rebecca.cook@k4connect.com, Author at K4Connect

Pandemic pivot pay off: Triangle tech provider K4Connect triples users, doubles revenues

The company, which provides technology to companies serving older adults as well as individuals with disabilities, plans to continue expansion in 2022, according to a company statement and to company co-founder and CEO Scott Moody.

February 15, 2022

MORRISVILLE – K4Connect, a Triangle-headquartered healthcare technology provider, reported this week it had tripled its member base and doubled company revenue during the prior two years.

The company, which provides technology to companies serving older adults as well as individuals with disabilities, plans to continue expansion in 2022, according to a company statement and to company co-founder and CEO Scott Moody.

The company has raised more than $35 million in funding, including $12 million raised during the pandemic, the company statement noted. And it raised additional funding in December 2021, Moody told WRAL TechWire this week.

That funding in December came from Second Century Ventures, the strategic investment arm of the National Association of REALTORS, following the participation of K4Connect in an April 2021 program led by the firm.

“For-profit investments in senior housing development are growing and we see both our participation in the program and SCV’s investment as recognition of the need to incorporate smart technologies,” said Moody. “Most importantly, data and analytics, into the property technology market to meet the Boomer demand as this generation begins to age into senior housing.”

A PANDEMIC PIVOT

The company pivoted during the early months of the pandemic, said Moody, expanding the company’s features and adding product releases that worked to address core challenges that communities were encountering.

“The pandemic pulled much of the world to a screeching halt. For us, it served as an opportunity to deliver on our mission of using technology to better serve older adults,” said Moody.

“Certainly early days in the pandemic communities were not immediately surveying new technologies,” said Moody. “They needed to focus on resident safety and service.”

But what did become clear during this initial response to the new challenge of a global pandemic where so much was unknown, said Moody, was that scaling critical communications and community management would prove to be incredibly challenging without “the digital piping to do so.”

“We saw operators turning to either new technologies to solve these issues or new implementations of existing technologies for communities who already had tooling in place,” said Moody. “The evidence of this growing appetite for tech can be found in any number of surveys and reports from senior housing investment firms, the vendor ecosystem and supporting associations. And we’re seeing it first hand with our customers as residents and staff now value the technologies they depended on to get through the pandemic – it’s become a part of daily life.”

Moody noted that the company quickly pivoted to shift product focus to new releases of tools that could advance communications efforts, socialization techniques, and enhance community safety. They also began to operate using contactless and remote deployments, which Moody noted allowed the company to give communities resources without risk.

4 MILLION AND GROWING

Moody noted that while 77% of older, aging adults would prefer to age at home for “as long as possible,” according to a 2021 AARP survey that contacted respondents in June and July 2021, there are about 4 million older adults across the care continuum right now.

But just because there are communities doesn’t mean that those who chose to live at home won’t need access to similar tools that enhance communication, socialization, and safety.

“The need to provide technology resources both for the individual and their at-home caregivers – whether family members or care agencies – is essential,” said Moody. “We’ve proved the need for communications, engagement, safety, and data-driven resources in the senior living market over the last seven years; we’re taking what we know of how to best serve the older adult and testing what that looks like in the home setting.”

Head to WRAL Techwire to read the full article.

K4Connect Growth Leads to New Strategic Investors, Accelerates 2022 Market Expansion

As the need for older adult technology resources grows, senior living innovator itself innovates to meet demands

RALEIGH, N.C., February 14, 2022 – K4Connect, a mission-driven healthtech company integrating the best in technology to serve older adults and individuals living with disabilities, is leveraging its growth since 2020 to empower more senior living operators, staff and residents with technology and data. As senior living’s appetite for innovation increases, meeting that need with solutions that provide actionable behavioral, operational and health insights is critical.

The pandemic revealed an undeniable need for dependable and scalable resources that can support the older adult population with easy access to important information, socialization tooling, communications and safety. Technology quickly rose in importance for senior living operators with over 80% of long-term care executives increasing investment in innovations that would assist residents – and community staff – with navigating through the challenges of quarantine, visitation restrictions and more. In early March of 2020, K4Connect pivoted its product roadmap and company structure to quickly respond to these immediate customer needs. Expanding the features of its K4Community solution for residents and staff, issuing contactless and remote deployments to ease community onboarding and improving its award-winning automated Resident Check-In safety feature, resulted in the company nearly tripling its member base while doubling its revenue over the last two years.

