Senior Living Executive Round-Up: Trends and Technology

Implementing new technologies, especially in senior living, can sometimes feel like a difficult terrain to navigate. Luckily, the executives profiled in the Leadership Series – a collaborative initiative between Senior Housing News and PointClickCare – had plenty of wisdom to share on the subject of senior living technology, including what works, what doesn’t, and how quickly the industry needs to embrace new ideas.

Check out what some of the best-in-the-business had to say about technology adoption, preparedness, and innovation:

Bob Kramer, founder and CEO of the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care (NIC), on the importance of timing around technology:

“If you’re doing this for the sake of being hip with technology, you’re probably not doing it for the right reasons and you’re likely to fail,” Kramer says. “You’ve got to first ask the basic questions, ‘How’s our customer changing? What is our customer really hiring our staff to do?’ In other words, you’ve got to be like Steve Jobs and Wayne Gretzky, you have to be skating to where the puck is going, not to where it is now, and that’s how you need to be applying technology.”

Justin Hutchens, outgoing President of HCP, Inc., on the importance of technology infrastructure:

“One of the key parts of doing that is to have appropriate IT infrastructure,” he says. “That includes a CRM system, it includes assessment and service-planning software, with business analytics where you can [track] move ins and move outs that are occurring on a weekly basis. Being in tune with the changing pricing within your market can have a huge impact on your profitability. There’s a need for analytical information. If you’re going to scale, you have to have a handle on a multi-site business. You can’t do that without adequate technology.”

John Rijos, Chairman and CEO of CPF Living Communities and co-founder/operating partner of Chicago Pacific Founders, on the future of technology in senior living:

“You can’t just throw bodies at senior living and hope to make money. You have to use technology, change the design to be more user-friendly for the residents and for the caregivers. I think there will be a great deal more technology in the industry, and more companies that do curated content that can help people.”

Kramer, Hutchens and Rijos weren’t the only executives recently profiled by The Leadership Series. Integral Senior Living founder and owner Sue Farrow, Leisure Care Chairman and CEO Dan Madsen, and Revera President and CEO Thomas Wellner also shared their views on technology in their interviews — and you don’t want to miss what Wellner has to say about robots and resident satisfaction.

Catch up on all of The Leadership Series interviews here.