Sixteen long-term care technology programs and the individuals and companies behind them were honored Thursday as Gold medalists at the 14th annual McKnight’s Tech Awards ceremony.
Of them, Gurwin Healthcare System and Besser Rooms won Best of Show for their entry, “Gurwin Immersion Room for Memory Care.” Earlier in the program, it won the Gold medal in the Resident Engagement & Recreation category.
Gurwin’s nursing and rehabilitation center received a grant from the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America to help fund the creation and installation of the interactive immersion memory stimulation room on its memory care unit. The result is a dedicated, modular room that immerses residents in a virtual experience, stimulating all five senses to enable people with Alzheimer’s or other dementia-related diseases to participate in engaging experiences and relive memories.
Driving or virtual tours of botanical gardens, attending a concert or passing time on the streets of Italy or Greece all now are possible — and with the company of friends or family who aren’t physically at Gurwin themselves, if desired.
Gold and Silver medalists were named in each of 16 categories during the event, along with 15 Bronze winners. Victors included provider-vendor duos and involved nonprofit and for-profit entities traversing the senior living, skilled nursing and home care sectors.
Submissions were judged by an independent panel of 21 long-term care stakeholders. Just a few tenths of a point separated those who won medals from those who didn’t in some cases.
Resident Engagement & Recreation
The Resident Engagement & Recreation category was a good example of the closeness. There was a dead heat for the Silver medal, with a pair of them being awarded to Tazergy and Sequoia Living for “Delivering on Tech Forward Senior Living” and Hopeful Aging and The Jewish Association on Aging for “The CONNECT Dementia Engagement Platform.”
The Bronze medalist went to The Arbor Company and TechnoGym with “Fitness at Arbor.”
The other 2024 McKnight’s Tech Awards medalists were:
Assistive Technology
The Gold winner is Rendever and Front Porch Senior Living, for “Rendever Improves Mobility and Reduces Fall Risk.” Rendever partnered with Front Porch at its Villa Gardens community for a four-week pilot study to test the ability of RendeverFit exercises to improve resident mobility and increase physical independence.
RendeverFit improved resident mobility and resident confidence in physical abilities, correlating with increased engagement in community activities and higher levels of motivation and energy in many residents. In addition, RendeverFit usage had a positive relationship with community satisfaction and an overall improved quality of life for residents.
The SIlver award was given to Sensi.AI for “Sensi.AI – 24/7 strategic care co-pilot,” while the Bronze was won by Nobi and Cypress Living for “AI-Powered Nobi Smart Lamp Empowers Senior-Care Providers.”
Building Bridges
RiverSpring Living and Rendever took home the Gold for their entry “Facilitating Safe Discharge with VR headsets.” The Hebrew Home at Riverdale extended its reputation in transition care by engaging Rendever’s Virtual Reality abilities to acquire 360-degree views of a departing patient’s home.
Using a systematic approach to acquire full-range photos of a patient’s home, a therapist uses a VR headset and tablet computer to perform a home safety evaluation. Focused recommendations from the therapist about techniques and adaptive equipment ensure the physical environment is molded to meet the new needs of the patient.
Winning the Silver in this category was Arrow Senior Living for “Elevating Reporting and Data,” while Ceca Foundation. Providence Place Senior Living won the Bronze for “Unifying and Improving the Healthcare Experience through Recognition.”
Electronic Health Records
IntellaTriage and CommonSpirit Health and Home teamed up to win Gold with their entry, “Revolutionizing Nurse Experience: IntellaTriage and CommonSpirit Integration.”
By breaking down the silos that can exist between home health and hospice electronic medical records systems, integration among three companies — IntellaTriage, CommonSpirit Health at Home, and Homecare Homebase — improved the workflow and efficiency of IntellaTriage nurses on the calls they took. The integration reduced nurse distraction time as well as documentation and administrative work by an average of five minutes per encounter.
