91. Enhancing Family Communication in Senior Living with How's Mom & TLC Management

In this episode of Raising Tech, host Matt Reiners sits down with two trailblazers improving care communication in senior living: Nick Snyder of TLC Management and Justen Spirk of How’s Mom.

Together, they unpack how their partnership is giving time back to caregivers and empowering families with transparent, real-time care updates through digital coordination tools.

 Tune in to hear how TLC Management and How’s Mom are shaping the future of connected care in senior living and why it's about more than just tech. 

Learn More:

• TLC Management: www.tlcmgmt.com
• How’s Mom: www.howsmom.net
• Follow How’s Mom on LinkedIn 

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Transcript

Matt: Welcome back to another episode of Raising Tech. I am so excited for this conversation today. I've got Nick Snyder, the Health Information's System Director for TLC Management. TLC management has earned a reputation of being a leading healthcare consultant in Indiana and Florida.

After its incorporation in [00:01:00] 1987, TLC began their mission to build the business by applying traditional values along with key principles of leadership and a quest for quality service. And this successful mission has been implemented throughout TLC's business portfolio. And I'm also joined by Justen Spirk.

The CEO of How's Mom and How's Mom enhances communication in senior living by automating care updates, improving efficiency, ensuring compliance and engaging families, ultimately boosting care, quality and reducing risks. So gentlemen, a place I like to start with all of our new guests, and we'll start with you first.

Nick. Can you just share a bit about your background and what led you to work in senior living? 

Nick: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for having us. Great to be here today. I've been with TLC for coming on nine years now. I am a nurse. I'm a registered nurse. Started out in a hospital in the acute care setting and was there for a couple years.

I. It was actually getting ready to move [00:02:00] and looking for a new position that would be closer to home and got into long-term care that way. Went into a health information systems role, which is a, at the time was newer for nursing and got into this it nursing clinical world that's new and upcoming and booming now.

So I've been doing that for the last nine years. So it's been really good. 

Matt: Oh, I love to hear that. And love that transition and how you're adding like, technology to that care approach, right? I think it's so important within senior living. Kudos to you on that. And then uh, Justen, same question to you.

What led you to build How's Mom and work in the senior living industry? 

Justen: Yeah. I think it's always been in the cards. Both my parents are 20 plus year veterans in the senior care industry. I'm actually married to a social worker that has applied her trade in senior care for the last 18 years.

I've spent the better part of my career in some way, shape or form in a sales and marketing capacity within healthcare. [00:03:00] But, at the end of the day when I learned about the organization and you know, the problem that it was looking to solve, I just I felt like it would be a fantastic fit.

Being someone who has loved ones in the community as well. I recognized the issues and wanted an opportunity to build something from the ground up. 

Matt: I love that and I can definitely applaud the entrepreneurial journey. I've been there, done that, and looks like we both have lost all of our hair throughout the process, Justen.

Matt: It's been a fun ride for sure. And, I know TLC management and How's Mom are working together today, and I guess the first question that I have about that. As to you Nick how did you guys come together to enhance care communication within your communities and wondering what some of the challenges you were hoping to solve for that.

Nick: Yeah, so this, we have to go back a few years. We are back in about 20 17, 20 18 when we first connected with How's Mom. And what we were looking for was a way to give time and care back to our residents and back to [00:04:00] our staff. So the key focus was how can we get. Residents nursing care and how can we get nurses away from answering phone calls from spending time away from direct resident care.

So that was the solution that we originally looked for and what How's Mom was offering at the time. Now, over the years, that has. Grown into communication, it's grown into sharing different parts of the clinical record and on with those different opportunities. But it was really about giving the care back to the patients and then giving time back to our nurses.

Justen: Yeah, I love that. So it definitely seems from Nick, it seems like you're have that problem identifying a solution. And then Justen, I'm just curious what were you seeing from your side? 

I think to Nick's point it's really been about, number one, how can we ease that burden on the caregivers at the communities?

Justen: And number two, how can we help meet the expectations of the customers, the families and the way the communication is being provided. 

Matt: I think it's so [00:05:00] important along this journey and how are we able to check up on our loved ones and making sure that they're getting the best quality of care.

