Raising Tech

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.

Amber: Welcome everybody to Raising Tech Podcast, Episode 2: Strategic Partnerships. I’m Amber Bardon, host of this podcast and I have with me today, Ken Arneson, the CEO of Evergreen Retirement Community. Our podcast topic today is Strategic Partnerships and the collaborative advantage of strategic partnerships specifically in technology. I am so excited to have Ken Arneson with me today. Ken Arneson has a long and a very interesting history in the senior living industry. He is also a founding member of Parasol Alliance and also a board member. Ken, you have such a rich history of working in the business. I believe you’ve been the CEO of Evergreen for about 25 years or so. Can you tell me a little bit about how did you get into this industry and how long have you been working in this field?

Ken: Well, I’ve actually been very fortunate to be in the field around 34 years and my career started while I was in college and I worked as a housekeeper at a local skilled nursing facility, wanting to look at growing in the field. I talked with the administrator and developed an administrator in training program. I was a receptionist, I was an aide and worked my way up through quality management into the for-profit sector and was very blessed to come to Evergreen and very proud to be the CEO of the organization.

Amber: Wow. And Ken, one of the things I want to share with our listeners is the first time I met you, I always remember this about you. So, you were introduced to myself as well as another provider at the same time. And one of the things I remember that you said to the other provider in the room is you said, “if there’s anything you want to try in senior living ask me first because I’ve already done it.” And that’s one of the things that I love about working with you and having you on our board is because you have such an innovative mind and you’re so open to new ideas and trying new things. And I think that you, you know, that’s something that ha you have brought so much value in with different partnerships that you’ve tried and different ideas that you’ve tried. Can you tell us a little bit about your approach to partnership and collaboration and why that’s so important?

Ken: One of the main reasons it’s so important is as a single site, you know, just to term single site, it applies that you’re trying to do as much as possible on your own. And the realization is the world is getting more complicated, whether it’s your smartphone, vehicles, it doesn’t seem to matter what it is you work with, the world’s complicated and the ability to figure it out on your own is going to be a challenge.

I was taught at a very early age from my grandfather that a wise individual looks for smarter people to surround themselves with. And that’s led to the development of partnerships. Another reason for partnerships is: you can grow more as an individual and an organization when you have the ability to do it with someone. Like if you ever go on any adventure, what fun is, they’re just doing it completely on your own? You don’t have any good stories you can share with someone. Plus you’re not there, are things you can learn from one another. So partnerships for Evergreen and becoming even more strategic has been essential to this organization being around hopefully another 50-100 years.

Amber: Yeah. We hear so much right now about collaboration and partnerships, again, as you mentioned for single sites. I definitely feel in the industry that there is this sense that single sites need to come together that, they don’t need to do it on their own. You know, the concept of vertical integration, combining experience to work together. What is your sense of how, you’re located in Wisconsin, what are you seeing in terms of your peers in the industry and, and types of collaborations that you’ve seen and what have you seen that’s been most successful and maybe what are some of the things that you’ve seen that don’t work as well with the partnership?

Ken: Alright. That is a real interesting question because part of a partnership is having a willingness to take risks and actually say you’re going to do something. There’s a tendency that individuals like to talk and what they want to do is they want to talk at a lower level where it’s safe. It could be, or maybe we could share purchasing, maybe we could do buying together and not that those don’t have value, but a true partnership needs to be something that’s going to advance an organization. And for organizations, I am noticing that there is more acknowledgement of the need to do it. The challenge is figuring out how to do it and who you do it, which is one of the things I look at is almost comparable to dating. You know, it’s the idea of how do you kind of figure out is this somebody I’d really like to get to know? How do you go about getting to know them? How do you build a relationship? How does it hopefully turn into something longterm and your hope and no point the other person comes in and says, you know what, when we were first together, I felt special. I just don’t feel special anymore. That’s the more difficult part with partnerships is making sure that all parties can continue to grow and hopefully it feel special.

Amber: I love that analogy. That’s really interesting. And I know something that we’ve talked about at Parasol Alliance, as well as what happens when those original members retire or possibly leave the organization. How does that change the dynamic of the partnership? Maybe that’s a great segue. Can you talk a little bit about the specific partnership experience you’ve had in bounding Parasol Alliance to give our listeners more of a a concrete concept into how a partnership actually can get started and how that process works, and then some of the benefits and maybe takeaways that you’ve learned.

