In this episode of Raising Tech, our host Amber Bardon sits down with Nicole Pretre, CEO at Cedar Community, to talk about her view and hands-on experience with technology innovation in senior living.
Learn how Cedar Community approached their transformative journey with IT by reimaging technology culture in senior living and through willingness to try new initiatives. Nicole shares a great perspective of technology through the lens of a CEO, providing words of wisdom and lessons learned along the way.
Raising Tech is powered by Parasol Alliance, The Strategic Planning & Full-Service IT Partner exclusively serving Senior Living Communities.
In this episode of Raising Tech, our host Amber Bardon sits down with Nicole Pretre, CEO at Cedar Community, to talk about her view and hands-on experience with technology innovation in senior living.
Learn how Cedar Community approached their transformative journey with IT by reimaging technology culture in senior living and through willingness to try new initiatives. Nicole shares a great perspective of technology through the lens of a CEO, providing words of wisdom and lessons learned along the way.
Raising Tech is powered by Parasol Alliance, The Strategic Planning & Full-Service IT Partner exclusively serving Senior Living Communities.
Welcome back to Raising Tech, the podcast about all things technology and senior living. I'm your host, Amber Bardon, and today we have a very special guest from one of our clients. Nicole Pretre, the CEO of Cedar Community, is joining us on today's show. Welcome to the show, Nicole.
Nicole:Thank you very much for having me, Amber. I'm excited to be here.
Amber:To start off with, I just wanna give a little background about our, history with Cedar Community, what we've been working with you on, just to let our listeners know. So, Cedar Community became a client of ours, about three years ago. And we came in and we did a strategic plan, which we've done, with all of our clients, and we work through the majority of that plan. And we actually just did a new three year strategic plan, which was really exciting because I feel like the first three years we had to focus on a lot of infrastructure and back office backend infrastructure, things that, you know, aren't super exciting, but how to get taken care of. And I'm really excited, for the next three years. Cause I think there's a lot of chances for optimization and system efficiency, and especially innovation, which we wanna talk about today. And I had asked you to join the show because Cedar Community is doing some innovative things. You've tried some innovative things that didn't work out. I think our listeners will really enjoy hearing your perspective. So would you mind giving us a little intro of your background, yourself, and a little bit about Cedar Community to start with?
Nicole:Sure. So Cedar Community, we've been around for just about 70 years. We were founded back in 1953, a Faith Based not for Profit. We're located in West Bend, Wisconsin. We have five campuses and we have been serving seniors, like I said, independent living through end of Life Care. So Full Care Continuum plus Home Health and Hospice. About on average 900 to a thousand residents, and a large staff too. So, you know, 400 and plus staff members, which obviously tech is hugely important too. But you know, as far as myself, I've been with Cedar Community for 11 years. I've been the CEO for a year and a half now. So I've had experience in just about every department of the organization, I should say. In my background of sales and marketing and fundraising, which is my primary world that I came from. as well as a, I have a media background, but, so obviously those three areas in sales and marketing and fundraising, I literally touched every aspect of what we did as an organization throughout my career here. So it was really nice to be able to take that experience, both professionally and at Cedar community inside and outside Cedar community, I guess you could say, into my current role.
Amber:Nicole, can you give our listeners a little bit of a background of the evolution of technology at Cedar Community? It was in one place before we started working with you, and then since you became the ceo, I know you have a very specific vision of how you would like to see technology utilize at Cedar Community. Do you mind sharing that?
Nicole:Sure. You know, we were probably like a lot of you know, senior living organizations, especially in the not-for-profit part side where, you know, we had sort of an internal IT department with a number of individuals here, great individuals but I would say that, you know, not a lot of advancement, you know, we were kind of maintaining, we were kind of status quo, um, with our tech. And had an opportunity with a leadership change in our tech, area to kind of start to look at what else could be out there. started to look at the companies around us, tried to partner with one, um, company that didn't work out. fortunately, through some connections and some networking with some of our peers, um, we kind of, hooked up with Parasol. And so, and like you said, when you came on with us three years ago, we were still at a point where the infrastructure was, I would say antiquated. I guess that's a nice word, a nice way of putting it. I'm sure a lot of other senior living organizations are in that same boat. And we really needed to look at, like you said, that back of house stuff, that stuff that, really needed to be brought up to date. and the, as you said too, the hard part about that was that's the stuff that your, your team members and your residents don't see. so it's all o f a sudden we have this new partner a nd technology and they're doing all this work, but they weren't seeing it. So it was like, what are they doing? You know? And so that's hard. So communicating that what's going on I think is really important. I think we learned along the way that we needed to do a better job of communicating what was actually happening behind the scenes since it wasn't necessarily front f acing to residents and team members. Like you said, we're getting to a point now where we've turned that corner a little bit. We're starting to pivot to those systems and programs and whatnot that are impactful to residents and to team members. and that's really what we need to do as an organization is continue to advance our technology, continue to work, to put systems in place that talk to each other. Becuase I'm sure like a lot of other companies too, we had, you know, 50 different programs and none of them talk to each other. and so that's I think a really important part. But technology is so pivotal to the future of the delivery of aging services in our sector that we need to continue to find ways to, you know, optimize technology, find that return on investment in the technology that we have. and you know, the bottom line is the impact it has on the engagement with residents, the, um, making your, your team members lives a little easier in the very difficult jobs that they have. so really kind of bringing technology out from, you know, just talking about up updating servers and wifi and those types of un not not fun things, important things, but not necessarily fun, but, um, being able to implement and move us forward in the technology sector, um, so that we can take advantage of some of these really cool programs and, and companies that are emerging out there, um, that are so gonna be so important to us in the future.
