106. Integrating Tech to Empower Residents and Staff with Heather Tussing

Matt Reiners sits down with Heather Tussing, President of The Aspenwood Company, to explore how innovation, strategy, and a people-first approach are shaping the future of senior living. With over two decades of experience in the industry, Heather shares lessons learned, evolving technology trends, and how Aspenwood is thoughtfully embracing tech while staying true to its mission. 

Argentum Article: The Value of Assisted Living

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 Welcome back to another episode of Raising Tech. Today I am joined by my friend Heather Tussing, the president of the Aspenwood Company. Heather is an experienced senior living leader. She's passionate about senior living. I've gotten to know Heather, gosh, probably what now? Five years, six years? Yeah, seven years, something like that. Heather? Yeah. A while. And, uh, you've always just, uh, engaged with me with a smile and just smart dialogue, Heather, and I'm just so appreciative and it's just been awesome to see you rise to now the president of the Aspenwood Company and, uh, forever rooting for you and just so excited to have you on today. So, uh, thanks for joining us. Heather: It's my pleasure and the feelings are mutual. I'm so grateful to know you. Matt Reiners: Yeah. And it's been really cool with Aspenwood 'cause I know with like your communities are thoughtfully located in the [00:01:00] most attractive, highly desirable neighborhoods throughout the southeastern United States, and I know you're choosing sites close to the vibrant, uh, in entertainment. Mm-hmm. Cultural and recreational opportunities, uh, with easy access to care. So, uh, kudos to you guys, and I know I visited a community and you guys definitely live up to it. So appreciate that as well. Heather: Thank you. It's exciting. Matt Reiners: Yeah. So Heather, you know, we're gonna spend some time today talking about technology. And to start, I would just love to hear from your perspective, you know, how have you seen technology evolve in our space in the last five years, and if there, have there been any really big surprises or shifts that you've seen? Heather: I think technology has grown so much. I mean, there's just so much more available and in technology. Even a technology that I used in 2009 when I was an executive director, a similar technology now, like somebody presented it to me and all the bugs were worked out. It's much more user friendly. The te. It's just there's less equipment. It's smarter. So we have come, I mean, I [00:02:00] feel like as an industry, it has come so far and one of the things that I love that was a huge challenge in the past is that those, those that are often working in senior living, like selling the technology, they now have an understanding of senior living for, for many years. Early on I had, I felt like I was coaching them and teaching them senior living, and I feel like that has really, that's not the case anymore, and I'm grateful for that. Matt Reiners: It's a good thing to call out. 'cause I definitely have seen, you know, being in the industry myself now for 10 years, all on the vendor side. There's definitely been some people who have stuck around on the vendor side to understand this business. And like, you know, I remember my first couple of weeks in the industry, someone mentioning like Brookdale to me. I'm like, who's that? Right? So it's just kind of funny how. You're kind of riding this rollercoaster with you guys that we see mm-hmm. Some of this stuff coming out, whether it's from new, new regulations or some of these other things, you know, living through Yeah. COVID together and, uh, yeah. It's, I think it's a really thing. Good point to call out. There's still the people that come in right. That don't really know the industry, but, uh, hey, they'll, they'll [00:03:00] figure it out soon enough, or they'll be gone, uh, as soon as they. Exactly. And I know with Aspenwood, like you guys are clearly leaning into innovation. I know there's articles coming out about how you guys are doing this, but I know you have also expressed a thoughtful skepticism about jumping on trends like AI without a plan. Right? The buzzies of buzzwords out there. It is. It's everywhere. Everywhere. Every vendor company I see is now promoting it is like one of their main marketing lines, but there's definitely a uhhuh wide spectrum of how people are incorporating it, but mm-hmm. I'm, I'm wondering like, how do you approach evaluating new technologies to ensure that they're in line with your mission? Heather: Sure. So I think that it has to align with the mission and as well as it has to align. And part of our mission is making sure that everything makes sense for our residents and our team members. Right? And, and that's a big part of it. So a lot of technology can do a lot of great things, and you could have all the technology platforms in the world, but it has to be beneficial to both our residents or members and our team members. And that's really what I look for, is that if it's a win-win [00:04:00] for both, and especially with. With staffing and so forth. If we can have some smart technology that allows our team members to have more purposeful, more intentional time with our residents or our members, then I'm all for that. And that's what we're looking for and that's what we've been able to dig into and things that will really drive in. A lot of integration's important, looking at things that integrate so that we're making smarter decisions with all the information in one dashboard. Like those are just the key things we can only expect. People are not gonna go into dashboard after dashboard. It's just not realistic. I don't wanna do it either, so it's not realistic. So making sure that the technology. It's benefiting our residents and members, but it's also benefiting our team members. And it's making sense overall. Obviously it needs to make sense at the home office level as well, that it's beneficial, but my primary concern is that it's making sense at the community level. Matt Reiners: Yeah it's a good thing to call out. I mean, I think to your point, right, like how do we make this win-win and integrate? I think if