Ken: Well, from a professional growth standpoint, especially being in my position now, I’ve had the most professional growth through actually being engaged in the development of partnerships. And especially with Parasol. The other individuals who founded parasol and having an individual like Amber, who is leading it. Truly, and it has helped me grow substantially. So, the key part was really finding individuals who were serious about let’s do something. And after we found individuals who were saying, yes, we want to do something up to putting money into and taking a risk with what it meant for our individual ITs. The biggest challenge was working with a board and having them become comfortable with going into something that’s not truly core because we’re not providing it as a partnership like this. Our board though also has grown substantially from going through this process because now they’re more comfortable and we’ve done additional joint ventures and partnerships as a result of it. But it came back to finding people. The other part, when you’re looking at this is you also need to be looking for smart people who are really going to be running this partnership. And with, with Parasol, we are blessed. We have an entrepreneur who is leading the organization and that has been key. Again, for us as individual organizations, it’s helped us grow substantially.

Amber: Thank you. For sharing that, how did Evergreen react to the outsourcing of the technology function? Because if I recall you did not outsource a lot of services prior to this.

Ken: No. That kind of comes back to, you know, when they talk single site, you know, and one of the advantages with single site is you’re comparable to all those local businesses that were founded and that the idea that we were going to outsource technology, even though we weren’t doing it well, as far as the management piece, it was a heavy lift. Initially it was coming up with every reason it wasn’t going to work. So, the other part in learning about when you’re going to do these partnerships or you’re going to be looking to outsource is coming back to what are the reasons you need to do this? Fast forward to today, our organization would never go back to the idea of a single individual that when they went on vacation, we had to lease a satellite phone because if anything here happened, technology wise, we had to be able to reach this individual.

The other part is you don’t know what you don’t know when you’re trying to look at it internally and having those external people who do things better, and the comparable to look at is, it’s not uncommon for organizations now to outsource their housekeeping, their laundry. I mean, typically you outsource your heating and cooling all of these because you want to have smarter people who are responsible for those operations. Technology was a scary thing for people, but really it was, it was one of the best decisions we made as an organization.

Amber: Do you have any specific stories maybe you can share?

Ken: Yes. Probably the one story we talk about quite a bit is especially in the age of ransomware, we had a ransomware here and Evergreen, our systems went down and it was very scary because all we saw on the news was we’re going to have to pay the ransom. Thankfully, because we had partnered with Parasol, the first thing they did was come in and say, they calm the waters and said yes, we’re going to be able to deal with this. And they were able to, within a number of days, have this back up and operating and we didn’t have to pay the ransom.

Another one has been, when we look at our resident population coming in today, they are very tech savvy. The idea of an older adult, not understanding technology, that is something as a society we need to get over. They are a tech-savvy group. There may be growing in how they use it, but a credibility point for an organization is their ability to respond to their customers as they come in and setting them up. Where we’ve had a number of compliments from our residents is that’s an area, we do a good job and you know, if we do a good job in technology, that means we’re going to be trusted with things that are super important, like care and the other services that we provide. So now we that, but the ransomware is one of my favorite stories.

Amber: So it sounds like to me, what you’re saying is, you know, the biggest value you’re getting with the technology partnership is bringing in the expertise to handle things like security and infrastructure, and then taking care of situations that you know, are bound to occur sooner or later, like ransomware attack, the expertise that you bring into other aspects of technology within the community, such as resident support. Are there other key pieces or pain points that are solved and you know, for somebody who’s just maybe starting out looking for a technology partnership, what would be some other key areas you would suggest to look to solve problems?

