119. Driving Meaningful Innovation in Senior Living with David Lafferty

Matt sits down with David Lafferty, Chief Information Officer of the Riverwoods Group, the largest not-for-profit CCRC network in Northern New England. With a background spanning Fortune 100 companies, manufacturing, distribution, and healthcare, David brings a systems-first mindset to senior living innovation.

Together, they unpack what it really means to “do innovation right” in senior living. From eliminating shiny object syndrome to building durable, measurable technology strategies, this conversation is packed with actionable insights for operators, IT leaders, and executives alike.

Resources mentioned: Composure Sound Blanket

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Transcript

Matt Reiners: [00:00:00] Welcome back to another episode of Raising Tech. I am so excited for today's episode with David Lafferty, the Chief Information Officer of the Riverwoods Group. For those of you that don't know, the Riverwoods Group is the largest not-for-profit continuing care retirement community network in the Northern New England area.

Committed to creating community and peace of mind for his residents and its staff Together. There are three communities emphasize vibrant living, personalized healthcare, and strong community engagement for more than 900 residents across New Hampshire. I actually lived in Manchester at one point, David, so went back to, yeah, back probably.

It's 10 years ago. But, um, David is an experience that spans a variety of industries, including Fortune 100, distribution, healthcare and manufacturing, and joined Riverwoods in 2021. And David, uh, probably went to 20 conferences last year and saw 25 talks about ai. And [00:01:00] David, I think had the most actionable, the most insightful and the the best.

Presentation I saw and just learned so much in there. So David, I appreciate you making the time here today and all the energy and innovation you're bringing to our industry here. So thank you. 

David Lafferty: Oh, thank you. 

Matt Reiners: So David Place, I always like to start. Uh, what is, can you like, walk us through your journey and how did you end up in senior living?

David Lafferty: Goodness. Uh, sure. Well, unlike you, I did not live in Manchester. Uh, I actually moved up to New Hampshire from southwest Florida. Uh, when I joined Riverwoods, I spent the past almost 15 years now, uh, working in the not-for-profit, hospice and home care space. And that was after, uh, some of my experience that you shared in manufacturing and distribution, basically high tech.

And I never thought in a million years that I would work in healthcare in a not-for-profit space and at the time in hospice and home care. And what I learned then was that I really [00:02:00] enjoyed seeing the benefit of what it is you do for people every day in the community and not literally building widgets in a factory in the far side of the globe.

So I, I found that that work just really resonated with me. And it's certainly not for lack of technology innovation. So I went through a change, uh, in my prior organization. They had a merger. Um, my position was eliminated as part of that, and I found the opportunity with Riverwoods and I thought, well, there, it's another opportunity that resonates where I can make a difference in the lives of aging adults every day.

So that's a little bit of how I landed here with that very, the, the spirit background. 

Matt Reiners: I love that. And, uh, I won't ask about how your first few winners have been, but uh, you know, I imagine tolerated. There you go. There you go. Um, so, you know, I'd love to start with just like your lens on innovation. Like how do you personally define doing innovation, innovation right.

In a senior living context, and how has that [00:03:00] perspective evolved during your time at Riverwoods? 

David Lafferty: Sure. So it's funny, I like to describe it this way to residents when they ask you a similar question. Uh, my job, our job is done best when we're invisible, when things just work and all the technology fades into the background and almost disappears.

Uh, in reality, uh, that technology should be invisible, but at the end of the day, it should be making, uh, care safer. It should make our staff's job easier, uh, and really just make daily life for our residents, uh, smoother in our communities and, and not have them feel like they're living in some sort of a beta test, for example.

So in terms of innovation, we really look back to some of our core pillars in our mission statement. Does it enhance the quality of life for not only our current residents, but also future residents? That's key. 'cause we have to be looking at systems and solutions that have durability that are going to provide services for future residents and those that quite honestly are gonna be a [00:04:00] bit more tech savvy.

Does it address an unmet need? Is it something that we could be doing today and we're not? Technology closes stack gap. Uh, and does it ensure operational stability? So at the end of the day, does that technology help us ensure that Riverwoods remains here and keeps doing what we're doing for our residents today and tomorrow?

