, so there’s some fear that’s involved in this kind of an assessment. There’s a fear from those who maybe have some ownership in the system that they think is set up very well, versus those of us coming in, who go, how do we set this up and, and why didn’t we do this? You know, so there’s a fear that comes. And then there’s also that sense of that there’s, that there’s this opportunity to fix. And so that’s very exciting. So I just have to say you did a really good job of navigating between that, you know, that defensiveness and also that excitement that you received when you were on the campus. But I think what you did is you gave us very clear path to what we needed and it was a path. So we knew getting the report and your feedback. We know exactly, this is what we, where we need to start. This is kind of a stair step. And I think the challenge right now is the investment of time and energy. And you know, how we’re going to make that next step. Because one of the things that we discovered in this process is that we don’t have the right team either. And so we really ongoing if we don’t have the right technicians and leadership, who’s the responsibility for the IT structure, we’re going to continue to make additional. So I think that’s the other piece to it as well.

Amber: And I think you know, speaking to what you mentioned, that those onsite interviews, that’s where you build those relationships, because I think it’s important to circle back because there can be a lot of fear. That’s a common thing that we see when this outside consultant comes in to do this, you know, this plan, there’s always defensiveness, people they’re proud of what they’ve done, and they’re it. And they don’t want to be questioned on that all the time. And I think you know, to have this open approach and we talk about the positive too, we don’t just come in and look for problems. So you know, I think that is really important is to take this approach that, we’re not here to find problems, we’re here to help you build something better for the future and for the community and for the residents. So I think I just wanted to kind of circle back to that.

And just to kind of give our listeners a better kind of picture of this outcome that we’re talking about. So, you know, the actual output of the assessment, it’s a couple of pieces, so there’s an actual assessment, which is about a 30-page document or so, which is really a written out analysis of the current state of technology in the community. So it has an operational assessment, a business systems assessment, a systems assessment and network assessment. And it really just lays it out in layman terms as much as possible, really what is going on in those areas. And then underneath each of those sections that has recommendations, and then those recommendations are taken from that document and then they’re put into what we call the roadmap. And this roadmap is really the living document. You know, you can sit and write strategy all day. And Karen, I assure you know this as your company does a lot of strategic planning, but if you don’t use your, your strategy, there’s no point, you know, you can write a strategy and put it on the shelf, but we really want to execute that strategy, right?

So this roadmap is really that tool. And ideally this roadmap becomes the IT budget and it’s revisited quarterly, ideally, annually and then updated every three years. So really the power of this roadmap is we take all those areas that I mentioned, low-voltage, business systems, optimizations and then of course your IT. And we’re putting it all in one place. So you can see the technology needs across the entire community, even if you might not think of some of those areas, is IT, and we’re able to prioritize, where does the community really need to spend their resources so that you’re not focusing just one area on one piece, but you’re not coordinating it globally. So Karen, tell me, you know, what were some of the high level outcomes that you, that you found from this process?

14:42 Karen: I had the hat on, of the new person coming in, who the board asked to do an assessment and give them the overall what are we going to do? What’s our best way forward? So I had that hat on and that perspective, and I needed answers. It’s just like often when someone from the inside from the outside is coming into an organization, they often want to do an employee engagement survey. So they understand what’s the status of the employees right now. A lot of times they want to do an operations review. I just need to know what’s what, and so the main thing that this review did for me was it gave me that big picture and at both a low level and a very high level and roadmap, like you said earlier.

And so that document now, I’ve transitioned out of the interim role and I’ve transitioned that so what a colleague is now serving in that interim role, and he’s now working with the leadership team on implementation. And so there was not a whole lot of work that needed to happen. How you laid that out was easily read, easily  understood. And so it is our next step. If that’s, we’re going to use that to fix the structure. I mean, starting at a very low level, trying to get some of our payroll systems online. I don’t know what else to say other than it’s a roadmap for, for us to implement the changes that we need.

Ambr: Yeah. And I know you’re pretty early in this process too. So let me just take a couple minutes and talk about with some of our other clients that have been clients of ours for a while, how this process can kind of play out you know, how you might be able to use this roadmap kind of long-term.