And I'm wondering, and anybody can take this, whether it's from your side of things, Justen, or what you're seeing within your communities, Nick, how have you seen like digital care coordination apps change the way families stay connected with their loved ones in some of these senior living settings?

Nick: Transparency is huge in the industry. Trying to engage family members. We're finding more and more that families, residents even want to have direct access to the information, to as much clinical data as they can. Providing that transparency and building those relationships is huge.

I know Justen can probably speak more about it, but. We have families that are requesting apps or something that's gonna provide them that transparency when they're selecting a nursing home to go into, or a skilled nursing facility to go into. So people are wanting that data. That's a huge part of it.

On, on building the customer [00:06:00] relationship. 

Matt: Yeah, and I think what I've seen too and Nick, it seems like you've identified this well before the pandemic that understanding of transparency, I think what I saw was so many people wanting to check in on their family members, their loved ones, and a lot of these people didn't have systems set up and were catching up to try and do that.

Kudos to you guys for being proactive and doing that. And I'm wondering from your side, Justen, I imagine you guys hear heartwarming stories from families almost every day to really showcase that impact. I'm wondering if there's anything that has stuck out to you during your time with How's Mom, that you can really showcase that your product is and your service is helping.

Speaker: Yeah. I think to begin with communication and the way people have communicated has changed significantly over just the past five years, 10 years if we want to go back that far. But yeah, we have just a multitude of stories and feedback that come through our platform of, before using the app I never I always felt disconnected. I didn't know what was going on with mom or dad in the community. [00:07:00] And it's always been difficult for me being, three states away to stay updated on the care that's being provided and I have to make a phone call, I'm not able to go in, et cetera.

And, I'll use the same analogy that I use pretty much on a daily basis and it's reduced or ridiculous, but. The reality is, if you're a pet owner, you can take your dog to a doggy daycare, and within the first 30 minutes, you know how many treats it's had, it's favorite toy, what dog it's playing with the most, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

And, we need to be able to provide that type of information to these family members and, to really meet their expectations as far as what they're looking for and how they want to know, what their loved one doing in that community. I can think of a number of different cases and one in particular, I think it's a, an interesting use case.

We have an elderly gentleman that has a younger son with a, multitude of issues. He's living in a community and this gentleman utilizes our app to stay up to date on the care that's being provided. So when he's going to separate doctor's appointments, et cetera, he's able to pull up [00:08:00] the app show all the care that's being provided, the med new medications from, different physicians that he is visiting, et cetera.

And it's his way to help manage the care that's being pri provided to his son. I think at the end of the day, it is that transparency and the ability to, build a level of trust that quality of care is being provided. 

Speaker: Yeah. I think I. To your point, right?

Transparency builds that trust. And even if it's not the greatest news, right? I'd rather knowing about that, sharing that, understanding that versus just flying blind. Like even thinking about my own journey with my grandmother, which granted, I, my dad and my uncles were more involved in kind of that family caregiving, but.

The only way they could get updates was by calling her directly and asking how things were going, like they did not have this kind of insight of what was happening and what was going on. So whether they were visiting or calling was getting the insight and it was just and of course she was lived to be 93, so everything that she knew what was going on, she couldn't [00:09:00] properly share that information with us at times. There was definitely like a different take on it at times, I know there were times I would go and visit her and she would thought I was the eye doctor at some point.

I just had my glasses on, so she did not recognize me, but it's all good. And I'm, when we think about these family caregivers, right? So maybe even like outside of the, a senior living community directly, Justen, how else have you seen this? Like automation and convey communication really help ease their burden.

And I'm wondering if you've received any feedback from those using that technology? 

Speaker 3: Oh yeah. I. I think again, at the onset, the idea is to, how can we connect all the key stakeholders in this particular residents care? And, we get feedback all the time of, oh, hey, I've noticed this new medication has been prescribed to dad.

Just an FYI, we tried this three years ago and he had, significant side effects. So it's actually impacting the care that's being provided. No one knows these residents better than their loved ones, and it's an [00:10:00] opportunity for them to be involved and the decision making process and the care that's being provided.

I think that kind of speaks to the question there. Of how it is impacting them from, a day-to-day standpoint, knowing that they have access to this information and can stay, clued in as to, the care that's being provided. 

Speaker: That makes a lot of sense.