Couple of quick examples of that. So, uh, we're looking right now at, uh, a new improved, uh, nurse call or an e call system. So today, if a resident has a pendant or they have the poll station, they pull the cord and then a, a message goes out to our care team and they locate the resident, help them out, right?

It works. It is very typical. Other operators have systems just like that. But what if we have the ability that when that e call goes off, that our staff member has a smart device in their hand, they see a picture of the resident, they see exactly their location, and they see their medication, their allergies, and [00:05:00] the last time that they were one over our wellness clinics.

Now our staff have more actionable information. So when they respond to help that resident who called in an emergency, they are more able to provide care in the moment, the right care, and at a higher level of quality. So that's just one example of, you know, really cool innovation. But at the end of the day, it enhances quality of life for our resident.

It, it does address an unmet need in terms of the quality and response that we can give. Um, and it does it with a system that is stable and reliable. So just a quick example. 

Matt Reiners: Yeah, no, I love that example and I love kind of the, the vision for it of, it's like in the background you're not really noticing it.

And I think to your point, right, like from the resident's perspective, it's still some similar thing, but the staff that are showing up, they're able to provide that much better care 'cause they're given that information, um, on the fly. 

David Lafferty: Yeah, no, absolutely. You know, it's interesting, our residents, they're very tech savvy.

So, you know, things like, if. We have, let's say a work order system. They wanna [00:06:00] repair the refrigerator and that's on our resident portal. They don't wanna have to hit a link and log into their system. They expect that it's gonna work and work seamlessly. So, so we have to look to that level of uniformity in their systems to make sure that experience is simple for our residents, what they expect.

Matt Reiners: Yeah, exactly right. And I, it's funny, I go to some of these communities and I feel like sometimes the residents are more tech forward than some of the staff there. Um, I've got too many stories about that, but I. Um, I'm wondering from your end, because like obviously Riverwoods being A-C-C-R-C, continuing care retirement community, you span multiple communities, multiple care levels.

Like how do you ensure that innovation serves both the operational excellence and the lived experience of residents and staff across such a complex ecosystem? 

David Lafferty: Uh, yeah, so that's a fun one. Um, so for me, um, when I joined, I think System first, so. You know, Riverwoods as we grew up, so to speak, you know, we grew up as three very different [00:07:00] communities.

Exter our original community. That was the original Riverwoods. Okay. Our Manchester community, that is a community we affiliated with. It was formally run by another operator. We affiliated that into our system and that became Riverwoods Manchester. And then Durham is our newest community. They opened their doors, uh, in 2019.

Right, uh, at the onset of COVID, which was interesting. So each one of our communities has a different personality. They have different requirements, different needs. But from a system perspective, I think system first, which means that my team doesn't deploy a solution unless it can provide that benefit to the entire system.

So what we do, we look to build, um, basically foundations. We look for extensible tool sets that we can build from. So that we can develop solutions that come up without having to go back to the market and find another spot solution, pay a license, and then figure out how to integrate that. So one of [00:08:00] our strategic imperatives is we wanna simplify our infrastructure.

So extensible systems simplify the infrastructure. That means reducing the number of systems as we if we can. And we do rely on strong governance as well. So my team. Scores, every project or bus that comes in, uh, really based on kind of an effort, value, uh, model. Um, does it employ a new process? Does it simplify a process?

Uh, is training required and so on. So, the way I like to say it is, you know, our job is going to try to get every project done, but to recommend the projects that we should do, as well as these are projects that should never see the light of day because they don't. Hit the core, uh, pillars of remission.

They don't enhance quality of life for residents. They don't improve our operational stability. So, um, we've kind of shifted from what I would say is. Shiny object approach, new tools, um, to really looking for tools that gives us durable outcomes. 

Matt Reiners: Yeah, I love that. I, I find too [00:09:00] many operators are operating on that shiny object approach.

You know, someone goes to a conference, sees something cool, and then they're kind of just like piecemealing things together. But I love your intentionality behind your innovation and the technology that you're adopting. 

David Lafferty: Yeah, it's, it's interesting, Matt, you know, when I came into this industry. Um, I was shocked at the sheer number of systems that an operator has to have to provide all of the services that we do for our residents.

