A combined perspective and passion on valued based care and resident engagement created a merger of industry technology companies Linked Senior and LifeLoop. BTG Ambassador Charles de Vilmorin and Rob Fisher discuss their insights on how to improve the moments we can create for residents.

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This episode was recorded at the NIC Fall Conference.

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Produced by Solinity Marketing

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Listen to more episodes here

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Intro

Welcome to season seven of Bridge The Gap, a podcast dedicated to informing, educating, and influencing the future of housing and services for seniors. Powered by sponsors Accushield, Aline, NIC MAP Vision, Procare HR, Sage, Hamilton CapTel, Service Master, The Bridge Group Construction and Solinity. Produced by Solinity Marketing.

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00:35 - 00:46

Lucas McCurdy

Welcome to Bridge the Gap podcast, the senior Living podcast with Josh and Lucas. A great day in our nation's capital. DC here at the Fall NIC Conference. I want to welcome Charles and Rob to the program. Welcome to the show.

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00:46 - 00:47

Rob Fisher

Thank you Lucas.

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00:47 - 00:48

Charles de Vilmorin

Thanks for having us.

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00:48 - 01:17

Lucas McCurdy

Yes, we welcome back Charles and a newcomer, Rob, to the show. and this is an interesting merger. It's not a new merger, necessarily, but some really cool information coming out between Linked Senior and LifeLoop. Today we're going to be talking about some updates on the merger. And then also we're going to go into resident engagement and also some Value Based Care. So now that the merger has taken place, what's day to day life for you, Charles.

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01:17 - 01:58

Charles de Vilmorin

It's quite amazing actually. And you know, I spent two years building Linked Senior. I'm so proud to find this new and amazing home in LifeLoop. You know, for the side note, I've always had a lot of respect for Jack York for starting iN2L 12 years ago. Anyway, he started and pioneered resident engagement. And so I'm very grateful for the work that he's done. But then this new team at LifeLoop, including Rob, obviously, is just amazing. So it's really inspiring to have some of the best of the best to be now building what is already the leader in the category, in what we think is and obviously it is true, the hottest category in senior living. And so there's a bright future and I'm so excited to be building it.

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01:58 - 02:04

Lucas McCurdy

Very good. So Rob, you're a bit of a newcomer into the senior housing marketplace. What's the introduction been like?

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02:04 - 03:06

Rob Fisher

it's been much different than I actually expected. But in a good way. I come from healthcare for about 20 years and healthcare technology and running SAS businesses. Jumping into senior living, I thought it was just on the fringe and it is, but it's pretty significantly different from the way that healthcare operates and is financed. That said, we are seeing that with Value Based Care and the movement of the acuity level is getting higher within senior living, the need for health care, being provided at the residence, is important. It's a fun time to be here. I've been a benefactor, only being in the role for about five months.

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I've been the benefactor of the work of both Charles and as he mentioned, Jack York. 25 years worth of resident engagement technology and building a business and building a whole marketplace for it. And so, obviously, the opportunity is fantastic for us. And we're just going to continue to go deeper in the resident engagement space and continue to make an impact in this market.

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03:06 - 03:42

Charles de Vilmorin

One of the reasons that really excites us is, as well, me and the rest of my team is that senior living obviously is a people's business, you know the heart and the brain and the mind are equally as important. And on day one, when I met Rob, the first thing he said was how he operates, which is leading with the heart, balancing with the head.

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And he talks about it, but he does it day to day. And I think there's a bright future for him and the company because that's how the industry operates. And that is, I think, a huge advantage, which is having such great leadership in place.

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03:42 - 04:26

Lucas McCurdy

In my opinion, resident engagement is really a key component in the culture of a community and also the reputation of a community. And, I'm fortunate enough to be able to visit so many different communities and from different operators, different levels of care, memory care, assisted living. And I get to over the years, past 15 years, I've seen all the different iterations of resident care and, really starting with Jack York and seeing the TV screens and the engagement. And, there's so much that has changed. And, so what is LifeLoop bringing to the marketplace that's different? What's on the horizon in the future for resident care to make it even better?

