This text is sponsored by PointClickCare. On this Voices interview, Senior Housing Information speaks with Chelsea McGill, Account Govt of Income Progress at PointClickCare, about how purpose-driven expertise is reworking the senior dwelling expertise. Drawing from her background on the entrance strains of care, McGill shares how shifting resident expectations, evolving household dynamics, and smarter tech adoption are pushing the trade ahead. She additionally discusses how even small expertise adjustments could make a significant affect, and why 2025 marks a turning level for built-in, individualized wellcare in senior dwelling.
Senior Housing Information: What life or profession experiences have most formed your method to the work you’re doing as we speak?
Chelsea McGill: I’ve spent greater than a decade working on the intersection of healthcare operations and expertise gross sales, which has given me a novel perspective on the senior dwelling trade from either side.
In my present function as an Account Govt at PointClickCare, I assist senior dwelling and post-acute care suppliers use digital instruments to enhance care coordination, improve operational efficiency, and put together for value-based care. Earlier than transitioning into well being tech, I held a number of government management roles in senior dwelling — together with serving as Vice President of Operations at AVIVA Senior Dwelling, the place I oversaw communities throughout a number of states and led large-scale acquisitions. I additionally served as an Govt Director for each Brightview Senior Dwelling and Dawn Senior Dwelling, managing all the pieces from budgeting and compliance to employees growth and resident satisfaction.
That blend of expertise has really formed how I method problem-solving as we speak. I perceive the day-to-day realities operators are going through, and I work to attach these challenges with sensible methods and expertise options that make an actual distinction for workers and for residents.
From beginning on the entrance strains of senior dwelling to supporting communities by means of expertise, how do you see residents altering, and what does the trade have to do to fulfill these evolving wants?
Residents as we speak are shifting in with extra advanced well being wants than we noticed a decade in the past. Many are managing a number of continual circumstances, but they nonetheless wish to stay impartial and keep of their chosen group.
To fulfill these evolving wants, we have to prioritize proactive wellness coordination. Meaning constructing techniques — each human and technological — that may decide up on refined adjustments early and translate them into actionable insights. Whether or not it’s a shift in mobility, urge for food, or social engagement, figuring out these adjustments sooner will increase the possibilities of stopping rehospitalization or bodily decline.
The communities that may thrive are those the place info flows simply and choices are made with the resident’s entire well being in thoughts.
How have expectations of grownup kids modified, particularly round expertise, to maintain these households engaged?
Household involvement has all the time been necessary, however expectations have positively advanced. As we speak’s grownup kids need well timed, clear updates, not simply when one thing goes unsuitable, however as a part of ongoing communication.
COVID accelerated this shift, and that development is right here to remain. Households need reassurance that their cherished one is secure, effectively, and engaged. Constant communication builds belief and permits grownup kids to step again into the function of son or daughter, moderately than feeling like full-time caregivers.
When expertise is used effectively, we are able to ship these significant touchpoints with out overwhelming the employees, liberating them as much as spend extra time with residents.
What’s a small expertise change that made an enormous distinction whenever you had been an operator?
One of many greatest sport changers after I was an operator was switching to an e-signature course of for move-in paperwork. It’d appear to be a small change, however move-in day units the tone for all the pieces that follows.
By changing stacks of paperwork and time spent on the copier with a fast, user-friendly course of, we freed up the workforce to give attention to what actually mattered — welcoming residents to their new dwelling, constructing rapport, and serving to them settle in.
It was an important reminder that expertise doesn’t must be difficult to make a big effect. Typically probably the most significant enhancements come from eradicating small factors of friction in the course of the moments that matter most.
Within the senior dwelling trade, 2025 is being outlined by…
I feel 2025 is the 12 months that expertise and function align extra intently than ever.
We just lately partnered with Senior Housing Information on the New Tech Adoption in Senior Dwelling survey, the place we spoke with over 50 trade leaders about their tech priorities. The clear takeaway is that suppliers aren’t simply taking a look at expertise for effectivity, they’re utilizing it to boost resident life and well-being.
Resident satisfaction emerged as the highest driver for tech funding this 12 months, with 35% of respondents rating it as their primary precedence. There’s a rising consciousness that satisfaction and well being outcomes are deeply linked.
As information turns into probably the most priceless instruments for decision-making, suppliers are specializing in utilizing resident info to allow earlier interventions, scale back hospitalizations, and enhance high quality of life. The operators who can flip these insights into customized care are those shaping the way forward for the trade.
Editor’s notice: This interview has been edited for size and readability.
Uncover how PointClickCare’s options can help your group’s wants as we speak!
The Voices Sequence is a sponsored content material program that includes main executives discussing traits, subjects and extra shaping their trade in a question-and-answer format. For extra info on Voices, please contact [email protected].