I mean, even with my experience in other industries, it was just diverse. So we have been systematically reducing the number of systems that provide those services to all of our communities. But at the same time, we're replacing what I would call kind of mid-market point solutions with really enterprise systems that we can adapt.

Create multiple solutions on that same platform. 

Matt Reiners: Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. I remember I gave a talk once, uh, and a Life in Richmond, a professional had raised their hand and said that she had 14 apps on her phone to just do her job, and none of them talked to one [00:10:00] another. So it's like. That just makes life that much more difficult.

David Lafferty: Yeah, no, exactly right. We're big in integration, so you know, for example, our EMR, we look at that as a system of record for all of our resident demographics, right? So any other system that we employ, whether it's our work order management system, our resident portal, um, our community engagement system.

We're not re-keying that information. We make that change once in one system and that propagates automatically everywhere else. So interoperability, uh, is absolutely key to that strategy of utilizing these enterprise systems. 

Matt Reiners: I preaching to the choir on that one. David, I see it so many times and more companies trying to come in and they're not even thinking about that from the tech vendor side.

At least I'm like, you gotta go and, and work with these companies to make sure that it makes life easier for the Absolutely. The staff side. And I'm wondering if you can walk us through a recent innovation or technology initiative that you're particularly proud of and you know, like what was the problem, how'd you approach it, and what were the outcomes?

David Lafferty: Sure, sure. [00:11:00] Uh, one of my favorite examples is in fact our resident portal. So we had a solution when I joined. It was a platform that was unreliable. It was definitely not future Rich. And that vendor actually was acquired and through that acquisition, um, their new entity decided to rebuild the platform from the ground up.

At the time they did that, the company essentially forced an upgrade of our systems that we didn't have a choice in, and it broke a lot of functionality. Um, it was to the point where in two of our communities, we actually took the resident portal down for several months while we built a new solution.

But the way that we did that, um, we want to foster a citizen mindset at Riverwoods. So we want to include our residents, uh, in really as much of the process as we can. So for that project, what we did is we put together an advisory group and we had key residents, um, volunteers from each one of our three communities.

We [00:12:00] had staff and, and of course my IT team. And we looked to that group from the beginning. What's important, what features do they want? What's a gotta have versus a nice to have? And the residents and staff actually walked through the entire selection process with us. They helped us make the decision on what platform we chose, and they were key to the implementation because these same residents were not only, let's say our beta group, they did a lot of the initial pilot testing to help us flush out final bugs, but then they also became residents that others could look to.

To provide additional training and guidance. So that project was a huge success. Um, we increased, uh, usage and adoption of the resident portal. And, and I like to, I, I use that one as an example off, um, often rather because it, it was really the best example of when residents and staff and it really worked together from the onset.

Everyone was [00:13:00] engaged, everyone was vested. We had a great outcome. 

Matt Reiners: I love that and I love, so I love that you're able to get the resident feedback and include them in the process. Too many times I see decisions made without some of those key stakeholders and like as much as innovation is getting, you know, that cool technology that you hopefully works, it's like change management too, right?

And making sure that everybody's involved in that process from beginning to end. 

David Lafferty: Yeah, totally. I mean, I've got residents on certain committees that are, that are also tech savvy. And they'll reach out to me and they'll say, you know, we want to be involved more. You know, we want you to utilize us more. How can we help?

And that was kind of a weird dynamic with me, uh, when I joined, because, you know, initially at Riverwoods, I kind of looked to residents as our customer, right? That relationship, that dynamic's very different. Uh, in reality, that citizen mindset is, hey, at the end of the day. We are all members of the same community, and it takes all of those members to solve problems and put solutions in place that benefit the whole, right?

So identifying those [00:14:00] residents, kind of developing those relationships and then tapping them on the shoulder and saying, Hey, what do you think about this? What do you think about that? Um, that's actually really, really key feedback for us when we develop and deploy solutions. 

Matt Reiners: I love that. And you know, I, I was in a similar boat where I think I would go into communities and I think almost discredit that resident feedback, but then I would come to learn what, like during my hardware startup stages, and then I came to learn, like one of the residents trying to gimme feedback was an electrical engineer by 35 years.