I think knowledge is power in this situation and at least getting that and looking at it over a period of time. Makes sense. And my, my next question is for you Nick, 'cause I know, healthcare regulations are very strict. I'm wondering like how you're thinking about compliance while streamlining communication.

And I'm also like. From your perspective, how have you seen How's Mom improve your operational efficiency? A couple different ways you could take that question here. 

Speaker 2: Yeah. So it's when you think about How's Mom or an app, like How's Mom? It's, from our perspective, it's a three-headed animal.

You look at the resident care, you look at the staff, how is it impacting staff, and then the compliance piece of [00:11:00] it. So those are the what we focus on. So with the compliance piece we're providing information that we are required to provide In most cases. The Cures Act is one of those things that we utilize House Mom for.

The other part of it will be the notifications. We're starting to roll out automated notifications, if, let's say somebody had a weight change or there was something in the building that happened, we can directly push out or automatically push out this notification that goes to the family member says, Hey, either log into the app and see this message or.

Contact the facility, whatever it would be. And then we have an, a progress note that goes right into the medical record. So from a compliance standpoint, it's helping us significantly with notification. And then we have that audit trail that says, Hey, this is when we sent this out, this is when the family, reached back out to the building and got that information from us.

So that is a big game changer for nursing and for compliance. 

Matt: That makes a lot of sense, and I love [00:12:00] how it's integrated to those various platforms. Just so if you're, creating those updates and making that and I love the analogy you had talked about the three headed monster there and how you're thinking through that.

And I'm wondering, and this is a no surprise to anybody listening to this, that it's familiar with senior living or really any industry out there about the staffing shortages. And I'm just wondering, as we're thinking through this, Nick, and you touched on it, but I'm just wondering kind of your vision or how you see this happening today? I know you said you're just launching some of this stuff, but like how do you think some of these technology driven care updates can help alleviate some of those staffing pressures and improve those workflows? 

Justen: Yeah I. The notifications part is fairly new as far as the automated, but we've been using How's Mom to give time back to the nurses from the very beginning.

Like I said, that was the kind of the driving factor there. How do we build a transparent relationship with family and how do we provide time back to nurses? So that we're providing the best possible patient care that we can, or resident care that we [00:13:00] can. So in giving that time back to the nurses where they're not sitting maybe on a phone call for 15 minutes or a half an hour or longer, depending on what they're talking about, they're.

Referencing the app and saying, Hey, if you want to know your mom's blood pressure, her blood sugar, every morning, you can look at the app and you don't even have to call us. It's always there and it's always available for you. So that phone call is eliminated. Then giving time back to the nurse who then can focus on what we actually want them to focus on, which is resident care.

Speaker: I always think about automations, ai, all this fun stuff, right? Like, how do we automate the mundane and elevate the meaningful, right? And if we can maximize time being spent with the residents and I, when I think of senior living, right? Like at the end of the day, that's what we should be doing.

So if we can automate some of this other administrative paperwork, some of this documentation in the background, and, I look at that as like the most. That's where I see technology going. I know a lot of people are scared of these, like humanoid robots are gonna come in and do [00:14:00] all this stuff.

But I think to what, how you guys are using it. That's where I see technology, especially in the short term being utilized and making that happen. And, as we're thinking about innovations and I'll ask this question to start with Justen. I think Nick, getting your. Take on it too would be great.

But, looking ahead, like what trends do you see shaping the future of digital caregiving solutions? And, what are you excited about when you're looking at some of those enhancements? Justen? 

Speaker 3: Yeah, so I, I think really it, it goes back to how much of that, how much of that burden can we really eliminate?

And, what can we utilize from a technology standpoint to increase the communication alleviate some of the administrative pressures and just really provide more time to care? I think when we talk about limiting those phone calls, if you look at any of the studies out there, they.

Anywhere from 17 to 30 minutes time on the phone. Now that's pretty significant when you have, you might have a hundred residents and maybe 300 family members. There are a lot of phone calls that come in [00:15:00] day to day really. I'm excited about some of the AI things that we're working on currently.

I'd love to be able to share that, but I think we're a little too early on in the process. But there's some significant things that we can do from an AI standpoint with just capturing those incoming communications and running them through different ai to, highlight. Key phrases, et cetera.