“The pandemic pulled much of the world to a screeching halt. For us, it served as an opportunity to deliver on our mission of using technology to better serve older adults,” said K4Connect CEO and Co-Founder, Scott Moody. “We prioritized product releases and integrations that solved critical issues for communities, all while lowering costs for our community partners. While the last two years were not without their many challenges, we’re proud of our small part in helping those most often underserved by technology. Now, the opportunity lies within enabling these communities to not only maintain but advance their technology strategies many started during the pandemic.”

With the rapid adoption of essential, yet disparate, technologies over the last two years, senior living operators must have the operational infrastructure to extend the value of these solutions beyond the pandemic need. K4Connect’s FusionOS integration platform transforms these point solutions into a single, cohesive technology system – all while collecting and delivering data-driven insights for operators. With over 40 patents, FusionOS, on which K4Community is built, acts as an operating system for the community, providing a flexible architecture that allows customers to integrate systems and tools needed today, while seamlessly expanding implementations as community and resident needs evolve over time.

To support its mission, K4Connect has raised an additional $12 million in venture funding ($35 million in total) from existing and new investors since the start of the pandemic. The new investors include Forte Ventures, Second Century Ventures (National Association of REALTORS®), and senior living industry leaders, CoastWood Senior Housing Partners President, Daniel Decker, BPOC Founder and Omega Healthcare Investors Co-Founder, William Petty, and RSF Partner and National Investment Center for Seniors Housing & Care Chairman, Kurt Read.

“As operators along the entire senior living continuum look to advance hospitality and care, the need for data to inform resident and staffing solutions is absolutely critical,” said Kurt Read, Principal – RSF Partners and current Chairman of the Board of the National Investment Center for Seniors Housing and Care. “K4Connect delivers on this promise of data value for operators with an enterprise platform that not only connects and aggregates data, but delivers actionable insights that inform better care and experiences.”

K4Connect is a leading provider of enterprise technologies designed for senior living community residents and staff teams. As the company looks to expand in 2022, it will initiate its first pilots to broaden its K4Community solution for congregate senior living to support home care recipients, and their caregivers, who wish to age in place. For more information about the company and K4Community, visit www.K4Connect.com.

About K4Connect:
K4Connect is a mission-driven healthtech company that integrates the best in technologies and services to serve and empower older adults and individuals living with disabilities. We believe meaningful technologies have the power to make the lives of older adults simpler, healthier and happier. Our leading solution for senior living, K4Community, is an ecosystem of smart products and features that help residents live more independently, while streamlining staff workflows and driving operational efficiencies for operators. The entire K4Community experience is powered by our patented FusionOS operating system, enabling all of our community partners to finally unlock the value of enterprise data.

Based in Raleigh, N.C., K4Connect is currently serving thousands of senior living residents and staff at continuing care, independent living and assisted living communities across the nation. For more information, please visit www.K4Connect.com.

Sequoia Living’s Viamonte at Walnut Creek Selects K4Connect as Its Technology Partner for Residents and Staff

Leading Northern California senior living operator takes innovative approach to older adult hospitality and care

RALEIGH, N.C., Jan. 31, 2022 — Today, Sequoia Living’s Viamonte at Walnut Creek announced a technology partnership with K4Connect, a mission-driven healthtech company integrating the best in technology to serve and empower older adults and individuals living with disabilities. Viamonte at Walnut Creek opened the doors of its state-of-the-art senior living community in December 2020. Today, they have more than 150 residents across independent living, assisted living and memory care.

Located in the San Francisco Bay Area, Viamonte at Walnut Creek implemented K4Connect’s technology, K4Community, to deliver a next generation living experience for residents and a better-connected workplace for staff. The technology also helped the new community steer through the challenges of the pandemic by increasing resident access to information, keeping residents connected to loved ones and empowering staff with dependable and scalable tooling to ensure residents were safe and cared for.

“K4Community has played a vital role in Viamonte at Walnut Creek’s success during its first year of operation,” says Melody Mitchell, executive director of Viamonte at Walnut Creek. “We leveraged the technology to seamlessly navigate through the continued hurdles of the pandemic with the communications, engagement and resident safety tooling. We’re confident our strong resident adoption of the technology indicates a continued desire for this type of integrated and innovative living experience.”