So I was like, oh, okay. He knows what he is talking about more so than me. Um, 

David Lafferty: yeah, ex exactly right. I mean, I have residents that, um, they uh, literally they use, uh, cad, um, in their apartment to map out our hiking trails. Wow. Uh, I've got another resident in Manchester, a wonderful woman. She, um, asked me a question after one of my presentations and I thought it was gonna be kind of your typical tech support question.

Um, but her question was around, can you recommend a version of Linux that I can run on my laptop? 'cause I really don't like Windows and I [00:15:00] really want to have the best version of Linux in terms of security and usability. And, and honestly, that one blew me away, right? So, um, you have to force yourself. To kind of utilize that untapped resource, you know, listen to your residents and have them be a part of the solution.

Matt Reiners: Yeah, I love that. Um, and I'm wondering too, 'cause like obviously you're leading innovation at a not-for-profit, CCRC, like, and how do those budget realities and mission alignment really shape your technology strategy compared to maybe some of your for-profit peers? 

David Lafferty: Sure. Well, the one thing that I, I don't have, um, especially as a not-for-profit, is they don't have the luxury of having an r and d budget.

Right. Um, some operators, the not-for-profit space, they do have the opportunity for things like grants or donations for research. We don't have that luxury. However, we've got a very engaged board and a very engaged CEO, um, that are strong believers in the fact that we have to invest in technology. [00:16:00] To ensure our future.

So some of the things we do, uh, I'm always looking at the percentage of our IT spend to our overall spend. And, and that gives me a gauge of are we investing enough in technology? Is it disproportionate? And we compare that, um, to similar peers in the industry, um, using industry research that we have access to.

But the other thing that we try to do often, we try to create budget gap so we can spend better. So if we implement a project or a replacement and it saves money in the IT budget, we're not doing it to lower the budget, we're doing that to create a gap so we can spend that money better and spend it differently.

So what I try to do is I try to keep our budget at a consistent percentage. While still innovating, which is a lot of fun. Um, but a great example of that. We have over a thousand phone lines throughout all of our communities and we had a very dated legacy. It was a voiceover [00:17:00] IP system, but uh, it was a legacy system.

It was expensive. It cost our organization a little over $30 per line per month to support that. We implemented a new system, much more modern provider, uh, and we shaved that cost down to $11 per loan. That project alone is gonna save close to a million dollars over five years. It's a big deal. But that project has created a gap for us to invest in new technologies and new solutions, such as that new nurse call system I talked about, or new communication systems.

So those are a couple of the levers that we look at. Uh, you always have to have that barometer, uh, make sure you're in alignment with the board, uh, and our CEO, which fortunately for us, um, we haven't engaged for. Um, but then look for opportunities to create that gap and just spend differently. 

Matt Reiners: Hmm, that's so smart.

And I love that. And it's just a great, uh, example of taking some of that technology, getting a more updated system, and then you've got that cost [00:18:00] savings and you can put that into other initiatives. I lo I love that. 

David Lafferty: Exactly right. 

Matt Reiners: Yeah. Um, and you kind of touched on this, on this before of like, you know, getting away from that shiny object that we should enhance, but I'm wondering like.

Is there any other way that you think about or distinguish between trend chasing and meaningful changes? I mean, there's so many emerging tech options. I feel like every tech vendor is harping on AI nowadays. Yeah, like, and you kind of touched on it of like the pillars, but are there any other filters or frameworks to help you decide where to focus?

David Lafferty: Um, yeah, so that's a fun one. How much time do we have today? 

Matt Reiners: As long 

David Lafferty: as you want, David. You're right. Um, you know, a lot of vendors, um, overuse, uh, the term ai. I mean, 10 years ago it was cloud computing or SaaS, right? It was the same thing. The, the reality is we kinda have a philosophy, and maybe it's atypical, but, but our philosophy, my philosophy with my team is at the end of the day, AI is just another tool.

Certainly it's a powerful tool, but it's just another tool. So when I presented, um, to our board a strategic plan, our IT [00:19:00] strategic plan, last December, um, I said to our board, I said, Riverwoods does not have an AI strategy. I said, nor will we ever have an AI strategy. Our strategy is we will invest in AI where it's appropriate, where it adds value.

