The Arbor Company

“Residents and families choose Arbor for peace of mind, and Accushield plays a crucial role in delivering that peace. Our community sales directors and our conversations with potential residents and their families all revolve around ensuring the highest levels of safety and security.”
— Krishnan Kalyanasundaram, vice president of operations, The Arbor Company

THE CHALLENGE

The Arbor Company leadership subscribes to the Golden Rule: Treat others as you would have them treat you. That applies to everyone who lives and works inside their communities.

For residents and their families, it includes meeting their needs for security and peace of mind. AARP’s Livable Communities Survey published July 2022 found that 84% of adults age 50+ consider resident safety and security to be one of the most important factors when choosing a senior living community. This ranked higher than amenities and even cost for many respondents.

The challenge for The Arbor Company was to create the safest possible environment for residents to live in. They achieved this by creating a secure environment that would be evident from the moment a person walked through their doors.

THE SOLUTION

Krishnan already enjoyed a personal relationship with Charles Mann, founder of Accushield (a Foresight partner). He was impressed with their level of innovation and use of technology to create real-world applications that would yield results.

Furthermore, Krishnan was impressed with the Accushield technology and liked the idea of a front desk kiosk sitting upon a robust platform that would help ensure that people who were not credentialed or had no business there could not enter.

Accushield was initially installed as a pilot in Arbor’s Peachtree City location, a 146-room combined independent/assisted living community. Peachtree was considered an “acid test” due to the constant commingling of visitors and residents and the potential dangers associated with the free flow of people, many of whom were unknown to the staff.

The Accushield platform seamlessly integrates with most EHR/MAR/CRM systems, assimilating resident and staff information into its kiosk software, which was up and running within hours. The system enhances efficiency by:

• Offering a swift and straightforward check-in for visitors and third-party health care providers and a time clock functionality for staff
• Mandating registration at a front desk kiosk for all entrants
• Promptly confirming the qualifications of third-party health care workers, including independent caregivers, home care personnel, people from hospice, and other service providers
• Authenticating each visitor’s intended resident visitation or service provision
• Issuing name badges for easy identification of everyone entering the premises
• Granting mobile access to monitor visitors within the building and providing immediate notifications for any restricted visitors

THE OUTCOME

The front desk manager at Peachtree City earned high praise for her efficiency. Known among her colleagues as a “tigress” for her vigilant management of entrance activities, she previously acted as the “traffic cop” at the doorway. With the new kiosk in place, a significant portion of her workload is now automated and digitized, providing a straightforward solution for ensuring that all visitors sign in.

With everyone wearing a printed badge, identification became straightforward within the senior living community: visitors were distinguishable from credentialed outside care providers. For those allowed entry without credentials, a unique icon on their badge made them easily noticeable to staff.

This visibility was vital in ensuring that everyone was monitored appropriately, and it assisted staff in confirming that visitors fulfilled their intended roles and responsibilities during their stay.

THE IMPACT

The successful implementation of the Accushield platform enabled The Arbor Company community leadership to live its mission in the form of assuring residents and families that the highest levels of security and safety were in place.

The presence of clearly marked badges provided residents and their families with a viewable demonstration of the community’s dedication to visitor safety and security, contributing to an elevated peace of mind.

Krishnan feels it helps make the decision for families easier. “We’ll say, ‘We know it’s a difficult decision for you and that you are interested in safety and peace of mind. Did you experience the kiosk sign-in process that gave you a name badge that identified you as a visitor?’ That’s how we bring our attention to security to their attention.”

It also provided a powerful sales tool to attract and close new sales. Krishnan believes that this has helped create a competitive advantage over other communities, many of which are still using limited paper sign-in logs spread across the front desk.

This Technology Has a Heartbeat

The capability of the Accushield platform to log everyone’s time in and out of the building brings two significant added benefits.

Visitor logging has helped staff identify residents who receive a low number of social visits from family or friends. It flags residents who might be at risk of social isolation so that caregivers can make an extra effort to include them in activities and ensure that they are not isolated. “If there is a gap in time between visits, we can see it almost immediately,” Krishnan explains. Accushield calls this data point the Love Meter.

The kiosk’s Agency Management feature for logging agency personnel time and attendance has greatly enhanced the tracking of billable service hours, introducing a new level of transparency in billing. Management now has the capability to effortlessly match agency invoices with recorded sign-in and out times, leading to multiple adjustments in billing and cost savings.

“Back in August of 2022, we were billed for 20,000 hours of agencies. In November of this year, it’s down to 845 hours. That’s because of our diligence to look at this, going back and saying this is not right,” Krishnan says.

Accushield is now included in every new community rollout.

The relationship between The Arbor Company and Accushield has been one of collaboration and respect. The combination of the powerful Accushield platform, its ease of implementation, and its ongoing innovation have prompted Krishnan to mandate that Accushield be included with each new property rollout.

The Accushield visitor management system is now installed in over 7,000 health care communities in all 50 states.

A Word of Advice to Other Senior Living Operators

Krishnan is so impressed with the Accushield system that he has become a self-proclaimed “cheerleader” for the brand.

For communities still clinging to outdated methods, especially paper sign-in sheets, Krishnan has this to say: “We’re in the age of AI. The least we can do is to take a small step to strengthen and digitize resident security and provide peace of mind to our family members and residents.”

Written by Susan Saldibar, Senior Living Foresight