Industry
Challenge
Solution
Next-gen senior care empowers aging in place with fall detection devices and other remote medical alert systems.
Each medical alert systems has its own interface. As a result, it is difficult for caregivers to monitor all of them.
Bridgera’s IoT platform connects all of these devices. Then, powerful AI monitors all the variables. Next, custom alerts inform caregivers if anything needs more attention.
The Industry
Results
- Reduced operation costs
- Increased patient safety
- Increased caretaker retention
- Ability to service multiple locations
- Improved margins
The decision to seek assisted care for an aging loved one is difficult. Many seniors fear losing their dignity. Comparatively, families can feel guilty for removing seniors from their homes. In fact, it can be traumatic to remove a senior from their home too early [1].
Opportunities
As a result, the use of fall detection devices and other remote medical alert systems for seniors has been on the rise. These next-gen alert devices make aging in place much easier than ever before. However, wearable fall detection devices have their limits. “Every 19 mins, a senior will die from an associated fall…75% of falls occur at night based on bathroom linked activities”.
Smart Solutions
Next-gen senior care bridges the gap between third-party medical alert systems and remote monitoring centers. Ideally, this will do away with wearable fall detection devices. Furthermore, sensors can be combined to create various solutions. Bridgera works with smart senior care providers to connect their monitoring centers with medical alarm systems and fall detection devices. These solutions can be further customized to fit the specific home. Even an entire assisted living facility could be upgraded with smart devices.
The Challenge
Seniors today are healthier than ever. As a result, many do not want to give up the freedom of living alone. Eventhough, the risk for an accident can be fatal at an older age. Therefore, many look to fall detection devices and other medical alert systems to provide more safety living alone. However, monitoring services rarely support third-party devices. As a result, seniors may end up with multiple disparate services, but no complete solution.
Multiple Possibilities
Aging in place is becoming more widespread today. Though, there are still those who need care daily. Accordingly, various levels of assisted living homes cater to diverse needs. In addition to standard fall detection devices, a home may offer a specialized medical alert systems. On premise, the alarm raised might notify different staff depending on its urgency. The addition of remote monitoring devices can provide vital data to caretakers.
Too Much of a Good Thing
However, caregivers are hard to come by in the industry. Senior care has an average turnover over of 80% [3]. Moreover, new medical alert systems for the elderly may seem confusing without training. It may even prove too difficult to keep track of various dashboards for each patient. Too many specialized systems can overload caretakers with helpful data.
Devices
- Fall Detection Cameras
- SmartHub
- Withings Sleep Tracker
- Smart Lighting
- Medication Reminder
The Approach
Bridgera’s strategy utilizes an medical IoT platform to provide custom solutions for smart senior care providers. Furthermore, Bridgera can connect medical alert systems and fall detection devices from various third-parties. Next, Bridgera’s cloud can collect the data from these devices. Then, AI can analyze these data and notify the caregiver if a crisis occurs. Finally, reports can display trends in patient’s data over time.
Bridging the Gap
The software’s ability to connect with various medical alert systems and monitoring centers is unlimited. Thus, senior care providers can completely customize their solution. Bridgera has the tools to create an end to end solution and extract value from the data.
The Solution
Bridgera built a solution for one smart senior care provider, which uses the latest fall detection devices and sleep tracking systems. The solution can adapt to single homes or whole facilities. Best of all, the solution is connected with the client’s existing call center services. Additionally, it provides vitals from multiple smart devices for multiple patients in a single view. The solution represents a wholistic approach to next-gen senior living at home or in a home.
Fall Detection Devices
Fall detection devices work better with data from an entire SmartHouse. Also, the added smart appliances can help prevent falls in the dark. For instance, when getting down from bed, smart lights to the bathroom can turn on. Then, the fall detection cameras know to track the patient across the room. In contrast, previous devices had to be worn while sleeping overnight. Plus, the sleep tracker can notify a caretaker if a patient does not return to bed after a set amount of time.
Medical Alert Systems
In addition to fall detection, many other medical alert systems are available for remote patient monitoring. However, monitoring services for each of these systems can add up quickly. Conversely, some systems may not even offer a monitoring service. To address this, Bridgera supports hundreds of devices all on a single platform. Further, the medical alerts can be set up to notify different people under a range of conditions.
The Benefits
Bridgera’s AI can do the heavy lifting when it comes to monitoring multiple patient’s vitals. As a result, providers can focus on finding the device that best fits their need. Then, only a single operator is needed to oversee the alerts that are detected by the platform.
Safety
Next-gen fall detection devices fill the gap left by wearable devices. There is even more safety potential when they are connected with other smart devices. With this flexibility, the solution can be applied in a single home, or to a whole assisted living facility. This also allows a single call center to service multiple locations at the same time.
Improved Margins
Turnover is usually considered a cost of doing business. However, with turnover rates well above 50% across the industry, there is nothing normal about caregiver turnover. Likewise, one estimate puts the cost of caregiver turnover above $170K per year! [4] Easy to use tools are just one example of how to make caretakers jobs more enjoyable.
Conclusions
To summarize, this client’s use case focuses on fall detection devices and sleep monitoring. However, it is not difficult to image how using different remote medical alert systems can create an array of solutions. Above all, the flexibility of Bridgera’s IoT enablement platform can adapt to any challenge with creativity and the right approach.