We can automate what a CMS standard response would be for Exce for example. Those are some of the things that I'm really excited about, to be able to eliminate hours of work from, clinical social services, administrative staff that would go into responding to some of these communications.

We're starting to develop. Pieces of the platform that can automate that entire process. And we're a matter of seconds. To me that's the really exciting thing. It's not to eliminate that personal touch in any way because that's really important in this industry, but, to your point, to, answer the phone four or five times a day to, discuss what mom or dad [00:16:00] or brother or sister's weight might be.

We can provide that as it is today without changing any of the workflows that is currently going on in the building. 

Matt: Yeah, I love that. And then, I'll ask 

Speaker: uh, 

Matt: pretty much the same question to you, Nick. You've got such a unique perspective being an rn, now I'm this health information system director and, what are you excited about when you're looking at or thinking about innovation, technology, digital care, coordination tools?

Like what are you excited about, or what trends do you see taking place for the future here? 

Nick: Yeah, so the automated notifications are huge. We've talked about that for several years now, and it's finally starting to come into a reality to where we can have documentation that something happened and it automatically goes out and notifies the family.

I think that is great. And I think we're gonna see more and more of that. One of the big pieces is how do we do this without disrupting the nursing workflow which is what Justen was talking about. And that's huge because the, the more streamlined it is, the easier it is on the nursing staff, the better these [00:17:00] products are.

And when you have something that, that automatically based on something that they already have documented in the chart, generates that message, the notification is done, our progress note is done. That's awesome. And the nurses love that to where they're, and I'll say it again, but they're right back to the care that they want to provide to the patient.

Matt: So that's the direction that I see it going and really excited about that in the future. 

You've been working with a digital care platform like How's Mom for more than a few years now.

Matt: And I'm just wondering like for senior living providers considering working with How's Mom or maybe another digital care coordination tool, like what key factors should they evaluate before implementation? And just also wondering if there's anything you've learned from your own experience or TLC management's experience that others can benefit from.

Nick: Yeah, I think you really wanna look at one, what's gonna make you compliant? What do you need to be sharing to be compliant? You wanna look at that relationship because like I said, this is a huge [00:18:00] opportunity to build that relationship with family members, to be transparent when they know, hey, not that we're ever trying to hide anything, but when they can jump into the chart and see these items.

Family members love that. So I'd be looking at those things. And the last thing is, how do we not disrupt our current workflow? We mentioned earlier, shorting staffing shortages are real. And the more that we take away from the nursing care the more unhappy the nurses are and the less quality care our residents are getting.

Making sure that it's not disrupting that workflow, that it's easy, it's simple to implement. And you have a great rep like we have in Justen. So 

Speaker: yeah. 

Speaker 2: That makes a big difference. 

Speaker: Yeah, I love that. And hey, it's great when your rep can be the CEO, that's that's awesome. That's right.

Yeah. And then and so the question to you, Justen, I know you guys are working with more people in the just TLC management. I imagine you've seen some trends across different providers and I'm just wondering like. When does it go really well with an organization that can [00:19:00] really embrace a technology?

Like How's Mom and be off to the races? And then, I guess on the other side of that question, you could take it whatever way you want. When does it, when are, what are providers doing that might not be as successful with something like that? 

Speaker 3: No, I that, that's a great question, Matt. I think number one where we have a lot of success is I.

Those providers that understand that there's a better way to communicate. Number one they, they've taken ownership of. It may not necessarily be a problem, but there is a better way to communicate and it can really provide a positive impact for your overall organization. But again, getting back to the staffing, the, these these communities are really tasked to do an impossible job with the number of things that they have to communicate, the number of individuals that they have to communicate to while providing high quality of care and make sure that everything is documented in their compliant.

There is a lot that goes into that. We're most successful in those organizations that really take ownership of, [00:20:00] Hey, look. We're trying to do the best that we can, but we understand there, there might be an opportunity out here to, to provide a better service to our residents, our patients, and their families.

Those are the ones that are I think really take hold of, the software that's being provided, the technology that's being provided to them, and then, the organizations that we have more of a difficult time with, I'll say they're, they are looking to just quickly check a box.

If that kind of makes sense, they're looking for just a quick solution that I can implement really quick. I can check this box and move on and be done with it. But really, we're talking about a cultural shift in the way that, in the way that you're communicating, the industry for the most part.