Ken: A major one is the ability to develop your technology strategic plan. If you look at major companies, I mean they have a Chief Information Officer, a number of organizations on their own don’t have the ability to afford that. So I think one part is, you know, how do you have that become a part of your team that can help you plan strategically. But if you’re going to be doing strategic, they need to understand the field that you’re in. So this isn’t, you know, where you can just go to your local tech people, they’re more of a generalist. You really do need a degree of specialization. The other factor is how will this organization help you through other experiences they’ve had to grow and save you time.A significant value with Parasol has been, we’re seeing more and more things we’re thinking of has been tried in another organization that they’re providing services to. That saves us a whole lot of time dealing with sales reps and other people who are saying, oh, this is the latest and the greatest you should get it. Technology can a very expensive mistake if you make the wrong decision, both financially, reputation and satisfaction. So I always encourage organizations, talk with your peers you know, find out what they’re doing. What’s not working. You’re probably going to find you have a lot in common and then look at well, how about those organizations that seem to be, they’re like us, but they’re doing it different and odds are you’ll find that there, they partnered with an organization like Parasol.

Amber: One of the stories I like to tell about Evergreen specifically, as well as it seems like a minor thing that we did, but when we first started working with Evergreen, which was, almost gosh, like six years ago now is we had established a nursing or clinical user group. So we met with your clinical team every month. And this really had a very impactful experience across the organization because your clinical team was, you know, they were pretty dissatisfied with technology. And really the reason was that they just felt that they didn’t really have a lot of time to, to put in tickets or requests or their requests weren’t addressed or people work third shift. And we basically came up with a method where we had a clipboard and the nurses would go and write down what their issues were. And the manager would keep a log and bring it to these monthly meetings. And I think we even had the onsite technician stop by every week and go over those issues. And once we were actually able to establish this relationship with them and take care of those issues, kind of one by one, we were able to establish this partnership and this trust which is what technology should be. It should be a partnership to support the business, right? That’s the purpose of it. You know, and one thing that we say is our mission or one of our visions is to transform technology culture in senior living industry. And it can start with something that small, just gaining the trust of the nursing team, you know, showing how technology can better their lives on a day-to-day basis in their job and make it more efficient. And Evergreen has been such an amazing partner in that journey and working with you, Ken specifically, because you really see that value. When we did your campus expansion, and you made the decision, you put Alexa’s in all of the units, right? You know, some of the decisions you made with that project, it’s just been so great working with you and having your open-mindedness and your willingness to be innovative and use technology as a business solution. And I really appreciate that about you.

Ken: That’s very kind of you, the reality though, is if an organization is not taking a hard look at areas that are strategically vital and then asking themselves, do we really have the capacity to do all of this on our own? They are going to be selling themselves short and the people they serve. Sometimes you have to figure out what you need to do what’s fast or do what’s right. And in a situation like this, it really was a combination of being able to do what was best, which was how are we going to provide a better service, both to our staff, residents and people. And then the right thing was finding the right organization that was Parasol to do it. So, it’s fun to see our ability now to embrace technology and respond to it.

Amber: So what would your advice be then to our listeners, if they’re trying to find someone that they can work with in this capacity. And I feel like this is a tricky question, right? Because we can list a whole bunch of standard questions you can ask, that you could probably go find on the internet, but how do you really know? How do you get to heart? How do you get to the heart of, can this partner support me? And can I trust them? How do you really get to that part to that matter?

Ken: Well, I think one of the ways you can get to it starting first with those internal questions. Do we seem to be having the same issue again and again, and again? It’s sort of the fly against the window getting out. And if you’re fine, you’re continuing to have that. And you have the same conversations. It is a matter of then saying, all right, well, what is it we need to do a little different and getting comfortable. The different may entail finding somebody else to take on those functions. If you can do just those steps initially, then you can start to look at all right, who do you find that’s out there? And, you know, within this field, people are good about sharing. I’ve always been very proud that within this sector, this is not as sector of leaders and organizations who are boastful.

They want to be here to provide service and make lives better. So I think because we do that, and I know all those organizations are looking at ways to improve efficiency, especially with challenges with staffing. You’re looking at the demands from your customers increasing that it should be natural, that whether it’s your dining, your housekeeping, your maintenance, the technology should be very high on that list. Finding a partner, and the fun part with a partner is you’re a good partner is one you know you can count on when the proverbial poop hits the fan. And that is something we’d look for, whether it’s electricians who were here when we had major flooding, whether it’s been an our plumbers that show up just numerous people, technology is key. Your technology goes down, you can be floundering in the waters. So, you know, for us, it just was the best and the right thing to do.

