For a sector that once described itself as high touch rather than high tech, senior living sure has changed.
Technology has become ubiquitous, touching virtually every facet of what senior living operators do, and how they do it.
Which begs an obvious question: Where is all that tech money going?
Fortunately, we can thank the folks at private investment bank Ziegler and their pals at LeadingAge CAST for some helpful insight. And here’s the scoop from their July 2024 CFO Hotline Survey: Information and communication technology, or ICT, infrastructure leads the way.
To be sure, that answer is perhaps not as clear as some would like. ICT is a bit of a sock-drawer category that can include everything from computer and network hardware to software and communications networks. Throw in a few computer systems, programming languages and data processing and you need a pretty big tent to fit everything in.
Still, a whopping 58% of the survey’s respondents said they’re pouring money into ICT. Other big-ticket items include electronic medical/health records systems (EMRs/EHRs) at 51%, workforce/staff scheduling systems at 48%, and electronic point of care/point of service documentation systems at 47%. And let’s not forget the access control and wander management systems, pulling in a respectable 44%.
On the flip side, some tech tools aren’t exactly flying off the shelves. Only 14% of organizations are investing in shared care planning and care coordination tools, and another 14% are dabbling in health information exchange solutions. Then there’s robotic process automation at a paltry 9%. Food servers aside, it doesn’t appear the robots will be taking over this field any time soon.
Looking to the future, the survey says senior living organizations are planning to invest in data analytics tools (40%), access control/wander management systems (30%), and EMRs/EHRs (29%) over the next year.
Any survey’s findings should be taken with a good-sized grain of salt. Still, those numbers are not just a toe in the pool. More than 100 senior living entities participated in this year’s survey. It was initially sent to chief financial officers and finance contacts but eventually found its way to the chief technology/information officers. About 61% of the respondents came from single-site communities, whereas 39% represented multi-site organizations.
Any way you slice it, tech is dramatically changing this field. In fact, It’s probably now safe to say senior living has become both high touch and high tech.
John O’Connor is editorial director for McKnight’s Senior Living and its sister media brands, McKnight’s Long-Term Care News, which focuses on skilled nursing, and McKnight’s Home Care. Read more of his columns here.
