For a sector that when described itself as excessive contact somewhat than excessive tech, senior residing positive has modified.
Expertise has develop into ubiquitous, touching just about each aspect of what senior residing operators do, and the way they do it.
Which begs an apparent query: The place is all that tech cash going?
Happily, we will thank the parents at non-public funding financial institution Ziegler and their buddies at LeadingAge CAST for some useful perception. And right here’s the inside track from their July 2024 CFO Hotline Survey: Info and communication expertise, or ICT, infrastructure leads the best way.
To make sure, that reply is maybe not as clear as some would love. ICT is a little bit of a sock-drawer class that may embrace all the pieces from laptop and community {hardware} to software program and communications networks. Throw in just a few laptop methods, programming languages and knowledge processing and also you want a reasonably large tent to suit all the pieces in.
Nonetheless, a whopping 58% of the survey’s respondents stated they’re pouring cash into ICT. Different big-ticket gadgets embrace digital medical/well being information methods (EMRs/EHRs) at 51%, workforce/employees scheduling methods at 48%, and digital level of care/level of service documentation methods at 47%. And let’s not neglect the entry management and wander administration methods, pulling in a good 44%.
On the flip facet, some tech instruments aren’t precisely flying off the cabinets. Solely 14% of organizations are investing in shared care planning and care coordination instruments, and one other 14% are dabbling in well being data change options. Then there’s robotic course of automation at a paltry 9%. Meals servers apart, it doesn’t seem the robots can be taking on this area any time quickly.
Seeking to the long run, the survey says senior residing organizations are planning to spend money on knowledge analytics instruments (40%), entry management/wander administration methods (30%), and EMRs/EHRs (29%) over the following 12 months.
Any survey’s findings must be taken with a good-sized grain of salt. Nonetheless, these numbers usually are not only a toe within the pool. Greater than 100 senior residing entities participated on this 12 months’s survey. It was initially despatched to chief monetary officers and finance contacts however ultimately discovered its solution to the chief expertise/data officers. About 61% of the respondents got here from single-site communities, whereas 39% represented multi-site organizations.
Any manner you slice it, tech is dramatically altering this area. In reality, It’s most likely now protected to say senior residing has develop into each excessive contact and excessive tech.
John O’Connor is editorial director for McKnight’s Senior Residing and its sister media manufacturers, McKnight’s Lengthy-Time period Care Information, which focuses on expert nursing, and McKnight’s Residence Care. Learn extra of his columns right here.