Amber:Yeah, I really love everything you just said because it's so in line with a lot of things that if anyone seen me and speak at any of the leading age conferences, we talk about building this technology culture, right? Mm-hmm.<affirmative> and kind of moving from this idea that it is just the computer at your desk to it's ai, it's robotics, it's resident engagement, staff engagement, and, everything you just said is such a great example of how that, uh, company can make that progression and have that change and have that mindset shift. one of the things that I often say when I'm doing presentations is that I was at another conference and someone from Hershey was presenting and he said, Every company today is a technology company. Hershey's is a technology company that happens to make chocolate. And I think if you kind of shift your mindset to thinking like technology is kind of the backbone that we do so much of our business on, um, it can kind of have people start to think about technology in a different way. I wanted to circle back to something that you mentioned and what you just said is, that staff buy-in and that leadership buy-in. Can you talk a little bit about how did that evolve and how did that happen at Cedar Community?
Nicole:Well, I think, you know, early on, you know, we kind of had the one individual, the organization that was sort of the liaison and kind of in charge of it. and they were trying to communicate a lot of things that were happening in the change work that was happening. Um, and initially the leadership team wasn't really involved kind of in what was happening. We were just kind of being told about what was going on. And then I think we realized that, you know, it was so much more efficient and effective for us to all be at the table, so to speak, when it came to understanding what was going on with those changes that were happening. There were very complicated changes in some cases, you know, some were not so complicated. But at the same time, if it's not being communicated well and if your tired leadership team doesn't have buy-in and support for what's going on in those technology changes, that's just gonna make it that much more difficult. You know, I think one of the biggest lessons we learned from, from the pandemic was that, you know, all this sudden technology was, you know, front and center for us, and not just in the care of our residents, but in the communication with residents and family members and team members. And we learned pretty quickly that we all needed to be at the table and understand exactly what was happening, because that was how, that was how we were communicating with the outside world for, you know, those, especially those early months of the pandemic. And so that was a really important part and I think an eye opener for many, for many of the folks at Cedar community, for our leadership team. and really understanding that we all needed to be a part of this conversation and a part of this advancement for us and that technology part of what we were doing, which as you said, it impacts everything we do. you know, you think about those days when your email goes down and you're just sitting there and you're like, Okay, I can't really do anything today,<laugh>. I mean, you can't, but you can't, right? And so you feel kind of helpless, and it's not until you hit those days that you realize this technology in our infrastructure affects every single aspect of what we do here. And so it needs to be that important and it needs to be the conversation at that leadership table for sure.
Amber:Yeah. Yeah. I love that. So let's talk a little bit about innovation and technology. And I think there's so much exciting things happening in senior living technology. I always say senior living technology is the most exciting technology field right now, but if you come from outside the industry, you might be like, what? But it's such a growing market and we're starting to see such a generational shift both in staff and residents that there's so many new companies popping up, so many new things happening. And, I wanna talk a little bit about, what you, what Cedar Community has done, because you've had some successes and failures with innovation, and also what is the process that you go through when you're thinking about innovation and technology? What are you looking for and what do you think are some of the risks?