K4Community is a comprehensive suite of resident and staff solutions built for senior living. Over the last year, Viamonte residents have used the K4Community Plus app to conduct a myriad of tasks. This includes staying connected to loved ones through video chat, messaging, and photo-sharing, which helped curb the harmful impacts of social isolation throughout the pandemic. K4Community Plus also provides easy access to smart lighting features in their homes, improving safety by allowing residents to turn lights on and off on their personal device(s) from anywhere in the home.

In addition, K4Community Plus enables residents to view community events, dining menus, resident directories, entertainment content and more, all of which over 90% of residents are actively accessing. This same content is also provided as a voice-first experience with K4Community Voice, powered by Amazon Alexa.

Over the last six months, the community has seen high adoption and benefits including:

Daily app users grew by over 50%
77% viewed community photos and 65% viewed community shared videos
A 190% increase in the total number of voice commands
84% of residents used the K4Community Voice control feature for smart lighting
A 200% increase in the number of smart lighting commands

Community staff are also realizing the benefits from streamlined and augmented daily workflows. With the award-winning K4Community Resident Check-In (RCI), the daily resident check-in process is automated for both the resident and caregiving team. Motion-enabled smart home and voice-activated devices automatically alert staff and confirm a resident is active for the day. This non-invasive, passive monitoring is a complete departure from the traditional method of administering this critical daily task, often relying on in-room resident pull cords or meal check-ins. In using RCI, the time to resolve alerts decreased by 79% over the last six months, a reflection of the increased efficiency of the time-consuming process, along with residents feeling safer.

“We designed our technology with a pretty simple yet impactful objective – to help older adults live their best lives,” says K4Connect CEO and Co-Founder, Scott Moody. “In recent times, that has meant using K4Community as a tool and resource to stay safe, connected and healthy during the pandemic. We are thrilled to see how the residents at Viamonte have embraced our technology and look forward to working with the community team to continue to deliver on our mission of serving through innovation.”

K4Connect is a leading provider of enterprise technologies being used by tens of thousands of residents and staff teams across the nation. For more information about K4Community, visit www.K4Connect.com.

About K4Connect
K4Connect is a mission-driven healthtech company that integrates the best in technology to serve and empower older adults and individuals living with disabilities, together with the people, communities and organizations that also serve them. We believe meaningful technologies have the power to make the lives of older adults simpler, healthier and happier. Our leading solution for senior living, K4Community, is an ecosystem of smart products and features that help residents live more independently, while streamlining staff workflows and driving operational efficiencies for operators. The entire K4Community experience is powered by our patented FusionOS operating system, enabling all of our community partners to finally unlock the value of enterprise data.

Based in Raleigh, N.C., K4Connect is currently serving thousands of senior living residents and staff at over 800 continuing care, independent living and assisted living communities across the nation. For more information, please visit www.K4Connect.com.

About Viamonte
Viamonte at Walnut Creek, owned by Bay Area nonprofit Sequoia Living, includes independent apartments, assisted living units and memory care. The 191 units at Viamonte feature spacious floor plans, modern kitchens, and private patios or balconies. The award-winning design of the community includes $1.5 million in public art on display on every floor and common area. Viamonte is a truly inspired environment to call home. For more information or to schedule a private tour and lunch at Viamonte, contact the sales office at 925-621-6600 or visit online at viamonteliving.org.

Voice Plus Visual Tech: The Secret Sauce for The Age-Friendly Home

Multimodal technology is creating new, meaningful experiences for older adults aging at home.

By: Cindy Phillips | Managing Partner, K4Advisors

January 30, 2022

The sentiment of wanting to age in our own homes (vs. moving to a senior living community or moving along a continuum of care within a senior living community) has not changed during the pandemic. In fact, comparable AARP surveys from 2018 and 2021, both show the consistent pattern of three out of four adults 50 and older wanting to remain in their homes.

What keeps evolving is how people want to live as they age, what is important to them, and how providers can effectively serve them. Given the labor shortage is likely to only get worse, we know technology is part of that solution.

Unfortunately, several obstacles still stand in the way of realizing the full potential technology has to improve the lives of older adults. Many are without the necessary Wi-Fi to support it, others lack the skill to use it, do not trust the payment model or have privacy concerns. Even those who are willing find it cumbersome or complicated to navigate the disparate pieces or to keep up with the pace of change.