So again, I'm gonna go back to our core pillars, right? How does that system, how does that technology, ar and AI or not, how does it improve care and services for our residents? And again, we talked about it, those residents are more saddened. Um, linkage connect. They do. Uh, and it's not annual, it's every three years.

Uh, it's a survey on technology usage in older adults. They did one in 2021. They did one in 2025. Um, if you haven't looked at it, encourage you to take a look. It's fascinating to see how trends have changed in just four years. So this year they added a new category for ai. 36% of senior adults between ages 55 and 85 are using AI [00:20:00] assistance.

20% of 'em are using AI chat bots. At the same time, back in 2021, cost was a bigger barrier to technology than it is today. But today, complexity is a bigger barrier than it was four years ago. So you have to kind of look again to make sure that you're solving a need, and then you have to measure the improvement.

So we have a system in our Durham community that we're testing. Uh, it's a really neat system called Sound Blanket. What it does is it uses, uh, specialized sound patterns, uh, in the room of a patient that would be in one of our memory care units. And those sounds help those residents to get better sleep patterns.

Um, it prevents them from waking up and wandering in the middle of the night. But for that project, we are looking at the clinical indicators for those residents before and after. And if we [00:21:00] don't see a measurable improvement, we won't continue the project. So, so that type of mentality is something that we're looking at really each and every time.

How are we gonna measure success? And again, we measure that success by looking at the benefit. 

Matt Reiners: I love that. Yeah. And it's, it makes so much sense and I'm so happy, like the way you kind of think about this, David, and just, you know, this conversation here, I think just so many senior living providers need guidance when it comes to this.

Um, and I know you touched on a little bit with. Like the resident feedback. I'm wondering, like, are, I imagine you get your staff always bringing you ideas. Is it kind of just bringing any and all ideas through that filtering thing that we just talked about? Or like how do, how do you kind of think through that?

David Lafferty: Sure. So, uh, within my team, um, you know, we do a lot of research and vetting on our own. So, you know, you mentioned before you go to a lot of conferences each year, and we do as well. Um, we even attend some conferences that are a little bit outside of, of our industry, so. One [00:22:00] organization that I've been involved with for a number of years is hims Healthcare Information Management Society.

Um, it's more closely and not in the acute care space. So your hospitals, uh, your physicians, however that, uh, organization annually is anyone and everyone around healthcare technology. So that's one example where we will go and we will meet with vendors, meet with solutions, uh, and we will catalog those.

So. What we do again, is we go back to use case. So we have a use case around, um, telehealth, remote monitoring, uh, patient safety. Um, those are just a few examples and we have a number of solutions that, that we have some understanding of. Um, but they solve a problem. They address a use case. So when my CEO would come to me and maybe she would say, Hey, you want to expand our services in the community and provide riverwoods at home, for example, but we're gonna need to have a way to kind of help monitor [00:23:00] residents health.

Great. My team's got maybe six or seven solutions that we have some knowledge of. We've vetted, we've vetted some that wouldn't be a good fit for us, and it basically gives us that short list. So that we can now determine which one makes the most sense for us. So, you know, I would say that, um, our executive team is always looking for ways to use technology to solve a problem, which I love.

Um, but a lot of the real innovation, you know, I task my team with bringing that to the table. Um, but again, we, we only wanna bring that to the table if we have a problem we're trying to solve and we can measure how it's gonna benefit. 

Matt Reiners: I love that approach. I mean it just finding technology or innovation to help solve those problems.

Right. I think too many times people try to embrace technology when there's really no problem there or create a product or a service for when there's not really a problem there and it's just gonna fail time and time again. 

David Lafferty: Yeah, no, exactly. I mean it, it's so easy to get lulled into a, wow, this is a really cool system that [00:24:00] would bring us so much benefit.

But at the end of the day, if people aren't going to use it, it's not gonna bring an intended benefit. So, uh, one of my staff, uh, I have a director of, um, operations program management. Her sole focus, um, really starts when a project gets implemented. When we finish implementing a system, that's when her job starts and, and her focus is to better ourselves in our communities.

She understands operations, she understands how our communities run and how they serve our residents, and she is focusing on how are we using the systems. Are there gaps? Did we miss something? Is it adding benefit? But because she's so embedded in the community, she can then take that feedback, bring it back to my team, and that's how we drive our continual development and improvement on these platforms.