So, you know, one of the ways that we like to execute the roadmap is through project management and I’m a certified project manager, so I love to talk about projects. So, you know, ideally the process we use it, of course, you know, it’s up to every community, how they want to execute a roadmap. But this is a process that we use that works pretty well. So we take that roadmap, it’s kind of the starting point. And then what we like to do is review it every quarter. So we meet with our clients every quarter and we bring up that roadmap all, first of all, that roadmap ideally becomes the IT budget. So really what we’re doing is we’re looking at that same roadmap, but it’s condensed down to an annual budget that we want to make sure is the appropriate resources are allocated for the year and not everything in the roadmap is a budget item. So for example, there could be a line in there to optimize an existing medical record system. So that could be in there. And that would be in there because it’s resource intensive. We need to spend a lot of time on this and it possibly could be a budgeted item because maybe we need to add some more modules. We need to get some professional services or something like that. But either way, we want to make sure that it’s in there and it’s being looked at. So every quarterly meeting we’ll bring up that roadmap. We’ll take a look at it. We’ll know what have we completed? What’s in progress, maybe something new has come up, maybe there’s been regulatory changes and we maybe need to add something. So a really great example of that with COVID was AcuShield or a visitor management system like Accu shield. So it was interesting because we actually had a system like that in every client roadmap, before COVID hit, it was kind of a low priority item. You know, visitor management was something we wanted to automate for our clients, just because that’s a paper process, but it was kind of like in year three is kind of a low priority. Well then COVID hit. And of course everybody suddenly wanted to implement something like that. And it was actually great because we were like, oh, we’ve already got this in your roadmap. We kind of have some estimated costs. Let’s just bump up the priority. We already know who are the vendors out there. Let’s get them on the phone, let’s build our requirements lists than we were able to just kind of pop that in. You know, that would be an example of something we could kind of just raise up to the priority, cause we’ve already got it in our roadmap. We’ve got that every quarter, we’re looking at it, it’s a living plan when it comes to it governance, we really like to see steering committees that are client sites, that represents the key areas of the organization.

We really, I want technology to be, to be a partnership. We like to move away from this idea that, okay, technology is just a line item in the budget and we want to spend as little money on it as possible, sorry to the CFOs listening to this podcast. But we want technology to be something that is a competitive edge for your community. We want to transform your community through technology. We want it to be something that you’re excited about that can benefit you. So, to do that, we have to see how we can use it. We have to think of it as a solution. And if we’re constantly thinking about it, we’re reviewing it, we have buy-in, we have people across the community, looking at this roadmap all the time and thinking about these projects and what can we do and how can we be efficient and use technology? That’s kind of the idea behind the steering committee. So there’s these quarterly meetings. And then, like I mentioned, every year we were revisiting it, we’re looking at it annually, making sure things are appropriately budgeted.

Of course, we want to make sure that the big items are in there to make sure that our systems are refreshed. We’ve got our updates coming. And then we’re kind of able to plan around there based on what’s left. So our resources are properly allocated. And then every three years we wanted, you know, you want to keep looking forward and want to keep trying to do more with technology. What’s out there, that’s new. We have a client that’s doing a campus expansion and they’re putting robotics into their new buildings and they’re doing smart home technology. So, there’s always new things that are coming out. I like to personally say that senior living technology is the wild west of technology because there’s so much opportunity and so many new things coming out. So that’s just some ways that you can actually implement this roadmap and use it as a living document and just as your guide to just continue executing and doing more and more with technology.

So Karen, one question I have for you is what would be your advice to anybody who’s looking to start this process?

Karen: Well, obviously start with you. And Amber didn’t ask me to say that. No, I’m the kind of person, I’m the kind of leader that, I know what my limitations are and sometimes that, when you need help and you know that this is beyond your capability and beyond your expertise. So I reached out and asked for help and that was the first start is to and then to hear you describe this process, so you described this process to me in detail, and I knew immediately that that’s what we needed. And that that’s what the information, I was struggling with staffing. Do we have enough staff or is it an efficiency issue? Is it the system that we’re using or have we not fully implemented that software program? I mean, there was just a lot that I didn’t know, but the way you presented this roadmap and this assessment process fit all of my check boxes and I knew it was the thorough kind of insight that I needed to figure out where we needed to go.

Amber: Well, Karen, it was such a pleasure to work with you on this specific project. And I really appreciate you coming on this podcast and sharing your insights. So thank you for your time.

Karen: Thank you.

Amber: At our next episode, we’re going to talk about all things, resonant technology. We have some special guests, so looking forward to that, so be sure to tune in and thank you for listening today.