They communicate in person and by phone. And, we've had over 80,000 plus end users on our platform. These are family members that have adopted our app and are receiving communications through the platform. And, we can tell you today that. About [00:21:00] 63% of the, of those individuals, their primary preferred method of communication is texting.

So you know when you think about all those organizations that are making the phone calls all day long family members are having to go in. It's not a satisfactory experience. Those I think those are the ones that are looking for I just wanna check the compliance box or, I just wanna make sure that we can send mass messaging out or, something of that nature.

But really at the end of the day, their customers want that transparency. They want access to this information because frankly, they can get it anywhere else in their day-to-day life. 

Speaker: I love that. Yeah. It's so important. And yeah, even through my thinking through my own preferred level of communication, like text is the easiest way to get ahold of me.

Or at least stay knowledgeable of what's happening. And we were even seeing it recently with voicemails are now being put into text so people can get it that way. So it seems to be the default way to accept information and stay on top of it.

[00:22:00] Granted, don't tell my wife that she's got a hundred. Unopened or unread text message. I don't know how she survives it, but that's her own problem. And then yeah, so this is for either of you any other thoughts you wanna share, whether about digital care coordination, How's Mom, TLC management, any other thoughts from either of you?

Speaker 2: yeah, I think that we're gonna see this area continue to grow. I'm so glad that we got into this with How's Mom back in 20 17, 20 18 prior to even, like we mentioned earlier, the pandemic where we used automated messages for. A year or more as part of the platform, I just see that it's not going away and it's gonna continue to evolve and to grow.

And we've seen that. And TLC's happy to be a part of that with How's mom to be able to guide and say, Hey, this is what we're seeing coming, can you guys build it? And so far How's Mom has been able to do that it's definitely gonna be the way of the future. So I'm glad that we have a solution in place currently that addresses that.

Justen: Yeah, no, Nick I appreciate that. And I think that was [00:23:00] somewhat along the lines of what, what I was gonna go with as well is that I've spent about 18 years in the medical industry not always in senior care on average for something to become, quote unquote standard of care.

I. In the medical world, you're talking, 14 to 16 years and this form of communication is not going anywhere. We're only going to, build upon the foundation that's already there. And I think that the last thing I'll say is we have an intern that works with us and I had a conversation with him about two weeks ago, and he's 23 years old, and I said, Hey his name's Matt as well.

How many phone calls do you make a week and. He is ooh. Maybe two. I think that's just a perfect indication. So that kind of got me down the rabbit hole of looking into, how is the younger generation communicating? They aren't making phone calls. So there's already been a number of studies out there, and more and more people are getting away from that verbal communication to where, it's quick access to the [00:24:00] information.

I think there's a good and bad to that. But I think we're gonna see, a continual surge to being able to, provide and get this information at our fingertips, whether it be through an app or push notifications, et cetera. I think that's for me is the biggest piece here, is this isn't going anywhere.

We're only gonna, continue to grow in this area. 

Speaker: I would agree. I think, these communication platforms, making life easier for the families, the caregivers, the, frontline staff, whatever we can do from a vendor and provider perspective and setting them up for success will help to I.

Again, I'll go back to this quote that Chad GPT gave me a few weeks ago of automating the mundane, elevating the meaningful and maximizing that time we can have with the residents, which at the end of the day is what senior living's built for. And then final question for each of you, Nick.

Where can people learn more about TLC management? 

Nick: Yeah, the easiest way is probably to go to our website, tlc mgmt.com. We're in Indiana, Ohio, [00:25:00] Florida, so a lot of different campuses that you can get to from visiting our homepage there.

Matt: Sounds great. 

Thank you. Yeah. 

And then Justen, same question for you. Where can people learn more about How's Mom. 

Speaker 3: Yeah I likewise, I think the website's probably the easiest method howmom.net. We're also on Facebook and LinkedIn. We have communities across 36 states here in the US coast to coast as it stands right now.

Got a handful up in Canada. But welcome any conversations. 

Speaker: Awesome. Gentlemen, thank you for your time today and appreciate. I always love seeing successful collaboration. It seems like you guys are doing it, so kudos to you guys. So thank you. Hey, thanks Matt. Appreciate you having us on.

Speaker 3: Thanks, Matt. It's been a pleasure. 

I.[00:26:00]