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04:26 - 05:04

Charles de Vilmorin

Linked Senior.  One of the things that we did really well is really understanding the call process when it comes to programming and engagement, especially memory care. One of the advantages and huge aspects with LifeLoop is that it is the most complete solution to manage the whole senior living experience. And so going forward, it feels like a very good and complementary fit because of the fact that we can help deepen with a deep understanding here of the engagement side, knowing that we're contributing to, again, the most complete experience, to platform for the industry.

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05:04 - 06:08

Rob Fisher

I was going to add to this, as Charles and I were just actually talking about this over lunch, is the fact that the needs from an engagement standpoint are going to be different in independent than in, assisted. And then obviously in memory care. And what we're trying to do is to start to build more personalization into that, both at the community level, but then also at the individual resident level. By the community level, what we're trying to do is take the likes and dislikes of the residents as a whole and start to position activities that support the likes and stay away from the dislikes of the members of the community. And then to get real deep, go one on one in memory care for personalized engagement. So a lot of the tools that we're starting to create are around AI, which is no surprise. but a really cool experience that we've got ahead of us. And, again, with the subject matter expertise of Charles, we've got a beautiful future ahead.

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06:08 - 06:37

Lucas McCurdy

Giving the caregivers the tools that they need to be able to take every day and make it excellent is so important. And again, I've been going into these communities for 15 years, and it's all the way from little bitty TV where people are just kind of sitting there in front of TV. Like the days have changed so much. Like that's not the norm anymore. That's not the standard. The standard has got to be programmed engagement, but the operators need to have the tools to be able to do it and manage it.

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06:38 - 07:44

Charles de Vilmorin

The way we look at it is that every touchpoint with the resident, that's an opportunity. And there's no reason to say that today's resident, today's client and tomorrow are going to have the expectation that these are to be almost magical. So, you know, I personally believe in magic. But besides that, with the idea that all of these touchpoints are opportunities, you know, we at LifeLoop should have the right to own these, to help the operator make them not only personalized, but happy moments.

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Magical moment because obviously the operators, that's that's how they win. But I personally believe like, you know, old people are cool like every resident does. And, you know, we talked very briefly about the caregivers, the bulk of the caregivers, they show up and work because they love old people. Like when I started, LinkedSenior people were saying, why old people and so on. But there's something to be said about these moments. If you can make a caregiver like today, they’ll come back tomorrow because they want more of these purpose driven moments.

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07:44 - 08:09

Lucas McCurdy

Absolutely. And again, giving them the means, the methods, the tools, the training to be able to do that because, the labor force, I mean, you can you can have a heart for wanting to do it, but it's a very difficult job, way more difficult than handing out chicken sandwiches. Chick-Fil-A down the street. It's a difficult job. You've got to have the heart to do it. But if you can match that with the correct programs, training, and tools, it makes it a lot easier.

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08:09 - 08:47

Rob Fisher

Absolutely. And we all know about labor issues. And, one of the surveys that we've done, we do an annual survey both around tech, but then also from a customer standpoint and 94% of our customers have, have seen, hours of, savings from their staff by leveraging both the engagement capabilities, but also some of our operations platform as well. So we're really trying to stay focused on keeping the job easier for staff so that they can spend time with residents as they desire to do. As Charles said, a lot of the folks that enter the market are there for the right reasons. And they're leading by their heart.

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08:47 - 09:05

Lucas McCurdy

without, you know, giving any secrets away. But, are there any big initiatives, for LifeLoop, this year or going into next year where it's like, hey, we really have these big goals, or we have this new kind of idea that we want to bring to the marketplace of resident engagement or value based care. Any thoughts on that?

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09:05 - 09:49

Rob Fisher

Yes is the answer as far as how far we're going to go into the conversations? It goes back to personalization and finding out more as residents enter into a community, finding out more about them on the front end so that we can use that to better prepare the activities as they desire, as both a community but as residents and the individuals themselves. And then furthermore, continuing to get their families involved and getting family involvement, whether they're contributing pictures and sharing what's happening outside of the community, or they're just sending them a note. So we're big on wanting to get the families involved. And that's some of the legacy LifeLoop technology that we have that will continue to evolve.