One of the challenges for providers in this AgeTech space is not only meeting the needs of today’s diverse customer base, but a more sophisticated one five years from now. It’s easy to get discouraged, believing older adults are not “ready” for this yet. But we must keep innovating with one eye toward the future, and one on more effectively serving the needs of today.

We start by asking two questions – Why aren’t they ready? What is the key to advancing the use of tech that we know could help? I believe it’s simple (not to be confused with easy), we must deliver solutions that are so beneficial and so easy to use that anyone –whether 50 or 85 years of age– will embrace them. We’ve got to flatten the adoption curve, providing value immediately recognized by the user. So much value, they are willing and committed to pushing through the challenges of early use.

As an example, look at one combined set of technologies poised to be a positive force in the lives of seniors if designed and integrated in the right way. Evolving as a cousin to smart speakers, smart displays (e.g., Amazon Echo Show, Facebook Portal, or Google Nest Hub), are an incredible combination of intelligence (AI), human-like voice controls, with the addition of a visually appealing touchscreen.

This voice-plus-visual technology may appear complex on the surface but is oddly similar to the television and the telephone, both devices that older adults have successfully adopted. In fact, I would argue that a device like the Echo Show can provide a more intimate connection than a telephone – showing the face of a driver before they arrive, providing a personalized reminder of the pick-up, or even sharing the estimated time of arrival to offer peace of mind as they wait near the door.

The technology is also more interactive than either the television or the telephone. For example – if the appointment is to attend an event, the Echo Show device can display lunch options (with rich color and even nutrition info), ask if they plan to stay for the meal afterward, place their order, and remind them what to bring along in the way of supplies or a sweater if the venue is chilly.

In a more passive way, the Echo Show can work with smart home technology to send a private note to the daughter when her father has left home and when he returns. Additionally, it can automatically turn on the outside and living room lights at sunset to ensure it is safe and welcoming when they get home.

The above is just one scenario that feels valuable. There are others that make ordering groceries or meals easier (through the voice and screen interfaces). Arranging household services such as house cleaning, snow removal or plumbing repairs through a pre-screened set of vendors accessible with a voice request or the touch of one or two buttons.

The key to any of these is not the display box, it’s the content. Customized to deliver value to the user in a frictionless way. It is the one-time set up, easy voice or single-touch commands, and a trusted means to personalize that content and/or to pay for items as needed. The average 70+ year old may find value in many of these services but does not want to create a notebook of passwords to remember, nor learn a device designed for a 20-year old.

The answer lies in how we marry the simplicity and familiarity of the old TV remote and the telephone or the calendar with handwritten reminders, with the advances of newer tech such as fingerprint and eye scanners, motion sensors and AI predictive capability that can recommend or offer intelligent prompting instead of cumbersome typing. That is the secret sauce that will make voice and visual technology a building block of the age-friendly homes of tomorrow!

For Startup K4Connect, Connectedness Is More Than Technical—It’s Connecting Aging Adults With Loved Ones And Beyond

“The notion that older adults dislike technology, Moody told me, is false. They dislike technology that’s hard to understand.”

January 28, 2022

By: Steve Aquino

Although it is very true accessibility is first and foremost built with disabled people in mind, it’s also very true accessibility is not exclusively the domain of the disabled. Accessibility is beneficial to literally anyone and everyone, from larger text on computers to subtitles in foreign films to meal kits and more. The discrete set of software features companies like Apple and Google include in iOS and Android, respectively, represents only a smidgen of what accessibility means conceptually. This is what makes accessibility so dynamic: as many people have various needs and tolerances, the same can be said for accessibility’s potential applications.

Consider the aged community. Amazon has poured considerable resources (most notably, Alexa) into projects designed to help senior citizens live more happily and independently. In the past few months, I’ve reported on two such efforts: Smart Properties, which helps those in assisted living communities stay better connected with loved ones and their care team; and Alexa Together, which allows seniors to use Alexa to call for help if assistance is needed, amongst other things.

