History

•  Seattle-based A Place for Mom was founded in 2000. The company was founded by Pamala Temple, who led the sales and marketing division of several large national senior living chains before becoming a first-time entrepreneur.
• Temple created A Place for Mom because of the fundamental issues she observed while she was working for large national senior living chains. She wanted to find “a better way for baby boomers to find the right care for their aging parents,” so she formed A Place for Mom into something that is capable of achieving this vision.
• Since it was founded, A Place for Mom has grown to a company of over 400 advisors that works in partnership with over 18,000 provider communities across the United States and Canada. It was sold to Silver Lake and General Atlantic in 2017.
• The company had “a long history of success,” but Larry Kutscher, the new chief executive officer of the company, believes it is high time for the company to reinvent itself.
• A Place for Mom is now the biggest senior living referral service in the United States. The company now helps more than 300,000 families each year.

Services

• A Place for Mom offers a free senior living referral service. It is able to offer this service to families at no charge because it is paid by participating senior living communities.
• The living options that this network of senior living communities provides are categorized into assisted living providers, memory care providers, nursing homes, independent living providers, senior apartments, care homes, and home care providers.
•  A Place for Mom assists families in finding and deciding on the senior living option that best matches their loved one’s needs. The company offers information on each senior living community in its partner network and provides personalized telephone assistance through its local senior living advisors.
• The company claims it is different from other senior living referral services because it champions quality senior care and it offers deep knowledge and compassion, personalized support, local experts, and time-saving resources.

Marketing Initiatives

• A Place for Mom recently appointed media agency Mercury as its new agency of record (AOR) for its referral service for senior assisted living. Mercury will be handling television buying, planning, and attribution for the service, and will be helping the company measure the impact of its media spend more effectively.
• The company spent a total of $11.38 million on advertising in the first half of 2018.
• iSpot.tv shows that the company has released five new television commercials since 2018, namely, Memory Care, Overwhelming, Devastating, Don’t Do It Alone, and Financing Senior Care, and that the company currently has eight active television commercials. Seven of these active television commercials feature television host Joan Lunden.
• Even though the company is not running any ad on Facebook and Twitter at present, the company has regularly posted content about senior living on its Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Instagram accounts in the past two years.
• The company also gets publicity through its periodic National Senior Living Cost Index, the only free source of senior living cost data in the public domain.

News Articles

• On September 10, 2018, it was reported that A Place for Mom was appointing media agency Mercury as its AOR. Mercury will reportedly handle television buying, planning, and attribution for A Place for Mom.
• On April 13, 2019, A Place for Mom released its 2018 National Senior Living Cost Index findings. The company disclosed that, compared to the cost of healthcare, the cost of senior living is “growing more slowly.”
• On April 29, 2019, Larry Kutscher assumed his position as chief executive officer of the company. Kutscher replaced Sean Kell, who was the company’s top executive for eight years.
• On August 28, 2019, the company’s $6-million settlement of a lawsuit was announced. The lawsuit, which was initially filed in August 2017, was a putative class action lawsuit that asserted that the company was in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
• On October 28, 2019, it was reported that Kutscher is planning to reinvent A Place for Mom in the next two years. According to Kutscher, the company’s essence will remain the same, but there will be significant changes such as targeted leads and improved communication with providers.

1. VOICE ACTIVATION TECHNOLOGY

•  Entrepreneurs and companies are paying attention to growing technological advancement and solutions and have started introducing innovations such as voice activation into the senior care industry.
• Voice activation has applications in telemedicine, IoT and wearables, and it is essentially "tech that is activated through human voice commands."
• Cutting-edge voice applications offer convenience to residents in senior housing facilities, allowing them to access information immediately.
• The Arbor Company, with thirty years of experience in senior living, has started to deploy "Amazon’s Echo Dot devices in some of its common areas, viewing the devices as a potentially powerful new communication channel." The devices engage the residents by telling them about the activities for the day, describing their next activity, and speaking the calendar for the rest of the day.
• Senior housing providers are enabling this technology to allow its residents to control lighting, TV, and engage with their devices by speaking.
•  Smartphones and speakers are among the best voice-activated devices for seniors.

• According to a 2019 survey report by Perkins Eastman, about 80% of senior living industry professionals believe that technology, products, and services that aid proactive and autonomous care would have the most significant impact in the senior care market.
• Voice activation technology can alleviate isolation and loneliness, as well as seniors with dexterity issues and vision impairment.
• According to the CEO of VoiceFriend, the best way for seniors to interact is by voice.

• Several senior housing companies make use of VoiceFriend's Alexa-enabled technology.
• Medical providers are "considering the potential for voice technology to improve the health of aging-in-place seniors." For example, Mayo Clinic provides first-aid advice to Echo-owners.
• Voice-first technology is helping remote caregivers stay in touch.

2. TELEMEDICINE

• Also known as remote health care services, the use of telemedicine is becoming more rapid in the senior living industry. It primarily covers ways in which technology can impact a person's health without physical interaction with a doctor or nurse.
• As the number of seniors in need of care is increasing, telemedicine provides a more affordable way to access essential healthcare services.
•  Front Porch, a non-profit, senior living & housing organization in California, uses telemedicine for videoconferencing. Seniors can interact with health care professionals individually or as a group.
• Through remote monitoring, doctors can keep track of patients' health status through their bracelet data. Patients/residents can also monitor their vitals, such as blood pressure or blood sugar.
• Telemedicine facilitates computer literacy for senior residents, who can educate themselves through internet research.
• Finally, seniors can replace some visits to the hospital or vice versa through teleconsultations.

