RCare Partners with Nxtgen Care to Improve ‘Meaningful Life’ and COVID Protections for Liberty Senior Living
RCare, Inc. (Response Care), creator of advanced nurse call and monitoring solutions, and Nxtgen Care, creator of a healthcare intelligence solution for senior communities, announced a partnership that integrates the two product lines into a seamless solution, allowing senior care organizations to offer better care and services.
“The idea for the partnership between the two companies came out of a request from a mutual client, Liberty Senior Living,” said David Burke, founder and CEO of Nxtgen Care. “They wondered whether it was feasible for the two companies to integrate our products. I got connected to RCare, and we mapped out what an integration would look like, and how it would add value.”
Liberty operates senior living communities in five states. “We wanted an integrated approach to healthcare and business intelligence that we hoped an RCare-Nxtgen partnership could provide,” said Cindy Stancil, Liberty’s Vice President of Operations. “We are very happy with the result.”
The two products are complementary, together offering a solution greater than the two parts. RCare’s nurse call system receives signals from resident call devices such as pendants and pull cords, and sends alerts to dedicated smartphones carried by caregiving staff. With Nxtgen Care, senior living facilities set care goals and measure performance related to these goals. The system uses proprietary algorithms to monitor care trends and measure every human interaction and contact in a care community. The combined outcome helps communities ensure their residents are experiencing meaningful care. The integration also allows an alert from either system to be initiated by the same patient device, and to be received by the same caregiver mobile device.
“RCare is always looking for opportunities for interoperability that will benefit our clients, and this was a good one,” said Myron Kowal, founder and CEO of RCare. “There is a lot of overlap between our missions, and our company philosophies. When we pool together, we can exponentially improve resident care and drive operational efficiencies for the communities.”
The site chosen for the initial implementation was The Templeton of Cary, Liberty’s newest site, a modern continuing care retirement community located near Raleigh, North Carolina.
“We really do love the system,” said Jennifer LaMar, Campus Director for The Templeton of Cary. Instead of listening for pages from multiple systems, caregivers now receive alerts from both systems right to the RCare Mobile app on their dedicated smartphone, RCare’s Rugged II. “The staff has adopted the system, and feedback is very, very positive.”
Among the benefits, it’s now easy to see how much time each staff member spends with residents, activities performed and other care metrics, which helps with managerial decisions such as identifying peak times for staffing, and for recognizing staff who go above and beyond. Easily locating co-workers is another benefit. “This is a five-story building, and managers have said the system is such a time saver for finding staff,” said LaMar.
It’s also helpful when following up with families to have clear data to validate how much time staff have spent with a resident, and how quickly they’re responding to calls. For example, “If you have to use the bathroom and you’re waiting for someone to help, the wait may be five minutes,” LaMar pointed out, “But it might feel like an hour.”
Another benefit, especially important now, is infection control. “When staff enter the building, they can immediately see on a real-time facility map who is on contact precautions,” said LaMar. Alerts are triggered if someone enters or leaves an isolation room. “For infection control communication, and for contact tracing, it’s been really, really wonderful.”
“It’s not just about care, it’s about creating a meaningful life, while they’re with us,” said Stancil. Marrying the two systems, she explained, provides “an in-depth look at the interactions and the meaningful moments residents spend with other residents and with staff, which gives us a truer picture of how we’re serving them and meeting their needs. And for staff, it creates a very supportive environment. I’m very appreciative.”