Nicole:Well, I think, you know, we, having, having an experience with trying to implement one of those new and exciting technologies, here at Cedar Community and hitting a few bumps along the way, I think you, like you said, it's, it's growing like crazy. I mean, you know, you step onto those expo floors at leading age or at Argentum and, you know, most of the folks out there are tech. and so it, it's exciting, it's overwhelming, I would say. But the thing is, is as exciting as it is and is the impact that you see, the positive impact it could have on your residents or on your communication or on some of your workflows or things of that nature, it's a really important to make sure that you take that step back and make sure that your infrastructure can support that. that was the biggest lesson we learned in trying to implement one of those exciting new technologies out there. And we got to this point and realized we did not have the technology infrastructure we needed to completely implement it the way we envisioned. and we had to take a step back and we had to work with that company who helped us to restructure the contract and restructure our future plans for the, what, what was that tech able to do for us, you know? And, and we're still working with them and it's, it's what we do have and what we are able to do is, is going well. But it was a, it was a tough lesson learned and, and in some cases it a little bit of an expensive lesson learned too. So I would say, you know, make sure that it's, it, you can, you have the capability to implement it and that what you think it's going to accomplish. You know, make sure that you've got the information to be able to really back that up. You know, what are the, what is the data that they have, what are the metrics that you can look at to make sure that that investment you're making is going to have a return for you, Whether that's a financial return so to speak, or a return on the engagement level with your residents and your team members because there's nothing more painful. Well, there probably is, but it's pretty painful to get all excited and have all this hype around this huge launch and then have to walk it back. that was really hard. It was hard for the residents to understand why we had to walk it back for the team members. And, so that was a tough lesson learned. And I think with all of the new tech that's out there, like I said, it's pretty cool stuff and it's exciting. but some of them are very, very new as well. And you might wanna, it's like you don't wanna buy that first model year of that car, right? You wanna give'em a little time to make sure that, that they can deliver on what they're talking about. And so, I don't know, I would probably be reluctant to jump into something brand new. maybe, give it a little time or make sure that they have, they have the metrics to back up what they're talking about in terms of what they think they say that they can deliver.
Amber:Yeah, that's something I was thinking about while you were talking is I do think there is a burden on the vendors, especially vendors that are coming from a different industry such as hospitals or retail or something like that. A lot of them, a lot of the ones that I interact with, they don't really have a real understanding of how behind the senior living industry is in a lot of aspects. So their system may rely on wall to wall wifi, and they're making assumptions that that will work. and then may put their product in and then realize later, Oh actually this is not going to work. Basically some of the requirements that they have for their system to work, uh, we're not able to be met and those were just kind of glossed over as not being a big deal and we'll figure it out. And I think it doesn't, um, it's not a good look for the vendors either if they're promising you that the system can do something and without doing their due diligence. And I think that's just a learning curve, um, that both providers and vendors, uh, need to work through as all all of these new and exciting things are happening.
Nicole:And I think another part of that too, Amber, is, you know, like you said, a lot of the tech companies, they're, they're from the world of tech, right? They're from, you know, different and they don't understand the regulatory environment that we sit in as well. And so I think, you know, I, there's a couple of different times I've gotten these, you know, emails and pitches of different, at different points and they're like, We can do this and this with video and this with, and okay, well, and where we are located video is illegal<laugh>. So you know it, you know, and they, it's the greatest thing and they can, you know, solve all these problems or help you with these issues. but regulatory-wise we can't do it. you know, I have a, my administrator i s, i s looking for what types of tech is out there for fall detection, um, i s a good example. But there are some things out there that just regulatory-wise we can't do, in our, and especially in the skilled nursing environment. and the other part of it is, you know, we're sitting, most of us, I shouldn't classify all of us, but many of us are sitting in very old buildings, concrete block buildings, and we simply don't have the ability to, to put some of these things in place. because we are, you know, these black holes of cellular service or wifi service or even, you know, some of the things I've seen that are like in floor sensor technologies and stuff like that, we can't, we can't dig into our concrete floors, you know, so not everything is applicable to our environments from either a structure perspective or a regulatory perspective.
Amber:Yeah. That falls, falls prevention, falls detection is a really, interesting concept. There's, the virtusense product, which they've been in our podcast. And that's a great example of a tech innovator who came to the industry from a personal experience and created a great company. Um, I think that they're trying to extend their system to assisted living. I've kind of heard mixed results on, um, how well it works in assisted living cause it's really meant to be captured in in one room. and then there's the safely you product, which has the cameras, which has, privacy concerns, especially in common areas or shared rooms and things like that. And the newest one I'm super excited about, I'm working on scheduling a call, is with a company that has smart socks. they're currently in the post-acute, uh, actually acute setting and they're looking to expand a senior living. So I wanna have a conversation with them about that, cuz I think that that's really interesting. But one of the things I wanna ask you about is there is so much emphasis right now on how can we increase staff efficiency or reduced costs in staffing. And this is a really hot topic actually, I'm hoping to do a podcast on this in the future. We're working on planning something to focus on this specific topic, but how do you balance competing needs across infrastructure, staff efficiency, um, staff engagement, resident needs? What is, uh, what is your perspective on how to balance that?