• According to McKnight's Senior Living, senior care providers are struggling to find nurses and other staff to fill vacant positions, as recruitment and retention complications are prevalent in the skilled nursing setting.
• Also, more seniors would like to remain at home for as long as possible. Telemedicine is thus bound to experience further growth, as it enables them to do so.
• About 7 million seniors are either homebound or require aid to leave their homes. As such, telemedicine would provide a more convenient way for them to access health services.

•  US health systems and hospitals and senior housing providers.
•  Skilled Nursing Facilities.

3. WEARABLES

• The use of wearables is in popular demand and is gradually being extended to include new industries. Wearables help to monitor care and promote the feeling of safety at home for seniors. It also helps to accommodate and promote their lifestyle of engaging socially.
• "Whether at home or in an assisted living facility, seniors utilizing wearables allows for families, caregivers, and doctors to track daily habits and trends, allowing them to provide a proactive rather than a reactive response to health complications.
• Senior living communities are utilizing resident-monitoring systems that use bracelets with radio frequency identification (RFID) chips, as well as fitness equipment, to provide their staff with insights into the health and sleep patterns of their residents. One example is the fall detection technology incorporated into the wearables of residents.
• "Many senior living facilities are also beginning to shift from using proprietary wireless devices to leveraging Wi-Fi technology that drives secure and reliable connectivity throughout their communities, which allows more technological devices to interoperate. With multiple devices on a single network, data can be compiled in one back-end infrastructure, which ultimately enables facilities to have a more in-depth view of their residents at all times."

• According to data from Accenture, about 17% of Americans under 65 years are using wearable devices to monitor their fitness and vitals.
• A night of bad sleep increases falls by 40% for a senior who is predisposed to falling, and wearables can help to predict such occurrences.

•  Skilled nursing facilities, senior living facilities, and caregivers.

4. PERSON-CENTERED CARE

• Person-centered care in the senior care industry focuses more on the emotional needs and care preferences of the individual in alignment with their lifestyle rather than their physical health alone. Senior living facilities now base the design and function of their communities on this concept, as the American seniors of today are used to living under such conditions.
• This approach considers the choices of its residents, and their dignity, thus enhancing their quality of life and care.
• "Retirement communities put greater emphasis on meaningful socialization with a full menu of enjoyable activities such as yoga, tai chi, exercise classes, game nights, barbecues, book clubs, and organized group outings to theaters, museums, and restaurants. "
• Many senior living care providers are providing more personal space with systems like "walk-in closets, spacious bathrooms, and fully-equipped kitchenettes," thus providing a setting that feels as comfortable as their previous homes.

• Many families are searching for long term care that uses a more social model rather than a health model.
• There is a broad shift in the mindset of consumers and providers in the senior care industry regarding service delivery.
• While some health care providers are still unaccepting of the person-centered care model for the industry, others say, "it is possible to deliver person-centered care that is both cost-effective and highly satisfying to those receiving the care and to their families, as well as care professionals providing that care."
• The senior care industry is evolving to accommodate the new wave of seniors/elderly and their children, i.e., the baby boomer and Gen X generations, respectively.

•  Senior living care providers, nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
• Sunrise Senior Living Chief Information Officer, Mike Summers, said their facility looks out for the dignity and respect of its deserving residents.

5. SECURITY

• The technological advancements in the senior care industry, negate the improvement of tech security and data privacy against breaches. As physical security remains relevant within senior living facilities and communities, cybersecurity also poses a significant risk to the elderly, as they are highly susceptible to internet scams and attacks.
• Sunrise Senior Living communities make use of "email spam filters, sophisticated firewalls, endpoint solution systems, and mobile device management systems," to fight against cybersecurity breaches. For physical security, it employs the use of automated doors with a pass-key locking mechanism, as well as RFID chips in the wearables of its residents, to ensure their safety.
• Assisted living facilities use audit trails to reassure their residents that missing items were not stolen, but rather, misplaced. Cameras for video surveillance, across lobbies, hallways, exterior doors, and stairwells, are also not uncommon.
• Memory care sections of these facilities are usually the most secure, as many seniors often have dementia. The doors in such sections are thus under lock at all times to prevent the affected residents from wandering.
• Also, "staff members and regular visitors are provided with personal identification numbers (PIN) to enter or leave the area; and residents wear Bluetooth pendants or bracelets that communicate with door-mounted readers. If the patient (and pendant) passes through the door, the system initiates an alert at the nurses’ station."

• According to Leading Age's Center for Aging Services Technologies (CAST), "long-term and post-acute care such as skilled nursing rehab and assisted living remains among the most vulnerable of all sectors in healthcare, largely because their level of IT sophistication and information security has conventionally trailed far behind that of the acute care sector."
• Assisted living customers have no interest in facilities that do not have proper security maintenance agreements in place.

•  Assisted living facilities, skilled nursing facilities, and large senior living care providers.