Six LeadingAge members walked away with top honors this fall in the second annual McKnight’s Excellence in Technology Awards program. The awards recognized several aging services providers as Innovators of the Year and honored providers using technology to:
- Improve quality of care.
- Enhance dignity of residents and clients.
- Provide high tech/high touch.
- Improve care transitions.
Front Porch
Front Porch Center for Innovation and Wellbeing, a LeadingAge member and CAST Patron in Burbank, CA, won the Gold Award in the High Tech/High Touch category for its lifelike, animatronic dog named Biscuit.
Front Porch was able to achieve "immediate and profound" effects when it introduced Biscuit to withdrawn and cognitively low-functioning residents. The interaction prompted some previously non-verbal residents to speak, sing and recall stories about former pets.
Jewish Senior Life
Jewish Senior Life, a LeadingAge member in Rochester, NY, received both the Silver and Bronze awards in the Dignity category.
The community earned a Silver Award for its Scan-Dent system. The system uses radio frequency identification tags to help residents and caregivers quickly locate lost dentures, glasses and hearing aids.
Jewish Senior Life earned the Bronze Award for its dining program. An Alto-Shaam Combitherm CombiOven creates kosher molds of pureed food to present a more pleasing dining experience. The community's electronic medical record (EMR) system helps to track results. Those results include a 30% increase in stable weights for residents. LeadingAge Silver Premier Sponsor and CAST Business Associate Optimus EMR developed the EMR.
Presence Life Connections
Presence Life Connections, a LeadingAge member in Mokena, IL, received the Bronze Award in the Transitions category for implementing Vindicet's patient management system. The system provides up-to-date information about individuals across the continuum of care. The organization says the system has cut admission time to its skilled nursing settings to less than 1 hour.
Three Links
Three Links, a LeadingAge member in Northfield, MN, received:
- A Bronze Award in the Quality category for creating a mobile computer cart for its Auditory Science's Interact-AS program. This technology improved communication with residents who have difficulties hearing.
The Terraces of Los Gatos
The Terraces of Los Gatos, a LeadingAge member in California, received the Gold Award in the Dignity category for implementing new smart-bed technology. The technology comes from CAST Business Associate BAM Labs.
The solution features a biometric sensor beneath the mattress, cloud-based monitoring and alerts that staff members receive on their mobile devices. It has helped The Terraces at Los Gatos improve response time when residents need assistance. In addition, employees have improved position change management and documentation.
Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation
Parker Jewish Institute for Health Care and Rehabilitation, a LeadingAge member in New Hyde Park, NY, received the Gold Award in the Transitions category for its EMR system. That system allows the community to share resident health information through 2 health information exchanges. The information exchange has helped reduce readmissions to a partner hospital and led to a 10% reduction in medication errors.