Amber:

Great. Thank you so much for that insight. Well, it kind of has been a real pleasure to speak with you. I think you have brought a lot of value and things for our listeners to think about on this episodes. I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did.

On our next episode, we’re going to be unpacking the technology, strategic plan and roadmap, and talking about how to build it from the infrastructure up. So please join us next month and Ken, any final words?

Ken: You know, what I hope organizations listening to this will, we’ll take the opportunity to look at partnerships in areas of technology.

Amber: Alright.Thank you so much.

Rachel: Hello, and welcome to season one, episode one of Raising Tech, your guide to understanding the role technology plays in your senior living business strategy and day-to-day operations. Our mission for raising tech is to educate and empower senior living providers to maximize their use of technology. This podcast is designed to be your monthly tech check-in to learn how best to optimize operations established tech as part of your organization's competitive advantage, incorporate technology into your long range vision, and how to bring residents and employees along on the journey. Episodes will include everything from bringing senior living communities out of legacy systems and into streamlined infrastructures to developing a technology strategy designed for the next generation of residents and employees tune in for tech trends, hot topics, and meet the people behind the tech landscape and senior living to gain practical technology. You can apply in your organization today. I'm Rachel Loogi with parasail Alliance, where we specialize in helping senior living partners maximize their use of technology through strategic planning and full service. And I'm joined by our host, Amber Barden, CEO, and founder of Parasol Alliance. So before we dive in, Amber tell us a little bit about how you got into senior living tech in the first place and what parasol Lyons is all about. So listeners have an idea of what kind of experience you're speaking from.

Amber: Thanks Rachel. I am so excited that we're launching this podcast. It's great to be here with you, and it's a great day to talk about technology and senior living. So I'm Amber Barden. I am the CEO and founder of Parasol Alliance, as Rachel mentioned. So I wanted to give just a little bit of background about my experience and how I came to understand and learn about the senior living industry. I worked at a provider in the Chicago area for about nine years. I did pretty much every different kind of position you can think of in technology during that period of time. So I started out at the service desk and then I moved over to business system support, and then I eventually moved into an IT director leadership role. And through that process through those years, I really learned a lot about the business side of Senior Living.

I saw firsthand the challenges that senior living providers have and multiple different types of senior living services from home and community-based services to skilled nursing HUD, independent living, and of course assisted living as well, and really was able to understand the business seed and then bring technology as a solution to multiple different business problems. And through that process, I really saw that there was a need to have a company that could specifically target these challenges that the senior living industry face and through that process and through learning about the business side, I had this idea to form a company to specifically do that. So the way that actually happened is I was introduced to someone named Bill Lowe, who is the CEO of Chicago Methodist Senior Services in Chicago. And we talked a little bit about my idea, and he came up with this concept of why not create a partnership or an alliance of other senior living providers to come together and provide this technology service to the industry.

So Bill really helped me go out and meet other providers and learn about their specific challenges with technology and helped put together this partnership and Alliance that eventually became Parasol Alliance about six years ago. Now, one thing I want to mention is that through that process, we spoke to multiple different providers for the most part single sites, mostly not-for-profit CCRC. And one of the things I asked them was what is your biggest pain point in technology, regardless of what your solution is? If it's in-house technology, if it's outsource technology, if it's a combination and the number one answer I got was strategy, these providers felt like they did not have the resources or the expertise to really understand technology and how it could help their business. They weren't really sure how to make decisions on technology in terms of resources and dollars. And that really drove our business model of starting with strategy in order to form a really strong partnership, which we feel really leads to client happiness, and it allows our clients to maximize technology to effectively move their business objectives forward.

Rachel: I love that and that's part of why I love being a part of Parasol Alliance is because the company was founded on solving problems. So you mentioned challenges. So what challenges specifically, were you seeing and have you been seeing in senior living communities and how did those challenges ultimately then tie in later to a community success using technology?