K4Connect is another company dedicated to helping the aged population through accessibility. The North Carolina-based startup describes itself as a “mission-driven technology company” that works to make technology accessible (and thus empowering) to older adults and other individuals with disabilities. The company does this by unifying disparate pieces of software to make everything accessible in one place, rather than a hundred places. “[It’s] really this idea of helping them [older adults] live their optimal like, using technology, no matter their age,” said Scott Moody, K4Connect’s chief executive, in a telephone interview with me conducted last September. “So it’s the whole idea of allowing them to live [a] more independent, healthier, and happier life.[That’s] what K4Connect does.”

Head to Forbes to read the full article!

K4Connect Quarterly Product Update: NEW Dining and Menu Communication Feature Makes Its Debut!

“Learn about four new, impactful K4Community updates.”

By: Diana Gore | Product Marketing Manager, K4Connect

January 18, 2022

K4Connect is proud to deliver exciting new technologies and features to senior living communities and operators through our K4Community solution.

This quarter, our team focused on features that benefit residents, their family members and community staff in the areas of:

Dining and Menu Communications – a NEW offering for community staff, residents and their families
Segmenting content based on care setting in K4Community Plus
Enhanced calendar widgets
Integration updates

Here’s how our newest features and updates improve the lives of residents and increase staff efficiency in senior living communities.

1. NEW Dining and Menu Communications

Reduce redundant, time consuming work with our new menu communication feature. Following our “create (enter) once, publish everywhere” philosophy, staff members now have a quick and simple way to communicate menu information via K4Community Plus, Voice, Digital Signage and Direct Broadcast. This robust and highly customizable feature enables senior living staff to save time as they create and share menu information.

Highlight features include:

Repeating menu options available to accommodate common menu cycles and reduce repetitive data entry
Ability to automate dining and menu information via our newest integration with Grove Menus

2. NEW Content Segmented by Care Setting(s)

Ensure you are getting relevant content to the right group of residents with the added ability to segment based on resident care setting. Community staff can designate a piece of content, event calendars and/or menu information to be shared with desired resident groups. Additionally, this update enables more robust reporting and data insights around residents and staff usage.

3. Calendar Enhancements

Increased customization options with calendar creation widgets allows staff even more flexibility as they design calendars while still benefiting from time savings that comes with the automation of event data. Over 20 new designs were added to the content calendar giving staff more options to choose from.

4. Integration Updates

In addition to seeing their dining/meal balance, residents can now see their FullCount and Volante transaction history in K4Community Plus. This gives residents easy access to their full transaction history enabling them to review information like date/time, amount and location of a transaction as well as image receipts, line items descriptions if applicable.

Ready to learn more about K4Community? Book a demo today!

Tech, labor, wellness, business concerns factor into senior living industry trends, predictions for 2022

The pandemic has left its mark on the senior living industry — good and bad. As another new year begins, some industry experts share trends and predictions for what lies ahead.

January 6, 2022

By: Kimberly Bonvissuto

Technology
Technology likely is going to transform the competitive landscape for continuing care retirement / life plan communities and other long-term care settings, according to a senior living trends survey from professional services firm CLA.

Survey respondents indicated that new residents are moving in with higher expectations for and comfort with technology. Fifty-eight percent of operators participating in the research said they plan to invest in new technology in the next five years, whereas 37% indicated that they are in the process of or planning to develop custom programs and apps to leverage data.

K4Connect Chief Growth Officer Keith Stewart predicts that more technology industries will invest in aging services that serve the older adult population, including major device manufacturers, business-to-consumer electronics providers and wellness / lifestyle companies.

Stewart said “the line is blurring” between active adult / 55-plus and early levels of care, including independent living and aging in place at home. This blurring, she said, follows the wellness trends led by companies marketing fitness tracking devices and health technology.

Gig services — primarily ride-hailing and on-demand delivery — also have started to make their way into the older adult market. Stewart anticipates that these services will expand as the demographics shift further toward wealthy baby boomers with technology-related expectations.

K4Advisors Chief of Staff and Managing Partner Cindy Phillips foresees that technology will help operators find ways to engage and serve older adults in more ways before they make a move to senior living. Educating prospects on the benefits of the senior living lifestyle and beginning the onboarding process into a community are options.

“In 2022, we’ll see senior living communities start serving older adults in many ways before they move in, helping to build affinity from the start,” she said. “Communities could consider wellness offerings, virtual content invites to dining or special events, a marketplace or travel club, even priority with healthcare / short-term rehab.”

Phillips also anticipates that more communities will create a position dedicated to championing resident technology.