I've noticed a big trend over the last five years, it is this idea around integration, you know? I've been on the technology vendor side, now I'm kind of [00:05:00] more in a role of playing with all the different technologies out there. Yes. And there's definitely some companies out there that like to play nice in the sandbox, but I think, when they're working from a spirit of how do we make life easier for your staff to make life better for the residents, right? Like that's the key ingredient. Because, you know, I remember one time presenting to a group a couple years ago, someone in the audience raised their hand. They had 16 different apps on their phone that. To do their job and nothing talk to one another. So it's like what are what are doing? That's not realistic. Heather: It's not realistic. It's not gonna be sustainable, and we're not gonna use all that technology we're paying for then. Matt Reiners: Exactly, and I see that being a big thing too, of just like optimizing the current technology spend of what you are paying for and making sure that you're maximizing those systems and going about that. Definitely feels like there's a lot of opportunity there, but you know, it's good to see guys leaning into it. And Heather: when we're, when we're evaluating technology, we look at the integration capacity, like how well in are they to play with others, what does the integration look like? And that is how we choose if somebody. If I'm selecting it's, it's a new technology now and they're not willing to integrate, or if they make it extremely difficult, then we're just passing on that [00:06:00] technology and we're gonna find there will be a different vendor who can do something similar Matt Reiners: for sure. I completely agree with that. And you know, I'm wondering too from like the technology standpoint 'cause I know you guys have recently embraced like, or piloting fall detection and remote monitoring. Yeah. You know, some of these tools can detect things like UTIs and early onset diabetes, which is crazy how technology it's, does that. But I'm wondering like, how are residents and families responding to these tools and, um, you know, just wondering like how they're thinking about it as they're, Heather: I think that they're, they are embracing it. I mean, it's a safeguard, right? It's just one additional thing that we can put in place to keep our residents and members safe, which is going to increase their longevity. It's gonna increase their health and wellbeing. Anybody wants to stay outta the hospital, if at all possible, including myself. So I mean, I think it's, it's a win-win all around. One of the interesting trends that I have seen is that in our luxury communities, individuals are a little more skeptical than in our mid luxury communities, which I think is interesting. And I asked one of our vendor [00:07:00] partners about it and they said that that's something that they've seen as well. So obviously it's just. Overcoming that. But it's still, it has still been embraced. It's just slightly less percentage wise than in our mid luxury. Well, we'll have a hundred percent participation, um, because we wanna get that to that in our luxury communities as well, because obviously we want everybody to live a fulfilled, purposeful, life. And part of that is being, maintaining safety. Matt Reiners: Yeah. It's so important. I feel like it's one of those tools that just allows people to be smarter in a lot of these scenarios too. And I do think as we continue Heather: 2%. Matt Reiners: As we keep talking about the baby boomers and them retiring and moving to these communities, they already have that technology appetite. So I just feel like the technology acceptance is gonna be continuing to up into the right. And to your point of like getting to a hundred percent, it's inevitable, right? It's just a matter if that happens in the next 12 months. The next two years. Right. I I do think, yeah, we're gonna Heather: get there. Yeah. And as, as individuals talk and residents talk, families talk, I mean, they're going to, we're the op the adoption continues to increase. And, and I think that it's important as well to when you're, when you're [00:08:00] implementing these, you need to work with a partner who's going to work with you to help it be successful. And that's what we've seen so far in all of our implementations and. Throughout the process, as we've seen the, our vendors as a partner. So they're helping educate our team members. They're helping educate our families. They're helping us be better at what we're doing, but they're not like slapping our hands when we make a mistake, because any new technology you roll out, there's gonna be a bump in the road, whether on our side or on the vendor side. It's inevitable. Your humans working with humans and adding technology into it, it's a, it's how you have that partnership and that relationship that makes it be successful in the long run. Matt Reiners: Yeah, and it brings up a good. Question here, because I know you kind of mentioned in the beginning when you're like, kind of looking at these technology companies and like what integrates or like how does it align with your mission? How does it help quality of life? I'm wondering if there's like anything else that you look for in a tech partner to really just ensure that successful integration and adoption across your communities. Heather: Well, I definitely check not just the references they provide, [00:09:00] but I also check with industry part, like industry partners. I'll, I'll reach out to you sometimes, like I reach out to different individuals who ha either are using the, the technology or know of the technology and so that that way I can not just check out the references they provide because similar to somebody interviewing for a role, the references they provide are. Probably gonna be pretty good references. So I, not that I'm a naysayer, but I wanna make sure I'm doing my due diligence. I owe it to my residents and my communities to make sure I do my due diligence. So I'm going to check references above and beyond what they provide me to get the real details and, and to hear the bumps in the road, because I'm okay with that. I'm okay with challenges. I just wanna hear how they handled the challenge. Matt Reiners: That's, uh, it's a great point. I always like to tell people if they are gonna look into some technology platforms or even just like hiring, right? Like those backdoor references are so important. 