Editor’s Note: The 2020 winners of the McKnight’s Excellence in Technology Awards are being announced Sept. 29 to Oct. 6. Senior Living track winners are being announced here by McKnight’s Senior Living. Senior Living track winners are being announced on the website of sister publication McKnight’s Long-Term Care News.
An innovative temperature-taking approach that protects staff members has won CareOne a Gold in the Safety category in the Senior Living track of the 2020 McKnight’s Excellence in Technology Awards.
Officials with the company, which operates 30 assisted living, memory care and rehabilitation facilities across New Jersey, knew they needed a better strategy than testing employees with a handheld thermometer at the start of each shift.
So Chief Information Officer Dwight Faustino turned to his security firm, eInteractive, to create a portable temperature scanner that could work at both the point of entry and the point of care. Together, the two firms came up with eTempScan30, which uses a scanner capable of reading 30 distinct temperatures in one second mounted on a medical cart with a battery power source that keeps it portable.
“We combined multiple technologies to get this together,” Faustino told McKnight’s Senior Living. “Now, we can move it from one place to another as we need it. As far as we know, that’s exclusive to CareOne.”
The multi-spectrum scanner automatically calibrates itself against a contained heat source. Although it cuts down on lines as staff enter the building, frontline workers also appreciate that it makes taking temperatures of residents easier. The device can be rolled to the door of a resident’s room and take an accurate reading from a distance of at least six feet.
It is currently being used in CareOne at Hanover, with plans to roll out to four other buildings in the chain.
Other Safety awards in the Senior Living track:
- Silver: Seattle’s Merrill Gardens for its pilot of SafelyYou’s artificial intelligence camera technology intended to reduce falls, improve response time and better evaluate when emergency care is needed.
- Bronze: Arrow Senior Living Management for use of a HikVision thermographic camera at its Blue Springs, MO, community. The camera measures visitor temperatures to limit staff contact, and it can warn visitors without masks to put one on before entering.
Competition entries were submitted earlier this year and judged by an independent panel of skilled care and senior living experts and industry professionals.
Stanley Healthcare is the Platinum sponsor of the 2020 McKnight’s Excellence in Technology Awards. MatrixCare is the Gold sponsor for the Senior Living track.
