An entry from Chapel Hill, NC, continuing care retirement community Carolina Meadows was named Best in Show in the 2023 McKnight’s Excellence in Technology Awards during a virtual ceremony on Wednesday that saw dozens of awards go to senior living, skilled nursing and home care providers, as well as technology company partners to providers, across several categories and tracks.
The Best in Show award, bestowed for an entry titled “Building a Mobile Community with AI Assessments,” about Carolina Meadow’s use of VSTBalance by VirtuSense Technologies, was chosen from all winners across the three tracks of the competition: Senior Living, Skilled Nursing and Home Care. The entry also captured the Gold award in the Building Bridges category of the Senior Living track.
Carolina Meadows, as part of its wellness programming, used the AI-powered fall risk assessment tool to help increase resident mobility, function and gait. Carolina Meadows said that it was introduced to the technology at a campus event in August 2021 and that the technology has become instrumental in supporting residents’ health and wellness as well as in building relationships between residents, fitness staff members, and the community’s leadership.
The awards presentation capped a McKnight’s Tech Awards + Summit that also included three webinars. Sixteen awards were bestowed across five categories in the Senior Living track during the ceremony.
Senior Living winners
The winners in the five categories of the Senior Living track are listed below.
Innovator of the Year
The Innovator of the Year category recognized technologic innovation deemed to have made a difference in the provision of services or care or the bottom line.
Winning Gold in this category was Concord, CA-based Carlton Senior Living, for “Carlton Senior Living Meets Staffing Needs via Alexa-Enabled Solutions,” about the company’s use of Amazon’s Alexa in multiple ways, working with Speak2.
Carlton said it began using Alexa to lessen the burdens on staff members by enabling residents to ask for help and provide as much information as possible via Alexa devices. Staff members use an app or website. Speak2 helped define and create new workflows and develop new technologies, the provider said.
Other award winners in the Senior Living track’s Innovator of the Year category:
- Silver: The Admiral at the Lake, a Kendal affiliate in Chicago, for “Real-Time Responsive Communication Gives Teams Better Tools,” about the use of the HUCU.ai communication platform by MPAC Healthcare.
- Bronze: Maplewood Senior Living, Westport, CT, for “Using AI/Machine Vision to Keep Residents Safe,” about the use of Inspiren’s AUGi augmented intelligence platform at the Inspir Carnegie Hill senior living community in New York City.
Quality
The Quality category recognized the use of technology to improve the quality of services or care.
Winning Gold was The Forum at Rancho San Antonio, Cupertino, CA, for “Smart Monitoring Prevents Falls in Memory Care,” about its use of VSTAlert from VirtuSense Technologies.
The Forum at Rancho San Antonio, managed by Life Care Services, said it used the VSTAlert solution to support patient safety practices for memory care residents and increase the efficiency of the care team. The solution uses artificial intelligence and sensors to monitor residents for bed or chair exits without using loud alarms, wearables or pressure alarms. The provider said that this capability reduces the monitoring workload from care teams.
Other award winners in the awards in the Senior Living track’s Quality category:
- Silver: St. Charles, MO-based Arrow Senior Living Management, for “Arrow Agetech: Automated Wellness Visit with Machine Learning,” about its use of PointClickCare electronic health records system and Microsoft’s Power B-I.
- Bronze: Lloyd Jones and Aviva Senior Living, Granbury, TX, for “Advanced Technology to Improve Resident Experience,” about its use of Rythmos, from Intrex.
Building Bridges
The Building Bridges category recognized the use of technology deemed to have improved connections between staff members and residents and/or their families.
In addition to Carolina Meadows, which won Gold in this category along with being named Best in Show, other award winners in the Senior Living track’s Building Bridges category were:
- Silver: St. Charles, MO-based Arrow Senior Living Management, for “The Archer Scheduling Tool,” which was developed in-house.
- Bronze: Ingleside, for “Streamlining Communication and Resources,” about its use of the digital platform Cubigo.
Keep It Super Simple
The Keep It Super Simple category recognized simple but effective applications of technology that improved the provision of care, services or operations.
Winning Gold in the category was Des Moines, IA-based Life Care Services, an LCS Company, for “Daily Pay.”
Life Care Services launched DailyPay to employees in February 2022 and credits its use with increasing employee satisfaction and retention, saying that it offers employees improved visibility into and control of their finances. Life Care Services said that it is measuring the platform’s effectiveness when it is used with the Oracle Recruiting Cloud and UKG Dimensions to make the company more attractive as an employer from first interaction to pay day.
Other award winners in the Senior Living track’s Keep It Super Simple category:
- Silver: Des Moines, IA-based LCS, for “ORC: The Benefits of Cloud-Based Recruiting,” about its implementation of the Oracle Recruiting Cloud, part of Oracle’s Cloud Human Capital Management.
- Bronze: Ingleside at King Farm, Rockville, MD, for “The Resident Tech Help Team,” about the community’s Tech Help Team, made up of resident volunteers.
Tech Partner of the Year
In addition to winners in provider categories, winners in the Tech Partner of the Year category also were announced. This category recognized companies that helped operators deliver better services or care or improve their bottom lines, ensuring the field’s continued success.
Winning Gold in this category was Atlanta-based Accushield, for “Gig-Based Flexible Scheduling Software,” about its Flex workforce platform.
Accushield said that Flex is a software as a service-based platform that can be fully implemented in four to six weeks with less than 10 hours of commitment from an operator. The company’s entry discussed Bickford Senior Living’s implementation of the platform in 52 communities, enabling it to save millions in overtime costs and staffing agency usage, according to Accushield.
Other award winners in the Senior Living track of the Tech Partner of the Year category:
- Silver: Belgium-based Nobi, for “AI-Powered Nobi Smart Lamp Detects and Prevents Falls.”
- Bronze (tie): Intrex, Reston, VA, for “Unobtrusive Monitoring of Resident Safety Through Advanced Technology,” about Rythmos, a wearable that encompasses nurse call, access control, wander management and infection control.
- Bronze (tie): SafelyYou, for “AI Reduces Falls, Risks and Costs,” about SafelyYou Respond and SafelyYou Aware.
Award winners were chosen by a 23-member panel of experts who assessed entries for their overall value in improving resident care and services, impact, relevance, execution and creativity.
Additional finalists in the Senior Living track are listed here.
See McKnight’s Long-Term Care News and McKnight’s Home Care for more information about the winners in the Skilled Nursing and Home Care tracks, respectively.
More information about the award winners also is available in the virtual awards presentation and will be featured in upcoming articles in the free McKnight’s Senior Living Daily Briefing e-newsletter (sign up here), the McKnight’s Long-Term Care News Daily Update e-newsletter and the McKnight’s Home Care Daily Pulse e-newsletter as well as in the print magazines of McKnight’s Senior Living and McKnight’s Long-Term Care News.
The webinars and virtual awards presentation of the 2023 McKnight’s Tech Awards + Summit is available for on-demand viewing for a year at https://www.mcknights.com/092023techawards. Free registration is required.
Award winners also will be celebrated in person at a cocktail reception 6-9 p.m. Oct. 2 in Denver. Those planning to attend can RSVP here.
Those with questions about the events should contact Events Manager Jackie Testa at [email protected].
Sponsors of the 2023 McKnight’s Tech Awards + Summit include LifeLoop (formerly iN2L + LifeLoop), IntelyCare, MatrixCare, PointClickCare and ShiftKey + OnShift.