'cause a lot of the, the time, the references that people give you are incentivized to get a good reference. Whether it's, uh, you know, there's definitely some, uh, I've seen like cost savings I've seen favors, right? Like for people to be references. So to your point of like finding those [00:10:00] people, and you know, I think your point too, as. Challenges are gonna come up. Speed bumps are gonna come up. It's inevitable to think that there's not, and a sales person is gonna tell you that there's not, don't believe them. No, but like to your point, like how are they gonna respond? I remember, I've worked with people in the past when I was the technology vendor, where I had people be like, Hey Matt, I'll work with you. 'cause I know if we do come across a problem, you're gonna do everything. You can get it fixed. Right? Like, and I think it, at the end of the day, that's what providers should be looking for in these vendors. And it's been interesting too, from my, from what I've seen, Heather. I see more and more companies trying to break into senior living. They see a B2B play as like an easy win for their technology. Yeah. But they really need to approach it as a partnership versus this vendorship, which I think, uh, some people are kind of stuck in Definitely a Heather: partnership because we're gonna make mistakes too. Like on the rollout, there's gonna be a mistake on, on the operator side as well. It's inevitable. A community's going to do something different than what we had hoped, or the letter's not gonna get sent out on time. I mean, there's gonna be a mistake. It happens. It's a busy world. It's a busy work environment. It's how. It's not finger pointing, it's working together. The collaboration is what makes a [00:11:00] difference. Matt Reiners: Amen. And relationship. Heather: Four minute relationship Matt Reiners: for sure. I gotta give you like a mic to drop after that, Heather, but uh, it's so true. It's so true. And. You know, I know in the article that kind of like prompted this interview, you had mentioned in it that like, you know, you're using AI to better understand resident preferences and then like personalize their sales journey, which I think is just so cool Yeah. Able to do that. I'm just wondering if you could share a story or an example where this approach really helped to connect with, uh, a resident or a family. Heather: So with having our technology communicate, so we were able to ensure, you know, anything new like a resident, a member moving in, they can know they need to move in. They may be looking forward to moving in. Maybe it's become overwhelming. They may need to downsize, but change is inevitably hard. Just like it was hard when we went off to college, right? We were excited to go to college, but it's still, it's a new place that you don't know the restaurants. Still a change, right? So we have to understand that even if they're excited and, and some aren't excited to come to senior living, um, but even if they are excited, it's still gonna be a change. So we wanna make sure we [00:12:00] have our CRM communicating with our technology our life enrichment platform, so that we know their preferences, we know what they like, we know what they dislike, so that we can pair them up with other individuals who have similar likes and dislikes so that we're kind of putting them in, like they, they're gonna develop their own relationships. But let's give them a head start on that from when they first come into the community. And also if there's a way that we can incorporate an activity in programming that we know they're going to enjoy, let's do that. Let's make that first day memorable for them and have it be a positive memory, not a negative memory, which is also potential to have happen. Matt Reiners: Yeah, no, I love that. I think. What I see is like a huge opportunity technology to your point, right? Like if you can kind of team up residents to find people with like similar likes and similar to that stuff, like people from what you know, what I always tell people is like people aren't gonna leave their friends. And if you're able to create these bridges that might have been built three down, three months down the line today, right? Like it just helps people to kind of connect on that different level and start to create those. Relationships and really improve that social [00:13:00] wellbeing because I mean, at the end of the day, for sure, that's what I think a lot of people wanna move into these communities outside of the needs based stuff. But like, how do we just create more relationships and more friendships, right? So the people that are, that we look at and are like, Hey, that's me, right? Heather: Right, and there was a recent survey came up. Please help correct me if I'm wrong. I think it was Argen, but I could be wrong. Where, or it was either Argento or Asha came out with an amazingly complex detail oriented survey and it showed that one of the main things that contributes to their happiness in a community and it looked at ILA on memory care was the sense of community. So not the community itself, per se, really. Like they could say they wanna pool and maybe they do wanna pool. So certain people, that's not gonna be important. But more so was the companionship and their friendship is what's important, and feeling like they belong somewhere is what's important. So we need to set that up from the start because we want those first few days, weeks, months. To give them that sense of belonging and not a sense of belonging that they feel 12 months in. Matt Reiners: Yeah. Because that's Heather: gonna, that could be a lonely 12 months. Matt Reiners: Very lonely 12 months. Yeah. It's, [00:14:00] mm-hmm. Uh, I, I dunno who came out with that. I'll try and link it in the, in the show notes here. But it's such a good point, right? Like that sense of belonging at the end of the day, that's what we're all just craving for as human beings, right? For sure. It's kind of cool how technology can kind of help