Amber: Yeah, I think this whole concept of really understanding the specific challenges so that you can then effectively solve them is really important. And I think the community it's really helpful and a lot of things can happen to lead to success when the community takes the approach of starting with a technology culture. So how do we build excitement for technology in our community? How do we use technology, a solution to solve strategic business objectives? So I think the challenges need to be recognized and addressed before you can move to those next steps of technology driving success. So I would say some of the top challenges that we typically see with the providers that we work with would be resources. That's something I mentioned it a little bit earlier, resources really throughout all different levels, not having a CIO, not having an IT director, or maybe IT doesn't necessarily have a seat at the table to be able to even provide senior living technology solutions and not having possibly the expertise in house to know what you don't know. So what are some of the best practices that other communities are using across the industry? Possibly not having resources adequately budgeted in terms of dollars and also staff buy-in from the community staff in terms of buying into that vision of technology culture. Another thing I think we see is just not knowing where to start. So I feel technology can be very overwhelming to many communities and it's something that they don't necessarily feel. They have a good understanding of. So they don't know where to start. And again, I said this a little bit earlier, but it's something I hear a lot is not knowing what we don't know. Another big issue we see is process optimization. So this would be where you may have some systems in place, but perhaps you're not really optimizing those systems as best as you could. So there could be things being done on paper. There could be duplicate entries and that can really lead to staff frustration because it directly impacts the time that they spend on those types of processes when they're not as streamlined and efficient as possible. And then lastly, another challenge I wanted to mention before we talk a little bit more about successes when it comes to residents. Residents have expectations now that they will have technology in the community. So both from the perspective of the community, providing technology, as well as the residents themselves using technology. And I would say, in the last five years this really shifted from this expectation to a must have to a need, which that can actually lead to directly to helping your community leverage technology, to be more competitive in the marketplace to really take your business to the next level, by identifying those challenges and needs from the residents and then coming up with a strategic plan to really address those and really just enhanced technology throughout the organization with the residents and the staff. So given some of those challenges, I think those starting with recognizing those and understanding them and knowing where your community is in the process of technology with all those different aspects that will help you lead directly to those key success drivers. So resident technology having a plan and having you know, something in place that you could communicate to the residents about what the plan is for technology. Another big one we hear is communication across the community in general. So a lot of our clients are looking for one streamlined way to communicate to staff, to communicate to families, to communicate to residents. And to know that this can be a big area of frustration.

If there's not easy to use communication processes in place, I talked a little bit about the process optimization. So if you're able to recognize that as a challenge and identify opportunities to address that, that can lead directly to staff efficiency and sometimes even staff happiness and engagement, if they no longer feel like they have to spend a lot of wasted time on paper and manual processes and all of this, we feel really leads to that technology culture. So one thing you say, Rachel, that I really love is that our vision is to transform technology culture in senior living. And I think that that is such a great vision, and I think it's so important and I think taking this idea that technology is just a cost center budget. It's just something we have to have and transforming that into how do we leverage this? How do we solve business problems? How we use technology to engage and go to the next level is really a key success factor and it's something we've seen in our clients. And it's just such a great thing when that happens.

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Rachel: Oh my gosh, I completely agree. And you're right. It's about something so much bigger than just infrastructure, it is about culture at its highest level. We talked a lot, we talked about so many things that are important. I wonder if we could just talk a little bit more about how we go about that strategy, if you could break that down and what are the essential components to a strategy kind of maybe starting with the foundation?

Amber: Sure, so one thing I like to think about or visualize, or when I'm doing a presentation is share an image of a pyramid. So if you think of a pyramid that has multiple levels at that base level, so that the core things that you need to do when it comes to technology are the things you would probably think of as technical as it in the more traditional fashion. So things like your computers being replaced on a regular basis, having your network up to date and optimizing and meeting the community needs in the best possible way, your servers, your IT operations, your staffing and your policies and procedures. So that is what we consider the base of the pyramid and really having a strong foundation and making sure you take the time to have that in place will help you add on to the next levels in the pyramid and again, elevate technology in your community.

So what we see as the next level in the pyramid would be your business systems. So these would be the things that you use to run your business. So your EMR, electronic medical records, your HRS payroll systems, your dining systems, your CRM, marketing systems, your resident engagement application, pretty much any business area uses technology. So we want to identify those systems, the right systems, is there a lack of systems? Are you using paper and are those systems fully optimized? So are you doing the most? You can with those systems again, tying back to that staff efficiency and staff happiness. And then the next level we see is security and risk. So security and risk is the lens in which we view the other two, well, really all of the layers of the pyramid. So we want to make sure that the decisions that we're making and the plans we're making are really viewed through this security and risk lens to make sure that we are minimizing risk and maximizing security as much as possible.