Nicole:I would say, you know, when we first started talking about programs and, you know, advancing technology, our initial focus was on residents and you know, how do we get that resident engagement part, you know, moving forward and with the new technology that's out there. But I think now, if you ask that same question of us because of what we're facing when it comes to workforce and the shortages and the challenges we face, I would probably say that workforce is our top priority now, in terms of the technology component and how can we, um, you know, automate some things if we can, How do we create efficiencies, you know, how do we make our workforces lives easier, um, when they're doing their jobs? Because, you know, in many cases these are very difficult jobs. And again, I go back to that regulatory environment, it's, it's, it's so incredibly important for us to, you know, have everything documented the way it needs to be documented. And I think right now you're gonna see a shift, um, you know, with the workforce challenges we face cuz these are not, this is not a short term workforce challenge. This is here to stay. And so that's gonna continue to be incredibly important. Um, and so it's gonna be important for us to continue to find the balance of advancing our technology for both the workforce and for the residents. Um, and, and how we can do that efficiently and how can, how do we afford to do that? Um, quite frankly. So that's gonna have to be something we'll continue to evaluate as we go and, you know, make sure that that's a huge part of, of our strategic planning, our strategic IT planning, um, as we move forward as an organization.
Amber:One of the things I wanna ask your, um, thoughts on is, let's say you do find some new technology, it's exciting, we get it in, it's working as intended. How do you then go back and measure the roi, the positive resident outcomes, the workforce impact? What are your, what do you think is the best way to measure that and to get a good sense of that?
Nicole:Well, obviously I think it depends on the tech and depends on what the outcomes of that tech can be, because obviously some things are very measurable. when it comes to, um, you know, when it comes to a workforce technology for example, is it, is it, you know, decreasing staff time in certain areas? Is it, is it decreasing redundancy in staff processes? You know, those types of things. So I think those are some things you can look at and measure when it comes to some of the workforce tech that's out there. for resident engagement tech, um, you know, it might be something where you see, um, you know, a particular attendance increase for residents or feedback from residents, you know, so that might be a little bit more challenging. But, um, I think that, you know, depending on the technology that you're looking to implement, I think identifying things you can measure because, you know, what's, get me what gets measured, you know, shows accomplishment or shows that, you know, a return, like you said, that return. And so that's important for you to be able to share too with people like your boards of directors, um, as to why you're making these types of investments. Not just because it's cool tech, but because it's actually accomplishing something. So I think depending on the tech you have, kind of thinking about that at the beginning, how are we gonna measure it? Because I'm guessing, depending on the type of tech, there are many different ways you could do that, but it's hugely important
Amber:With so much new technology coming out and so many options, what do you see is going to be the future impact when it comes to marketing communities based on the technology that they have?
Nicole:Well now you're speaking my language, right? Marketing. So honestly as you know, it's, as everybody knows the mark, most marketing starts on Google<laugh>, or I shouldn't say Google. Most marketing starts on the internet. And if you don't have a dynamic and content filled website, um, if you're not facing or you're not focusing on your, you know, your digital marketing, if you're not focusing on what that, what your digital presence is, um, you know, that's, that's key. You know, I think I read a recent statistic that something like, you know, about 37% on average of leads coming in right now to senior living are starting on the internet or coming through the internet and, you know, referral based business is always important. I think paying attention to your, your reviews and your ratings online, um, you know, that's something that people are starting to pay more attention to. You know, how many, how many of us shop online and decide what we're gonna buy based on what everybody else says about it.<laugh>, you know, it's really important technology and the ability to put, um, technology based, different types of, um, programs, embed those things into your website. You know, we have several of those embedded into our website. We're taking advantage of tech that's out there in our digital marketing space through our, our online presence. And that's really important to be able to do. That's gonna continue to be incredibly important. Paying attention to the back side, the backend, the, the, you know, the SEO and the SEM is really important as well. And, but I I would also go back to the metrics, right? You need to measure and what you're doing, you need to go into those analytics. You need to see where your traffic is coming from, why it's coming from those different areas, what's driving, what content are you using in other areas of the web, you know, the internet, um, to drive folks to your website. And then once you get to the website, what actions are they taking and what actions do you hope they take? Is it a phone call they're making? Is it a pdf they're downloading? You know, marketing is, marketing is about metrics and technology makes that a lot easier. And there are so many different platforms out there that are so critical to what you do and it makes your process easier. so if people aren't paying attention to that right now in the marketing world, uh, for senior living, you know, cuz and it's interesting too because we have two audiences, you know, in senior living we have the senior themselves and we have the adult children or the, you know, as they call'em the decision maker or the influencer. And so you have to always think about it from two different perspectives as well in terms of how you're coming across through that technology. Mm-hmm.
