HIMSS 2012 - The Intelligent Hospital

The Intelligent Hospital ™ Pavilion

The RFID in Healthcare Consortium and HIMSS have partnered in 2011 and again for 2012 to deliver a series of educational programs to the life sciences industry to help raise the level of awareness for the use of a technologies in improving patient care, safety, and operating efficiencies in a healthcare, assisted living and nursing home facilities.

In 2012, the following programs are scheduled:

February 20th – One day, RFID & RTLS Technologies Symposium open to all. Learn more
“Intelligent Hospital ™ ” Destination Pavilion. Learn more


The HIGHLIGHT of this 10,800 square foot pavilion will be an “Intelligent Hospital ™” section comprised of FIVE rooms:

a complete OR suite
State of the art WAR Room
a fully equipped ICU
a Step down room
a complete ED facility

The “Intelligent Hospital ™" section of the Pavilion will provide a practical overview of a variety of technologies seamlessly integrated to provide clinicians with 'real-time' patient information delivered to their smartphones or tablets. Numerous use cases will simulate scenarios from the OR, ICU, Step-down and ED rooms that are part of the “Intelligent Hospital”.

Clinicians will see first-hand how information is collected through the use of data capture technologies and from diverse patient care environments including remote locations. The pavilion will showcase solutions which incorporate auto-ID/Bar code scanning, RFID, RTLS (real time locating systems), Sensors and Wireless technologies. The “Intelligent Hospital™” will demonstrate centralized and distributed methods of managing physiological data and alarms. The Pavilion is focused on raising the level of awareness and educating healthcare professionals.
Reprinted courtesy www.intelligenthospital.org

Editor's Note: If we have the specs for The Intelligent Hospital, can the Intelligent SNF be far behind? BB

Study the Boomers!

From our friends at Xconomist

Study the Boomers!
Written by Lisa Suennen on Jan 18, 2012 12:02 am
Lisa Suennen

Xconomist Report

The Who once sang, “I hope I die before I get old.” Despite their best efforts to exit the planet early, most of them didn’t. They and their fellow Baby Boomers represent the greatest technology and business opportunity of the 21st Century.

It is typical for each of us to be drawn to areas for which we feel the most affinity. For that reason, most students looking forward see themselves surrounded by people of a similar age while they conjure up products and services attractive to their peers. I teach an MBA class at the Haas School at U.C. Berkeley and so many of the students have great ideas on how to innovate in areas deeply relevant to their day-to-day worlds. The problem is: that is not where the action is. If you are a student today preparing to be the Steve Jobs or Oprah of the next generation, you should be thinking a lot more about what your parents and grandparents need than what would interest your friends.

There are approximately 76 million baby boomers (people born during the years 1945 and 1964). The first of the boomers turns 65 years old in 2011 at a rate of approximately 10,000 people per day, and that trend will continue for the next 20 years. According to the Census Bureau, an estimated 72 million people, or 19.3 percent of the population, will be 65 and older by 2030, compared with 40 million, or 13 percent last year. By 2030, people aged 18 to 24 will represent 9.1 percent of the population, down from 9.9 percent in 2010, according to the Census Bureau. The share of people aged 25 to 44 will drop to 25.5 percent from 26.8 percent. Young people: it is time to start thinking old-you are outnumbered. The best thing you could possibly study is how to conceive of technologies, products, and services that would appeal to the aging demographic—that is where the spending and trending power will reside. “No other force is likely to shape the future of national economic health, public finances and policy making,” analysts at Standard & Poor’s wrote in a recent report, “as the irreversible rate at which the world’s population is aging.”

According to various reports, Boomers already control over 80 percent of personal financial assets and more than 50 percent of U.S. discretionary spending power. A MetLife study shows Boomers stand to inherit over $11.6 trillion in their lifetime in addition to the incomes they make, and the vast majority of Boomers expect to work through their retirement. Boomers already comprise over half of all consumer spending and yes, while they account for over 75 percent of all purchases of prescription drugs and a whole lot of chronic illness (itself a stunningly large business opportunity), they also account for about 80 percent of all travel purchases.