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09:49 - 10:11

Lucas McCurdy

I love that you know, it kind of made me think of, and I'm sure you, you all think of this every single day, but, somebody needs to be the voice for some of the folks that are living here that may not have a voice. And I think technology can help bridge that gap somewhat, as we can kind of help be their voice and to communicate back and forth with families. For maybe some older adults are not able to communicate.

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10:11 - 10:53

Charles de Vilmorin

You know, one of the things that we're very excited about is just to continue our very successful deployment of technology. So obviously AI is a big buzzword. We believe we think about AI slightly differently, which is that it's just an extension of what already exists in the sense that it's driven by the business outcomes. It continuously delivers on value. It's just not once, you know, segment or thing, it should touch everything that's being done. And again, like Rob is saying, well, we'll wait until further in the year to have larger announcements. But one thing we were very excited to share is that we're coming with a new e-book. When it comes to the state of technology, that's going to be released before the end of the year. And a lot of insights that I am so very proud of that work as well.

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10:53 - 11:33

Lucas McCurdy

We'll make sure we stay in touch because we're going to want to link that So people have easy access to that. I think being a part of that education and continuing to put out that great content so that the whole industry can really reap the benefits of that.

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And I'm sure, you know, Rob, you probably already learned very, very quickly how collaborative the senior housing industry is as compared to other verticals. That was a big eye opener for me. When I came into this marketplace, I thought, gosh, all these people are competing against each other, but they certainly talk a lot and they sure are friendly. And I have learned and you've probably learned the same thing is that it's really the overall goal, it's the care of the older adults and how no one person can do it. We need everybody.

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11:33 - 11:56

Rob Fisher

Yeah. And there's enough out there. And especially with the growing population aging into 65, what is it, ten, 10 million, more 65 year olds coming in before 2030. There's enough opportunity for everybody to win. And I do believe that if you stay focused as a marketplace on the right ideals, everyone's going to get a win.

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11:56 - 12:03

Lucas McCurdy

So, Charles, any final comments? I know you guys have a busy schedule here at the Farm Net Conference. Anything to send us off with?

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12:03  - 12:52

Charles de Vilmorin

Yeah. So, I mean, for us, defining the future, like, we decide, like we discussed very briefly, this idea of value based care is extremely important. And so obviously, things are starting to happen now, and I find it really exciting because this is what's going to accelerate everything for senior living, I mean, health care in general. But when you consider senior living, it is going to be one of the fastest aspects of our industry. And I think that there's no real value based care without completely understanding the person and completely understanding the experience of the person. And again, continue to talk to our little horn here. But this is why I think that Rob is bringing such invaluable insights, because he has decades of experience from the healthcare side before coming to the industry. So if you want to say anything about value based care.

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12:52 - 13:52

Rob Fisher

We've seen it before, but, only 20% of the well-being of an individual is made up of, of clinical, related items. The other 80% are typically what you would refer to as social determinants of health. We have an opportunity to play a part in that 80% for sure. In fact, we are from a financing standpoint.

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Or how do we help operators be rewarded in that? That's part of what the cycle that's going on right now within senior living. on the flip side, the expense and how much goes into that? About 82% goes to clinical related items when it's only 20%. So we have 18% going towards the other 80%. We need to be able to find a way to balance that and be more proactive and preventative in health care. So there's a good, really good opportunity. And engagement is just one of those opportunities. But we feel very strongly that we're well suited for that and to make an impact in this, in this marketplace.

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13:52 - 14:39

Lucas McCurdy

I know that we’re coming into the fall season and I know everybody wants to finish this year strong. And I know we will. The demand for senior housing continues to be a big factor. The demographics are definitely compelling. And one of our big sponsors, NIC MAP Vision, will be excited to get an update from them here at the NIC conference about this.

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All the new data trends, in the demographics and what we are going to be seeing in the years to come. So very great to meet you, Rob Charles. Great to see you again. A Bridge the Gap ambassador. And, just an awesome friend. We appreciate you. And to all of our listeners that are interested in connecting with LifeLoop, we'll put that in the comments and then connect with us at btgvoice.com. Download this content and so much more. And thanks for listening to another great episode of Bridge the Gap.

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Outro

Thanks for listening to Bridge the Gap podcast with Josh and Lucas. Connect with the BTG network team and use your voice to influence the industry by connecting with us at BTG voice.com.

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