Call safety systems are an essential component within many senior care facilities, but older models can create issues for residents, such as the need to physically activate alarms.
An artificial intelligence-enabled tool that aims to address these issues is now commercially available via Lifeline Senior Living, the company announced recently.
Among the call system’s features are:
- Voice-enabled resident requests, and subsequent confirmation from the system that their call was received and is being addressed by staff.
- The ability for staff to include pre-programmed community information on things like weekly menus.
- Use of Alexa’s personalized features that allow residents to interact with “jokes, trivia and answers to questions.”
A pilot program began in January at The Manor Village Desert Ridge in Phoenix, AZ, which offers assisted living and memory care services to 160 residents.
The ability for caregivers to discern the urgency of the request, and prioritize, is a major benefit to the new call system, Connect America’s senior product manager, Dustin Dwyer, told McKnight’s.
“I’m very pleased with how the pilot has gone,” Dwyer said. “Residents were very excited and interested, and it was nice to see them have a new thing to play with and talk to, interact with.”
Roughly 36% of residents in the pilot program used the system, with some utilizing it up to 70 times, if often just to check in with staff, Dwyer said.
In addition, Manor Village’s COO told Lifeline that they’d sold several rooms to residents this year based on the addition of the Alexa system.
Remote monitoring tech is a growing industry, and other companies are developing improved nurse call systems as well, such as new software from Cornell Communications.
Connect America is hoping to have several dozen of their systems installed in senior care settings by the end of next year.