For those of you who think of the Boomers as old and out of touch, note that retirees age 65 and older are the fastest-growing group of social networking site users, according to the Pew Research Center, which adds that over half of baby boomers use social networking sites. If you think that the latest and greatest technology doesn’t apply to the older crowd, you are wrong. New technology is essential to finding ways for Boomers to maintain their vibrancy and independence, as well as ways for us to reduce the skyrocketing costs in our current healthcare system, something that all economists agree is essential to maintaining our national economic viability.

Accordingly, students today would be best served by studying the fields that swirl around and intersect with the fields of gerontology and geriatrics. This means everything from the study of aging in medicine to the study of architecture, engineering and finance as it applies to the Boomer opportunity.

The future of caring for older Americans lays in technology, with vast green field opportunities available in the design of technologies and services that enable extending health and psychiatric well-being. Just one area, Alzheimers’, today costs the U.S. $172 billion annually; by 2020 this cost will be $2 trillion and by 2050, $20 trillion according to recent reports, and that is just one disease that needs innovation, both in treatment and in patient management.

Beyond healthcare, there is a screaming demand for technologies that ensure mobility, enable physical and financial autonomy, provide for social connectivity, and deliver education and work-place skills to those who are looking to their second or third career. People of a certain age don’t want and often can’t use the same products and services that appeal to the young, but also don’t want to buy things that make them feel old. Striking that balance is the innovation opportunity of the next several decades.

Xconomist Report
Comments | Reprints | Share: Retweet Facebook LinkedIn E-mail

ATA Announces Fall Forum Presentation Award Winners

Watch the winning presentations--and more Fall Forum recordings--for FREE on the ATA website

The 2011 ATA Fall Forum in Anchorage was our largest autumn event to date, with 530 attendees and over 500 remote viewers via live conference simulcast. ATA thanks everyone who attended and viewed the event, as well as our exhibitors and corporate sponsors, who made the Fall Forum a great success!

Photos from Fall Forum are available here.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/32054747@N03/sets/72157627826193240/

We also thank the many Speakers and Virtual Presenters at the Fall Forum. ATA asked for the most unique and cutting-edge ideas in telemedicine and our speakers delivered! If you couldn't make it to Alaska, don't worry--you can still see these fantastic presentations! Video recordings of the Fall Forum presentations have now been posted online and are available for free to the public. Click here to view the presentation recordings.

http://www.americantelemed.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageID=3913

While all of the presentations were fantastic, two speakers have been selected as winners of the innaugural Fall Forum presentation awards. Based on feedback from attendee evaulatons, ATA is pleased to announce the following award winners:

MOST INNOVATIVE PRESENTATION
mSinging for Health (Video available soon...)
Andrew Tubman, CMT
Co-Founder and Chief of Music Therapy
Musical Health Technologies

BEST PRESENTATION
Telemedicine via HIE Image Sharing
Julie Hall-Barrow, EdD
Associate Director, Center for Distance Health
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences

Congratulations to our winners and to everyone else who presented at the Fall Forum. Again, all meeting presentations are now available to be viewed online. Visit www.ATAFallForum.org to view the videos.

Caregiver Village News

The founders of Caregiver Village, an online community designed exclusively for those who provide care for anyone with special needs, have just put aside a portion of the launch funding to support caregiving organizations. For every person that joins Caregiver Village, they will donate $1 to that persons organization of choice. The Editors would like to share this news with the readers of Technology For Senior Housing. Check out this link which explains everything:

http://www.caregivervillage.com/social-media

Caregiver Village members connect with friends, participate in book clubs with celebrity authors, journal, play mystery games, solve puzzles, and learn valuable information about caregiving. I would love it if you would join Caregiver Village. If you are able to post or tweet about this then even more people will get the information. Contact Sheila Watson if you have additional questions.

caregivervillage.com
facebook.com/caregivervillage
twitter.com/cgvillage

On Alzheimer's - Tips to Prevent Wandering for Alzheimer Residents - Technology and Wandering

It is suggested that nearly 70% of people with Alzheimer’s disease will wander away from home and get lost. Wandering is one of the biggest risks for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and is a common but dangerous symptom of the disease. A wanderer is someone with a disease such as Alzheimer’s who has wandered away on their own free-will from their caregiver. The risk is evident in the 31,000 Alzheimer’s patients who researcher Robert J. Koester estimates wanders per year. When someone with Alzheimer’s disease wanders, he or she is disorientated and unable to judge potentially dangerous places and situations. People suffering from severe Alzheimer’s disease are more at risk and the incidence of wandering increases.