ProviNET Solution and Presbyterian Homes were runners-up and took the Silver for “Successful EHR Implementation via Robotic Process Automation.” The Bronze award winners were MatrixCare and Ashford Hall Nursing and Rehabilitation with “MatrixCare Optimizes EHR Integration with Custom Training Paths.”
Emerging Technology
This category is unique in that it honors products or systems that are either emerging or not yet fully enmeshed in the market. Winning Gold was Sage and Sonida Senior Living for ”Transforming Nurse Call into an Operations Management System.”
Sage’s next-generation operations management system takes a transformational approach to incident response, care tracking and data collection, and it is integrated into a single, modern interface. Full documentation is kept as to resident location and needs, staff response times, services rendered by category, monthly revenue opportunities and, ultimately, whether staffing patterns should be adjusted.
The partners said that incident response time dropped by an average of 65%, which has led to increased resident satisfaction. In addition, caregiver satisfaction reportedly more than tripled and staff turnover declined by 23%.
The Silver went to Arrow Senior Living and EmpowerMe Wellness for “Arrow Senior Living, EmpowerMe, and Innovation through 360,” whereas the Bronze went to Guardoc Health for “Using Generative AI to automate clinical documentation.”
Falls Prevention, Management or Detection
The Gold went to Butlr and Ranagard Community for “Butlr: AI for earlier intervention.”
By passively monitoring movement patterns via thermal sensors, Butlr Care alerts staff members when residents need assistance. The sensors detect movement but are purposely designed to be unable to capture any personally identifiable information.
At Ranagard Community, 2,500 Butlr sensors were installed across 700 apartments. The return on investment has been evident in time and cost savings, increased revenue, better use of staff and a reduction in falls.
The Silver medal went to SafelyYou and Maplewood Senior Living for “Maplewood Senior Living Thrives with SafelyYou.” The Bronze was won by “AI-Powered Fall Prevention at Cypress Cove,” a joint entry by Cypress Cove at HealthPark Florida and Microsoft.
Home Grown
In a category eligible only to providers that had created innovations on their own, the Gold went to LCS for its “Inspiring Innovation Through InnoTank!” entry.
LCS created its trademarked event “InnoTank” to elevate innovation and drive the company and sector forward. This “Shark-Tank-like” pitch competition was designed to showcase innovative ideas from corporate and community employees with the winner receiving a $10,000 grand prize.
The program evolved from an incubation idea last year to full production under the guidance of the LCS Community Technology Committee, which includes employees from various corporate departments and community operations. More than 20 employee contestants submitted video applications and five competed live in front of attendees during the LCS Senior Living Management Conference in June of this year.
New Day Healthcare won Silver for “New Day Healthcare – CareLytics” and Extended Care earned the Bronze for “Office 365 Powered Visitor Kiosks.”
Innovative Care Planning
Sage and Sonida Senior Living were the top scorers and won Gold in this category for “Transforming Nurse Call into an Operations Management System.”
The winning operations management system was expected to be in place across 42 Sonida Senior Living communities this month — an increase of five locations over earlier this year. The system’s data and analytics capabilities have enabled Sonida to continuously monitor and improve its performance, ensuring that both caregivers and residents benefit.
The system is credited with improving operational and care outcomes in several ways, including caregiver recognition, satisfaction and turnover; response time; and resident satisfaction.
There was a tie for the Silver medal, producing two winners: Arrow Senior Living and EmpowerMe Wellness for “Arrow Senior Living, EmpowerMe, and Innovation through 360,” as well as Help at Home for “Connecting Home Care to Health Care Through Tech Innovation.”
Careforth and Vention and GlobalLogic took home the Bronze for “Careforth Care Collaboration Platform.”
Innovator of the Year
In one of the most popular categories for entrants, LifeLoop and Grace Management Incorporated emerged as the Gold-winning submission for “Resident & Staff Innovation Leads to R-O-I.”