And then we see that top level as the residents. So, you know, as we talked about a couple of minutes ago, the residents really are a key part of this. So in multiple different ways from Wi-Fi, you know, community engagement and things like that. And I think a good place to start to think of this is how do you define technology? What does technology mean to you and what does it mean to your community? You know, do you think of it as it isn't just the servers sitting on your server room? Is it just the computers on people's desks or does it encompass all these other parts of the pyramid that I talked about? And I think identifying that and defining that is a really great place to start.

Rachel: Yes, absolutely, that's excellent. One final point on residents, this is such a focus right now, especially coming out of 2020 and everything we experienced related to the pandemic, how are, you know, what are some trends we're seeing as far as resonant expectations and maybe that's for today's residents, but incorporating the next generation of residents? What, what will they be expecting and senior living?

Amber: Yeah, I think I've heard a couple people refer to technology as the silver lining of COVID. And I think that really applies to the residents. I think there was possibly a little bit of fear of using technology, a little bit of resistance, or not feeling that it was something useful to many of the residents in the communities. And I feel COVID really helped with that because many residents needed to start engaging with technology, to see family members, to see friends through video tools. And I think we've definitely seen a lot of, a much bigger need for residents using technology. And accordingly those expectations have really only increased. So a couple of key ways in which we think about technology for residents. So,the big one is wifi, that's something we hear at all of our communities as we expect to have wall-to-wall wifi coverage and that's something that can tie into your technology play on for your community, but also as, you know, how does it affect the residents and what are you providing? And what are the residents that they'll have access to in terms of WiFi and setting, making sure that everybody understands what's actually provided and what's not. And if your goal is to provide wall-to-wall WiFi, how do we do that? So how do we go about that? So, you know, WiFi would be one of those bases of the pyramid. That's a key core system that we want to have in place to build upon something else that we've seen is community engagement. So a big trend that we're doing a lot of projects on right now is resident engagement applications, and these apps are really cool. One of the things I wanted to mention too, that we're seeing a lot is this lifestyle smart home trend. You know, that is something that is being built into the plans in many cases. And again, that's that leverage of technology to make your community more competitive. So things like having a smart home hub where you can use IOT devices throughout the apartment for the residents can apply to wellness for the residents monitoring something that may be less invasive than pendants or bracelets.

Rachel: Yes, absolutely. That was great. Oh my gosh, we covered so much Amber in that short period of time, that was really, really rich. Thank you so much for sharing challenges, trends, and how we go about strategy. So if you had to for listeners, just kind of sum up your key takeaways, what are the top three? You know, this, this is kind of what listeners need to be thinking about based on this conversation. 

Amber: Yeah, I think there's three key takeaways.  I think, again, going back to that culture, I think that's really a great place to start. Evaluating where's your technology culture today and where do we want to elevate it to? And I think understanding that and technology's role in the community is really going to be the driver behind the other decisions and steps you take in technology with your community. I think the next step would be that strategy. So starting again, what do we know about where we are now and where do we want to go? And then very specifically, how do we get there with actual projects that will take you to that level, that you can actually have metrics around to measure your success. And then lastly would be partnerships. So technology is no longer just you know, an administrative function in the community. Technology really should be leveraged as a partnership between the technology side and then the business objectives and strategic goals. So I think bringing those together and defining how technology is going to partner with the community in the next steps in elevating technology.

Rachel: Thank you. Excellent. All right. So should we talk about what is to come next month? We are very excited for our next episode. So tune in next month, when we'll be joined by Ken Arneson, CEO of Evergreen Retirement Community in Oshkosh Wisconsin, where we'll discuss how to go about building a successful partnership and specifically how evergreen leveraged technology to take their community to the next level. Ken's wonderful and he's going to be great, this'll be fun. It's really going to be a fun podcast. So definitely make sure you tune in to it. Yeah, me too. Well, thanks everyone. And we'll see you next month.