Alzheimer’s patients may suddenly walk off and become lost, frightened or confused. Generally if a patient is found within 24 hours they are returned safely, but after a longer time span the survival rate drops to nearly 50 percent, according to recent studies. It is evident that wandering behavior can be a life threatening incident.

Koester’s research provides more insight into wandering in Alzheimer’s patients. Those with Alzheimer’s disease leave their own residence or nursing home and usually start to wander along roads. Eighty-nine percent of wandering patients are usually found within one mile from the point last seen. If the patient is not wandering along the road (14%), they are usually in a creek or drainage (28%), or caught in bushes or shrubberies (33%). But, the Alzheimer’s patient is frequently found wandering a short distance from a road. Unfortunately there are some wanderers who eventually give in to the environment and develop hypothermia or dehydration (35%), or are found deceased (19%).

It is important for you to know that you can help prevent incidents of wandering even though you cannot always guarantee total prevention. If you are aware of the causes of wandering you can minimize the risks of someone with Alzheimer’s disease becoming lost. Although wandering remains a risk, there are several things that you can do to help prevent wandering in an assisted living center, long term care facility or at home to ensure that the family’s loved one remains safe.

1. Install locks on doors- That is the first place to prevent a wanderer from leaving. However, in the earlier stages of Alzheimer’s disease it is more likely for a patient to wander because they usually still remember how to unlock the current locks. Placing hook and eye latches on the outside screen door is proven to be very effective, especially if placed either very high or low on the door. Another method is to place a double key lock on the inside door, but be aware that the patient may begin to panic if they cannot open the door from the inside.

2. Install locks on windows- In general, most people would not consider exiting a building though a window, but an Alzheimer’s patient who feels the need to escape would consider. Even windows on the upper levels of a house or facility should be secured. If there are windows that open by sliding side to side, consider placing a piece of wood on the track to keep the window from fully opening. Windows that slide up and down can be protected by putting a nail or screw in the tack to prevent it from completely opening also. If the window uses a crank, consider removing the crank each time after using it to open or close the window, and then hide the crack in an undisclosed place.

3. Build fences and gates- A fence is not as restrictive and offers patients an alternative place to go in relative safety. Chain link fences should be avoided because elderly patients still have the capability of climbing them rather easily. Also, stay away from building a fence with brace beams facing into the secured area because the support beams can provide a foothold for climbing over the fence. In general, a farm fence with square openings too small to be used as footholds is a very good option. Don’t forget that it is important that the fence is at least six feet tall so a patient will not try to physically pull themselves over it.

4. Use emergency IDs- Even with safeguards and precautions, patients still could break free. You can make sure that a label with the elderly patient’s name and phone number is worn on their clothing at all times. This is important because you can never depend on the patient to carry their ID when they wander, but it is vital that the wanderer can be identified immediately and returned quickly if they go astray.

5. A wander guard security system can provide an assisted living or long term care facility with the security solution needed to monitor and care for their Alzheimer’s patients and to help prevent wandering. By use of a Cut Band system, a gentle band and tag is placed around the patient’s wrist. Then staff is able to be notified if the band is tampered with or removed and if the patient leaves the room or facility. Such systems are a great way for facilities to help prevent an Alzheimer’s patient from wandering.

6. Dress patients in bright colored clothing- It is known that bright and distinct clothing can be spotted from a distance. Dressing in clothing that is easily spotted in a crowd is helpful when taking a patient out of the home or facility and to a public area. It is very easy for an individual with Alzheimer’s disease to become separated especially when there is a crowd. It can happen within seconds.

7. Keep all keys in an undisclosed place and out of reach- An individual with Alzheimer’s disease may still be able to recognize a key and understand how it is used. A patient that gets a hold of a car key or is able to let themselves out of the home or facility can be gone for miles before being noticed. This does happen and it happens more often than thought.

