Telehealth-RPM-Virtual Visits-Voice Health

There is a labor shortage everywhere -- ditto in senior care. We know that one of the biggest issues in senior living (and home care, nursing homes, home health care) today is a shortage of labor. This roll-up of statistics shows more than 400,000 employees lost between 2020 and 2022, with long-term care facilities (aka nursing homes) being the most impacted. There is quite a bit of chatter in long-term care publications about the need for more technology use, and providers are asked to offer best examples of tech use to win an award (separate categories for senior living, home care, and skilled nursing) at the upcoming Leading Age event in October. Remember that memory care is a sub-category within both senior living (aka assisted living) and skilled nursing facilities (aka SNFs).

PERS Insider helpfully listed the most common PERS Google searches. The result was bleak and informative. Their website identifies the top item (16,000 searches, results with ads) as a 'medical alert bracelet'. Except for the deep-pocketed Medical Guardian which bought ads everywhere, these were all bracelets to help emergency workers determine a health issue. The next one, Medical alert systems (14K searches) turned up ads for multi-vendor sales sites with names like 10 best, 5 best in Florida, and look, there's Medical Guardian! The US News site was not an ad itself, but the article was filled with ads for devices. Ditto for ConsumerAffairs.com.' Best and worst companies – more ads -- and Medical Guardian. Even 'I’ve Fallen and I Can’t Get Up' is one of top four search terms (4800), no doubt from those miserable LifeAlert ads. 

Is 2022 the tipping point for technology and older adults? Scanning through the collection of blog posts from April and May, the obvious has finally occurred. Baby boomers are aging and want to stay in their homes as long as feasible. Soon all 54 million of them will be over 65. Many will need to be monitored in their home for chronic diseases and in-home risk of falling – Amazon noticed with Alexa Together – Verizon noticed with its Care Smart Watch. Home care companies, senior living companies, skilled nursing facilities are all desperate for workers to address this overwhelming market. At the insistence of customers and prospects, technology offerings (beyond telehealth) will be required in all of these settings, especially at home -- and so as long-predicted, they must proliferate and improve. Consider these six blog posts from April and May 2022.

ATA’s live event return to Boston. This week the American Telemedicine Association (ATA) conference, charmingly titled “What Now? Creating Opportunity in a Time of Uncertainty,” returned to a live format event in Boston. For those wondering, the event title relates to 'reimbursement uncertainties, workflow challenges, and investments needed.' Most of the exhibitor list of companies' focused on improving the efficiency and effectiveness of provider workflow and businesses. But some offered innovation for patients, whether in virtual visits and care, vital sign measurement, and improvements to patient experience. One might note that individuals 55 and older account for more than half of healthcare spending, with costs rising with age.  Here are five from the ATA event, content from vendor websites: