Senior living operators long have looked to technology to help keep residents healthy and connected, help staff members be more efficient, and help improve the bottom line. Even so, there’s no arguing that the presence of technology becomes even more prevalent in senior living every year. Over the past couple of years, that’s due in part to the pandemic.

If your community used tech during this past year — simple or advanced — to improve services, care or operations, we want you to be recognized for those efforts. Enter the 2022 McKnight’s Excellence in Technology Awards. The deadline is June 30 — a week from Thursday! — and the only cost for you to enter is your time.

The annual contest is a joint program of McKnight’s Senior Living and our sister brands, McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, which focuses on skilled nursing, and McKnight’s Home Care.

Senior Living is one of three tracks in which winners will be recognized (Skilled Nursing and Home Care are the others). All providers are eligible. Each track will have four categories, with Gold, Silver and Bronze awards being presented in each category as warranted:

  1. Quality – Winning entries will describe the technology involved and how it was applied to improve the quality of care or services.
  2. Innovator of the Year – Winning entries will describe how technological innovation was key to the entry’s success and how it made a difference in the provision of care or services or the bottom line.
  3. KISS (Keep It Super Simple) – Winning entries will describe a simple but effective application of technology that improved the provision of care, services or operations.
  4. Building Bridges – Winning entries will describe the ways in which an operator is using technology to improve connections between staff members and residents and/or their families.

Nominations will be judged by a panel of experts. The awards program is open to care/service providers only (not vendors).

Once again, the awards program will be part of the virtual McKnight’s Tech Awards + Summit, this year on Oct. 4. In addition to the announcement of the winners, the accompanying summit will offer educational webinars. Winners also will be recognized at an in-person celebration Oct. 17 in Denver. Stay tuned for additional information about those events.

In the meantime, if you’re looking for inspiration for your entry, check out last year’s Senior Living track winners here.

And for additional information on this year’s contest, and to enter, visit https://www.mcknightstechawards.com/.

Gold sponsors of the McKnight’s Tech Awards + Summit include iN2L + LifeLoop, IntelyCare and Saiva.

Lois A. Bowers is the editor of McKnight’s Senior Living.