8. Never leave an Alzheimer’s patient alone in the car- According to several surveys each year the number of times an elderly patient is left in the car while the caregiver runs quickly into the store, bank, etc. has significantly increased. Even though you might only think you will be gone for only a few minutes, the Alzheimer’s patient is often left in the car for more than15 minutes. You must remember that it only takes seconds for a frightened or panicked individual with Alzheimer’s disease to get out of the car and quickly wander away.

9. Avoid leaving an Alzheimer’s patient home alone- Determining when an individual with Alzheimer’s disease is no longer to be left at home alone for short periods of time can be difficult. This makes it very challenging for someone who is the sole caregiver for a person with Alzheimer’s disease. Still, there are several ways to find assistance. One, alert neighbors to keep an eye out for the wandering patient or have a neighbor visit when you are going to be gone for more than a few minutes. Two, use the idea of a babysitter and have a young adult stay with and care for the elderly patient while you are gone. Three, ask for help. Churches, high schools, Boy/Girl Scouts, community centers, senior citizen centers, local Alzheimer’s Association chapters and any other group you can uncover could be willing to assist you in caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease.

10. Find other useful materials to help- You often have to be creative to keep an individual with Alzheimer’s disease safe by using house hold items. For instance, baby monitors or motion detectors that turn on lamps or radios to alert if a patient is moving around or trying to leave are both items that are either easily found at home or at a store. Another idea is to look through a child safety center for more items to help keep track of an Alzheimer’s patient. For example, the elastic bands mother’s attach to their wrist and their child’s wrist can be a great help when taking an elderly patient into a crowded area. Also, hanging bells on a door can also be a useful alarm.

The risk of wandering in individuals with Alzheimer’s disease is very great. You can take precautions to keep patients safe, but even the best caregiver or nurse will have experiences with wandering patients. Take reasonable precautions, don’t panic and enlist others to help you care for patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

Adapted from New Research & Perspectives By Robert J. Koester M.S. Virginia Department of Emergency Management Appalachian Search & Rescue Conference,

TSH Editor's Note: There are plenty of high-tech solutions to prevent and manage wandering or track residents movements and location within a facility or campus, but the real solutions are much more simple and come from good old common sense. We thought we'd pass this "tip list" along to our readers for just that reason. BB

RealPage® Acquires SeniorLiving.Net™

CARROLLTON, Texas (July 29, 2011)—RealPage, Inc. ((NASDAQ: RP), today announced the acquisition of SeniorLiving.Net (“SLN”), an Internet lead generation and placement network for the senior housing market. SLN helps families with aging parents find senior care providers that can address their care needs, desired location and budget. The service is no cost to the families. SLN provides each family with a skilled Care Advisor familiar with the local market to help them through the process.

SLN generates leads through over 200 websites and affiliates that provide information to families. Care Advisors work with the family to create a care profile that is then matched with the communities in their area that meet their care and budget needs. Today, nearly 2,700 senior living communities are qualified to receive leads from SLN.

The Company paid $4.5 million in cash with the potential to earn additional consideration upon achieving future financial targets through June 2014. SeniorLiving.Net's trailing 12 months results show revenue of less than $1.0 million and an operating loss. RealPage expects SeniorLiving.Net to contribute immaterially to the Company's full year revenue and profit performance for the year ended Dec. 31, 2011.

“SeniorLiving.Net expands our senior housing offering, which currently features accounting, census management and facilities management marketed as OneSite Senior Living,” said Dirk Wakeham, president of RealPage. “We also offer OneSite Care Manager that provides care assessment, planning, compliance and staffing capabilities that adjust monthly care revenue to offset expense creep that occurs as resident acuity changes over time. OneSite Care Manager is a successor product to the popular A.L. Wizard software that was acquired by RealPage in 2009. We expect to rapidly expand SeniorLiving.Net's lead generation and placement network service by leveraging lead generation, capture and management systems that RealPage has deployed in other markets. We are excited about this acquisition and the significant opportunity ahead of us in the senior housing market.”

According to the 2010 National Investment Center Investment guide, there are approximately 1.3 million senior and assisted living units in the U.S. and this number is expected to double over the next 25 years due to the aging baby boomer generation. RealPage believes that the total addressable market for lead generation and placement services in the independent and assisted living market is at least $800 million annually.