“COVID certainly cemented that technology is here to stay, and communities need to invest in resources to support it, accelerate it and integrate into activities and wellness programming,” she said. “We see this recognition of the importance of technology and adding some structure to how it is reviewed and implemented in communities with resident technology advisory groups, IT directors and the occasional chief information officer at the operator level.”

Head to McKnight’s to read more about 2022 industry predictions from industry experts.

Top 5 PR Strategies for Senior Living Communities

Cost-effective and time-efficient strategies to leverage the value of public relations for your community.

By: Lindsay Hull |Director of Media, Zer0 to 5ive

December 8, 2021

Public relations is a fantastic way for senior living communities to raise their awareness in the market through the credibility that comes through the press. At the same time, tight marketing budgets and already stretched staff bandwidth can make a potential public relations campaign seem out-of-reach.

However, there are several ways senior living communities can embark on an affordable and easy-to-implement public relations plan to help generate local and regional visibility — and, most importantly, drive occupancy. We’ll dive deeper into a few of them below.

1) Develop a simple process

While there are many routes a PR campaign can take, the best strategy for a team with limited resources to take is to keep it simple. Know from the beginning what you can and can’t do — how much time you can devote to public relations (you’ll find out that it’s harder than you think) and how much you can budget towards this type of work. That will help you formulate a manageable plan, which is the most important step to success in PR.

2) Think local, local, local

Much has been stated about the decline of regional and local news media. However, there is still a vibrant audience for this type of news — and it’s an audience filled with potential prospects interested in finding a senior living community to eventually call home.

According to Pew Research Center, an estimated 35.6 million Americans had either a print or digital subscription to a daily newspaper in 2020. A separate survey found that 24 percent of people above the age of 65 and 38 percent of those between the ages of 50-64 said they followed “local news” very closely. These findings are a good indication that local news is still alive and well and likely your greatest asset.

3) Contacting local news

It does take effort to reach out to local news outlets. While there are services that can help you quickly find contact information for reporters, the cheapest and most effective way is to scour the names of reporters at local newspapers and TV affiliates. Most newspapers (like the Atlanta Journal-Constitution) have an easy-to-access online list of reporters, what they report about, along with their contact information. Local TV stations (like WCCO-TV in the Minneapolis/St. Paul market) also have the same kind of contact information.

Where to find contact information for local publications online:

Staff lists
Reporter bios (often hyperlinked in articles)
Media or advertising kits
Newsroom general contact (this contact is often the hub for disseminating information to the appropriate reporter or writer)
Tag news outlets or specific reporters in your social posts of local happenings at the community

However, it’s also important that you know who covers what. Research what reporters have covered the types of stories you’d like to appear in — reaching out to a sports reporter about the opening of a new community is simply wasting your time.

4) What’s a good story?

Local news outlets want news that focuses on people first. Keep that in mind when approaching reporters about a new community opening or a big happening in your community.

It’s very possible to pitch a specific news event that impacts the lives of your residents. For example, a Raleigh TV station did a quick piece about seniors at The Cardinal at North Hills receiving 150 free Amazon Echo Dots that included video of residents opening these gifts — plus a mention of how it became the first voice-enabled senior community in the country.

Another way to attract local news is by inviting the local press to an event — like this article about a Halloween visit to an equestrian center planned by a California senior community and this segment about a tea party held at Georgia community during this past Mother’s Day.

Examples of newsworthy community happenings:

Community grand openings or campus expansions
Promote your seasonal or unique programming; bonus if the local community can join to experience it! (new fitness programs, celebrated chef joining the dining team with a local inspired menu)
Tech implementations impacting resident life (how residents are using tech to create new friendships, engage in new experiences)
Leverage holidays to tell unique resident stories (Celebrate a resident veteran on Veterans Day, a former bakery owner on National Cookie Day)

5) Leverage Any Press Coverage

Getting coverage – placed articles or news segments – from your PR outreach is great. But what’s even better is knowing how to leverage your media coverage to drive interest in your community.

It’s certainly possible that someone might read an article or watch a local news segment about your community and decide to check it out. But it’s more likely that you’ll have to use your own efforts to translate a media appearance into occupancy.