free up some of that burden of like the time spent in order to do that to, minimize the amount of time it takes for these people to connect at a personal level. Yeah. And I know, you know, as I think through the article talking about like saving time, something stood out to me of like how your focusing on empowering your internal team, like using different platforms and I'm just wondering like how tech has helped free up some of your leaders and caregivers to do more of what matters. Heather: Well, let's start with caregivers 'cause they're our frontline team members and those are the individuals I really wanna free up time for so that they can spend more meaningful, purposeful time with our residents and members. Um, so for my team members, just some of the fall tech technology we've implemented and again, using the ai, it's AI technology, it has really freed up to where they can know somebody is in bed, they're safe, and [00:15:00] their respirations are with them where they should be. And so if it's an individual who is. Independent and toilet team, for example, they don't need to check on them every two hours. Then we can extend that to where that we're not waking somebody up to where they can ha, you know, just like a hospital stay, right? If somebody's coming in and out of your room com, continuously, if we're going in and outta their apartment continuously, it may not be the best rest for them and rest is important, right? I wear the A ring 'cause rest is important to me. Prioritizing sleep. But if we're we're able to use that technology to really maximize our potential and really give our team members the time to spend with residents doing what they love to do and probably why they joined senior living to begin with, then that's a win-win all around. And also for our leadership teams and our executive directors and so forth, to really have. All of our data coming into a data dashboard to where they can look at what's key to them. And one of the things that I love is our ability to prioritize what's most important for that community. Every community does not have the same challenges. Every community is somewhat [00:16:00] unique, so let's prioritize what we want them, that community, what that community needs to focus on. Because if you give them everything to look at. They're gonna look at nothing. So you have to prioritize and give them what's most important for them to be successful, to see additional success in that community. And I think that's what technology gives us. The ability to do free up people's time to do what they got into senior living to do. They didn't get into senior living to sit in a desk all day. They got in. And that's not what residents want. Residents want to see team members out and about in the community, and they wanna have those relationships. Relationships are what make a community successful. Matt Reiners: It goes back to something I always talk about whenever I am, you know, on the conference speaking circuit and like the power of AI and technology, right? It's like automate the mundane to elevate the meaningful. Mm-hmm. And when I think of the meaningful, especially in senior living, it's like those one-on-one interactions. It's spending time with whether our team or the residents or the families and. Helping to cut out some of that burden in the background. You know, tracking down all the most accurate data. Right? Exactly. If you can have [00:17:00] it one stop, stop shopping and you have trust and faith in that data, you can just make decisions quicker and really, again, maximize what should be important in, uh, in the communities today, Heather: and that'll have the biggest impact. Matt Reiners: Man, the biggest impact. I love it. And my last question here for you, Heather, you know, as someone who's helping to shape what's next in senior living, I'm wondering like, where do you see the biggest opportunities for industry or for innovation and, uh, what's still holding the industry back? Heather: I think for innovation it is continuing to have those integrations. So having the integrations where systems talk to each other, they'll flow into a singular dashboard that's, there are that, that does exist to a degree, but there's, there's definitely room for improvement and for growth there. And that's important because again, that is just going to help us give individuals some time back to where they can do other things that are gonna be more beneficial too. The residents members and the organization. Uh, so that's, that's a key. Where do I see the industry going? I think it's going to continue to improve. Look how far we've come [00:18:00] since back in the COVID era, right? Yeah. We have come so far and I am just so excited for the continued growth, but the talent entering senior living, I'm excited by that. I love seeing those individuals that came over from hospitality and have remained in senior living. You know, they came over because hospitality was a difficult, I mean, senior living, we had difficult challenges during COVID, but we still had a need, right? Hospitality, some in some states shut down. So to, so to see all those individuals in hospitality come over to senior living and stay, and that additional knowledge, I love it when people come to senior living from other industries because they come with an information knowledge. Expectations that help, uh, the senior living industry grow and be better and have higher standards. And I think that's amazing because we are providing care that's so important and that is at the core of oftentimes of what we do, but that there is so much above and beyond that's important for the empowerment and the purposefulness and the enjoyment of our residents and team members lives, that we have to [00:19:00] have those other individuals coming from other industries to be better. And that's what I'm excited about seeing continue to occur. Matt Reiners: I love it. Well, Heather, it's no wonder you continue to win all these awards and you guys are just absolutely crushing it. And, uh, you know, I'm so grateful in this industry. There are leaders like you. So keep up the good work my friend, and, uh, I hope our paths here close, uh, cross sooner than later. Heather: Thank you. I'm grateful for you