SeniorLiving.Net was founded by Todd Walrath in 2008 and is rapidly growing its nationwide Care Advisor network. Walrath, formerly COO of Weather.com, Group Vice President of AOL local search, and CEO and founder of LEADS.com, brings a wealth of Internet lead generation experience to RealPage.

“We are extremely excited to be joining RealPage,” said Walrath. “SeniorLiving.Net has become an important source of qualified families to the top senior care providers in the industry. Each month we qualify or advise thousands of families looking for senior care options. Whether its home care, retirement living, assisted living or dementia care, the choices can be overwhelming. Our service gives senior care providers a highly qualified family that is matched to their services, location and budget.”

About RealPage, Inc. Located in Carrollton, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, RealPage provides on-demand (also referred to as “Software-as-a-Service” or “SaaS”) products and services to apartment communities and single family rentals across the United States. Its six on-demand product lines include OneSite® property management systems that automate the leasing, renting, management, and accounting of conventional, affordable, tax credit, student living, and military housing properties; Level One® and CrossFire® that enable owners to originate, syndicate, manage and capture leads more effectively and at less overall cost; YieldStar® asset optimization systems that enable owners and managers to optimize rents to achieve the overall highest yield, or combination of rent and occupancy, at each property; Velocity™ billing and utility management services that increase collections and reduce delinquencies; LeasingDesk® risk mitigation systems that are designed to reduce a community's exposure to risk and liability; and OpsTechnology® spend management systems that help owners manage and control operating expenses. Supporting this family of SaaS products is a suite of shared cloud services including electronic payments, document management, decision support and learning. Through its Propertyware subsidiary, RealPage also provides software and services to single-family rentals and low density, centrally-managed multifamily housing. For more information, call 1-87-REALPAGE or visit www.realpage.com.

About SeniorLiving.Net
SeniorLiving.Net is dedicated to helping families find the senior care provider that best meets their needs. The service is no cost to the families. SeniorLiving.Net provides each family with a skilled Care Advisor familiar with the local market to help them through the process. Whether they need Assisted Living, Dementia Care, Independent Living, Adult Day Services or Home Care, SeniorLiving.Net recommends care providers in their area. For more information, visit www.SeniorLiving.Net or call at (866) 342-4297.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking" statements relating to RealPage, Inc.'s expected, possible or assumed future results of operations and potential growth and plans, management, branding and profit margins of SeniorLiving.Net as well as market performance, opportunities and developments. These forward-looking statements are based on management's beliefs and assumptions and on information currently available to management. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts and may be identified by terms such as "expects," "believes," "plans" or similar expressions and the negatives of those terms. Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include, but are not limited to, the following: (a) the possibility that general economic conditions or uncertainty cause information technology spending, particularly in the rental housing industry, to be reduced or purchasing decisions to be delayed; (b) an increase in customer cancellations; (c) the inability to increase sales to existing customers and to attract new customers; (d) RealPage, Inc.'s failure to integrate acquired businesses, including SeniorLiving.Net, and any future acquisitions successfully; (e) the timing and success of new product introductions by RealPage, Inc. or its competitors; (f) changes in RealPage, Inc.'s pricing policies or those of its competitors; (g) litigation; and (h) such other risk and uncertainties described more fully in documents filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including RealPage's Form 10-Q previously filed with the SEC on May 9, 2011. All information provided in this release is as of the date hereof and RealPage, Inc. undertakes no duty to update this information except as required by law.

SeniorHomes.com Plans To Grow With $3M In New Financing

SeniorHomes.com, a website run by Moseo Corp. for people searching for senior care or housing, said it has raised $3 million in additional financing to fuel its growth.

The round came from prior investor MentorTech Ventures and other institutional and individual investors. Valuation was undisclosed.

The Seattle-based company said the financing adds to the $1.6 million it raised in May 2010, bringing its total funding to $4.6 million.

Founded in 2009, SeniorHomes.com said it has seen rapid growth in its first two years and plans to expand its directory of senior housing and care services to a nationwide audience. It said the latest round of financing will be used to launch new markets across the U.S. and develop additional categories serving the needs of aging adults.
http://www.seniorhomes.com