Grace Management sought an overhaul of its systems to consolidate disparate existing software, allow executives enterprise visibility and give control to better manage operations throughout its more than 60 senior living and care communities.
With LifeLoop, Grace said it achieved better brand consistency, ease of use, and data-driven features that fueled better tracking and analysis. Multiple analyses showed that the platform improved critical staff workflows and satisfaction, including a 24% increase in improved understanding of resident interests and activity preferences, a 16% increase in ease of attendance tracking and a 17% increase in ease of family communication. Staff and resident satisfaction demonstrably rose while stress dropped during the study period.
Meanwhile, the Silver went to OneStep and FOX Rehabilitation, and the Bronze was awarded to Allaire Health Services and Simpiller.
KISS (Keep It Super Simple)
The popular Gold winner in this category was submitted by an eclectic grouping of professionals from CareMobi, the New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing and ALPS Adult Day Services. The title of their entry was “CareMobi: Connecting Families and Day Centers.”
CareMobi is a smartphone app that serves as a centralized hub for families and community-based long-term care providers. It tracks and shares information relevant to a person’s day-to-day health. It is the standard of care for new clients at three adult day centers serving diverse, low-income or rural older adults, and it also is used outside of adult day centers by more than 1,500 family caregivers.
Thanks to the qualitative feedback that the app collects, there has been a reduction in the number of medications for those receiving care and simplified clinical decision-making for providers. In addition, it has led to a sense of empowerment and engagement for family caregivers.
ProviNET Solution and Presbyterian Homes earned Silver with “Using RPA to Unburden Senior Living Staff,” and Arrow Senior Living and Pudu Robotics won the Bronze for “Synergy in Motion: Elevator-Integrated Robotic Floor Cleaners.”
Medication Management
Winning the Gold medal was Allaire Health Services and Simpiller.
The medication management project was started to address critical challenges related to acute or unplanned rehospitalizations due to poor medication adherence and safety among residents after their stay in skilled nursing facilities. The program is unique because it’s the first in the industry to pair an occupational therapist and a registered nurse to collaborate during admission, training and education, extending through discharge and remote home monitoring.
Allaire’s executive team approved collaboration with a software developer, which led to Simpiller, a platform and hardware solution that empowers the clinical team to train and promote medication independence through guided feedback with patients.
The Silver award went to PointClickCare and Arrow Senior Living for their entry “Transforming Medication Management in Senior Living.” There was no Bronze award in this category.
Quality
Taking home the top prize was RiverSpring Living and Sensible Medical. The latter’s ReDS (remote dielectric sensing) Vest uses advanced medical radar technology such as “see through wall” capabilities, to precisely measure lung fluid levels.
This technology gives physicians early, accurate and actionable data, enabling timely interventions and treatments. It has eliminated emergency visits entirely for RiverSpring Living residents since January 2023.
RiverSpring officials said that the proactive approach not only prevents unnecessary hospitalizations, which leads to substantial cost savings, but also reduces the risk of falls, injuries, and exposure for frail residents.
The category’s Silver medal winner is an entry from Ingleside and FullCount, “Improving Dining Technology Accessibility: Resident Portal.”
Principle Health Systems and Principle Health Systems Laboratory, Imaging and Diagnostics won Bronze with “Daily D-O-N Lab Results.”
Resident or Patient Monitoring and Safety
Nazareth Home in Louisville, KY, worked with Toi Labs to implement its toileting technology, TrueLoo, beginning in 2022, and that wound up winning them McKnight’s Tech Gold in 2024.
Earlier this year, 49 TrueLoos had been installed in memory care and personal care neighborhoods at one of Nazareth’s communities; plans are to install more in other care settings. TrueLoo has eliminated the need for staff members to observe, interpret, remember and document stool and urine eliminations, Nazareth said in its entry, “The use of AI for prevention and wellness using a smart toilet.”
Daily reports of bowel and bladder patterns enable early interventions, which can reduce emergency department visits, hospitalizations and falls. The TrueLoo system also led to reported increased efficiency for staff members.