The best way to do so is to make sure you have an “In The News” area located on your website that’s easy to find. (While this might seem simple, you’d be surprised how often this is not the case.) Those articles and segments will give visitors to your site a good idea of what to expect at your community — and if they like what they see, they may take the next step and ask you for more information about a possible move.

Also, including these appearances in any email blasts or newsletters you send out to prospects and potential residents can also have them click on a call-to-action. Newspaper articles and TV segments are almost always kept on an outlet’s website permanently, meaning you can always recycle any stories about your facility over time.

Technology Trends Driving Resident Safety, Wellness and Satisfaction

“Understanding the role technology plays in improving resident quality of life, augmenting staff challenges and creating meaningful community experiences.“

By: Natalie Jones | Director of Marketing & Communications, K4Connect

November 17, 2021

Over the past year, resident safety, wellness and satisfaction have been increasingly top of mind for both residents and staff. As senior living operators continue to navigate post-pandemic life in their communities, it is critical to understand and value the role technology can play in improving resident quality of life, augmenting staff challenges and creating meaningful community experiences.

In the K4Connect Fall 2021 Insights Report: Technology Trends Driving Resident Safety, Wellness and Satisfaction, data and survey responses strongly point to technology as a way to strengthen safety measures in resident homes, increase community-wide visibility and team productivity for staff, and expand wellness offerings for residents. The report also explores how residents measure their personal satisfaction and happiness in a senior living community. Check out the infographic for highlights of the report, and head to this webpage to download the report in full.

SURVEY: Engagement focused on personal connections more important to residents than activity calendars

The role of technology in helping senior living communities keep residents connected and safe.

November 16, 2021

By: Kimberly Bonvissuto, McKnight’s Senior Living

Resident engagement and safety are two areas where technology can improve quality of life and create meaningful experiences. But not in the way you might think, according to K4Connect co-founder and CEO Scott Moody.

In its second quarterly insights report, K4Connect looked at the role of technology in helping operators navigate post-pandemic life in their communities. K4Connect CEO and co-founder Scott Moody said the report recognizes areas where technology adds value, while also showing where operators can implement solutions to better meet the needs of their residents.

“We hear a lot about engagement and safety in senior living — and that became particularly true during COVID,” Moody told McKnight’s Senior Living. But in looking at the results of the company’s fall 2021 technology insights report, he said he wonders if people are thinking about those two areas in the right way.

While community leaders are looking at resident engagement as a measure of participation in activities, residents are looking at friendships and connections with other residents as a measure of their happiness and satisfaction.

The K4Connect survey found that living in a senior living community helped to combat loneliness for older adults — 70% of residents said they were rarely or never lonely, and 82% said living in a community reduced their level of loneliness.

One in four residents (23%) said loneliness was most prevalent in the evening. Moody said that corresponds to drops in staffing levels and community activities.

He said he looks at digital connections — such as searchable digital directories, video chat, messaging — as a way to foster physical connections. He added that too often the focus is on who is engaging with a platform and who is going to activities. Instead, he said, the focus should be on those who do not participate.

“They are more lonely and more likely to leave a rental community because they don’t know anyone. They don’t go to activities. They probably don’t know most of their neighbors. Nothing is keeping them there,” Moody explained. He added that the survey found that residents who are engaged in their communities and develop friendships are more likely to stay. “I’m more likely to stay in a community if all my friends are here, not if they have a good yoga class.”

Feeling safer

When it comes to resident safety, crucial areas for technology include resident visibility, automatic alerting and fall risk mitigation.

Tom Whitaker, executive director for The Carrington at Lincolnwood, which won the Gold award in the Keep It Super Simple category of the 2021 McKnight’s Excellence in Technology Awards, implemented K4Connect’s invisible check-in system in its standalone independent living community beginning in April.

The technology is placed inside existing light switches and alerts staff members twice a day if no movement is detected in an apartment.

“All the residents have to do is get up and go about their day as they normally would. They don’t have to pull a pull cord, press a button, open the front door or call someone,” Whitaker told McKnight’s Senior Living.

He said 97% of his residents are automatically checked in during each window of time, meaning staff have to call or physically check on only 3% of residents in a given day. The technology has been installed in 188 of its 251 apartments so far.

According to the K4Connect survey, 80% of resident survey respondents said automated check-in programs helped them feel safer, while 73% of staff agreed it contributed to increased safety and risk management in their community.

>>Read the full article on McKnight’s Senior Living