Amber:<affirmative>. Yeah. Yeah, I think there is a lot of new technology around that marketing component that I think is, is really cool and interesting. And we've had some of those products on our, um, podcast before. Another aspect of that that I was thinking about is how much does the technology that's in the building factor into the decision making process for potentially future residents? And I, I we, you know, we work with pretty much for the most part, not for profit. So I'm not really sure what's happening in the for profit world. I'm not sure if brand new buildings are going up that have just like wall to wall, innovative, cool, new technology. I'm kind of thinking maybe not because that's more cost, but I'm just curious as, as we start to see more and more of this new things and new exciting things and trends put into different buildings, if that's going to eventually lead to be being a decision point.
Nicole:I think right now it's a decision point more from the perspective of the adult child mm-hmm.<affirmative>, uh, versus the prospect, you know, the prospective resident. We have touted some of the technology that we've put into place and you know, it's a mixed reaction I would say, um, based on the audience that, you know, that you're, you're talking to. So I, I think it's gonna continue to be important to think about that. And if, if you're renovating or you're building, not necessarily, you know, putting all this stuff in place right off the bat, but maybe making sure that your infrastructure is prepared for that in the future as that continues to evolve. And as we see this generational shift begin to happen in senior living, you know, everybody talks about those baby boomers, you know, the baby boomers aren't really to us yet. I mean the beginning, there's no question about that. They're, they're in our independent living right now, but the bulk of those baby boomers are not, they're not here yet for us. And so, um, that's gonna be something we're gonna have to continue to be prepared to continue to evolve with in terms of that generation and, and the future, um, technology options that are gonna come. Because, you know, if the last couple of years have shown us anything, it's, it's shown us that there is going to be so much technology available in so many different realms of senior living, clinical and residential and communication and marketing and all of those areas. Um, we need to be forward thinking and think about how are we going to be prepared to implement those, those different technologies from an infrastructure perspective.
Amber:Yeah, and I think going back to what we were talking about with outcomes as well, is if you can show positive outcomes, it comes from the technology that could be used in your marketing to say that we're able to prevent up to 90% of falls or we have wellness and active monitoring happening where we can, um, people can, you know, wear a a, a Fitbit type looking device and we can get their vital signs. So we have ongoing analytics and there might be some people who don't want that too, which is interesting to think
Nicole:About. That's very true. I mean, I think one of the things we've looked at, you know, I mean there's a lot of, a lot of, um, voice technology out there right now and there's a lot of skepticism about that too. Um, so, you know, we've talked about it. How neat is that? Let's do that. It's, it's so convenient and easy for folks to use. Um, there's a big group of people out there, um, you know, especially our older adults who are not, not crazy about that idea just yet. Um, so I think that's gonna be something too, that we'll see more adoption of that type of technology as we see this, this baby regeneration begin to move into the senior living space.
Amber:Yeah, I think it's gonna be a really interesting next decade as we're straddling this transition. We're working with a lot of clients on new design, new, new, new build and you know, it's kind of like, do we build for today or do we build for tomorrow? Or you know, kind of how do we do both? Like you were saying,
Nicole:I mean, I think we, we experienced that firsthand here when you were talking. You know, we were talking before about one of our, our newer, um, campuses, if you will, and, you know, building these smart homes and it was sounded so cool and, and the residents that started moving in didn't want anything to do with it.<laugh>, you know, and we're not gonna force them to have these smart, these smart homes. so the great thing is, is they're wired to be smart homes in the future. Very few, if any of our current residents that moved into those new spaces adopted any of that technology.
Amber:Well, Nicole, I've really enjoyed this conversation. Is there any words of advice you would like to pass on?
Nicole:Words of advice? I would just say make sure that technology is an important part of your leadership conversation because it's so important to everything we do. And have a roadmap, have a plan. If you don't have a strategic IT plan, um, you need to start working on one because knowing where you are and knowing where you wanna be is great, but how in the heck do you get there? Um, and so I think that's really, really important as well. And the other thing we've learned, one of the other lessons we've learned is overcommunicate, what's going on? Because if people are kind of kept in the dark or they don't understand why things are changing with your technology and they don't get the why, then you're gonna have pushback on that. And so that's gonna be really important too.
Amber:Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for joining me today. I really enjoyed the conversation. Listeners, if you would like to submit a topic or you'd like to be featured on the podcast, you can find us on our website, parasolalliance com and thank you for listening