So we're, we're trying to spend as much attention on post implementation as we are your typical, you know, let's evaluate, build, test, design, so on. [00:25:00] 

Matt Reiners: Yeah, I definitely have seen implementation be the place where, uh, some technology offerings go to die, just because, you know, again, yeah, it's, it's the change management and people doing something for so long in a certain way and then something else is introduced that should help and, you know, it's just tough.

David Lafferty: No, totally. And you know, at Riverwoods we operate kind of a shared services model, so I'm part of Redwoods group. Um, it finance, hr, marketing, and we provide that service to all three communities. Uh, and at times, you know, the communities can feel like the group is pushing a lot of initiatives their way.

So we have to be cognizant of our overall work plan, uh, to make sure that we're not kind of inundating the communities with solutions and they just don't have the capacity to ingest at this point. And, and B, like we've talked about, don't solve a real problem. They're living with. With our ability to kind of spend time with our teams, you know, often we'll uncover a, a need that didn't even hit our radar screen because in the past we just weren't [00:26:00] paying attention to that issue.

Matt Reiners: Yeah, yeah. Makes a lot of sense. And then, um, I could go on for hours here with you, David, but I'll be conscious of your calendar here. I mean, last question for you, like, looking ahead, what's a challenge or opportunity you're actively wrestling with right now, and how are you thinking about innovation as part of that solution?

David Lafferty: Yeah, that, that's a tough one. Um, you know, it's a really, it's a really exciting time in terms of technology. It, it's really interesting time in that, you know, we've got the, it's called the silver tsunami. Um, the number of prospective residents for communities like Riverwoods that's continue to grow. Um, at the same time, there is a shortage of inventory.

There's literally not enough units to address that need. In an economically challenging time, so it's not exactly inexpensive right now to build a new community from the ground up. So. Those are some market forces that, you know, on one side, um, kind [00:27:00] of validate that, you know, we have a great product and people want to use our product, which is great, but at the same time, um, you know, reminds us that we're gonna have constant, um, tension.

Uh, by 2030, you're gonna have four generations in the workforce. Um, so our residents' needs are changing. At the same time, our workforce expectations are changing. So, you know, we've gotta prepare for that environment where digital expectation's gonna change for both staff and residents. Um, staff are gonna want maybe more of a mobile first type of solution.

They're not gonna wanna sit at the tablet or at their desk all day. Um, and staffing constraint, you know, you've got increasing number of baby boomers that are looking for services like ours. At the same time, there are just not enough caregivers to provide that service. So it, it really kind of fine tunes our innovation focus, um, to address those challenges specifically.

How can we make our staff more efficient through technology? How [00:28:00] can we give them more time back in their day to spend that time interacting with our residents? Again, it's a community, right? Our staff shouldn't be buried behind their computer screens all day. Um, we're gonna continue to innovate. We're absolutely gonna look at ai.

Um, that's a key tool. We will invest in it. Um, but we'll use it where it makes sense. Um, better analytics is another key investment area for us. Um, we need to have information accessible upfront, uh, and essentially real time, um, so that we are asking the right questions and we can adjust, um, our services where we need to before it becomes ancient history in a financial report.

I don't have an opportunity to do something about that negative trend. And at the same time, um, all of that's going on. Um, security, cybersecurity protections is obviously got to be front and center all the time. We, we spend a lot of resources, a lot of time. Cybersecurity, [00:29:00] again, like ai, it changes every year.

Um, so that keeps us busy because it's only going to get more sophisticated and, and we have to be there to address that challenge. 

Matt Reiners: I love it, David. Well, thank you so much for making the time today, and thank you for Yeah. Yeah, thank you. You 

David Lafferty: enjoyed it. 

Matt Reiners: Yeah. Willing to tolerate, uh, winners. I'm so grateful that you moved up to New Hampshire and, and joined our industry.

I think, you know, it's, you just bring such a, a clear focus when it comes to innovation and an intentionality that like you can kind of take the idea and implement it and be successful with it. So I'd love to see it and thank you for all that you do. 

David Lafferty: Thank you.