VirtuSense Technologies and Frasier Meadows combined to win the Silver medal with “Frasier Meadows Monitors Fall Risk Over Time,” whereas Arrow Senior Living and Inspiren earned Bronze for “Inspired Resident Monitoring and Safety in Senior Living”
Staff Scheduling and Management
RiverSpring Living and Workforce Fusion won Gold with their entry, “Staffing WhiteBoard Creates Workflow Efficiency.”
With an average daily census of more than 600 beds in a single facility, Hebrew Home at Riverdale by RiverSpring Living needed a way to efficiently manage clinical staff members. Leaders there contracted with a software developer to create a real-time staffing dashboard that enables assignment coordinators to determine at a glance staffing levels, census, and any under- or over-coverage as compared to their budget staffing matrix.
As staff are reassigned to different stations, the whiteboard is automatically updated within seconds. The system also has the ability to look at prior and future dates to best manage workloads.
Apploi and Mission Health Communities submitted “Apploi Helps Mission Health Decrease Time-to-Hire” to win the SIlver. Smartlinx and SRI Management won SIlver with “How SRI Management Streamlined Operations and Reduced Labor Costs Across More Than 40 Assisted Living Communities with Smartlinx.”
Telehealth Solutions
The Gold winners in this category were Xandar Kardian and Noel Serrano, MD, for “Ambient Radar Sensor for Proactive Care.” Kardian’s contact-free technology uses radar to continuously monitor resting heart rate, resting respiratory rate and body motion index, providing detailed health insights.
One of the technology’s standout metrics reveals how it can help reduce hospital readmission rates. At a healthcare center in California where Medical Director Serrano provides services, hospital readmission rates plummeted to less than 10% within three months of installing the sensors. Patient outcomes, cost savings, operational efficiencies and alarm fatigue factors all improved.
Kno2 and Reperio won the Silver medal for “Kno2 and Reperio: Revolutionizing Virtual Care Delivery,” while CareRite Centers and Progressive Care Medical Group earned Bronze for “TEMI: The CareRite and Progressive Care Telehealth Robot”
Training and Education Solutions
Nevvon won the Gold medal for “Transforming Caregiver education with Nevvon’s Advanced LMS.” The winner is a global healthcare education company with an advanced e-training platform designed to simplify mandatory annual education for caregivers. The Learning Management System app allows caregivers to educate themselves at their own pace and schedule, streamlining regulatory requirements across states, enabling provider agencies to focus on running successful businesses.
Former homecare agency owner James Cohen developed LMS. It features a library with hundreds of modules covering a wide range of topics, from caregiving basics to state-specific compliance training. Each module includes micro-lessons with videos, animations, gamification, and quizzes with built-in remediation.
Winning the Silver medal was eLuminate LLC and Healthcare Services Group Incorporated with the entry “eLuminate Certifications Provides Food Service Workers Career Advancement.”
Two Bronze medals were awarded. CareRite Centers and Partnership with Celebrity Chefs Anne Burrell and Jason Giagrande took home one for “Culinary Excellence: CareRite’s Celebrity Chef in your Kitchen.” Arrow Senior Living and Maximum Communication and Michael Buckley Coaching earned the other.
The names of the award finalists had been released Aug. 21.
The competition offered expanded opportunities this year, and providers and their marketplace partners responded in record numbers. Six finalists were selected in most categories.
Award winners will be recognized across McKnight’s Senior Living, McKnight’s Long-Term Care News and McKnight’s Home Care on all their social and traditional media platforms.
Past coverage of McKnight’s Tech Awards + Summit activities and winners can be found here.
Preceding the awards ceremony Thursday were four thought-leadership webinars, which may be viewed for the next 12 months in archive. Registration is free and required to view them.
Sponsors of the 2024 McKnight’s Tech Awards + Summit include BluePurpose, Inovalon, MatrixCare and PointClickCare.
