Join Josh and Lucas as they sit down with Ryan Fischer, President and CEO of Fischer Health Care Consulting. Dive into a conversation about the future of senior living, the integration of cutting-edge technology, and the evolving needs of an aging population. Ryan shares his insights on addressing industry challenges like staffing shortages, technology integration, and the increasing demand for personalized, efficient care.

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Produced by Solinity Marketing.

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Intro

Welcome to season eight of Bridge the Gap, a podcast dedicated to informing, educating, and influencing the future of housing and services for seniors. The BTG network is powered by sponsors, Aline, NIC MAP, Procare HR, Sage, Hamilton CapTel, ServiceMaster, The Bridge Group Construction, and Solinty and produced by Solinity Marketing. Bridge the Gap in three, two.

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00:45 - 01:03

Lucas McCurdy

Welcome to Bridge the Gap podcast: The Senior Living Podcast with Josh and Lucas here in Nashville at the Aline Innovation Summit. And we are having a great time. We've had some great guests. Some of the thought leadership here and the conversations we're having is perfect for the Bridge Gap platform and the Network, and we've got a great guest.

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01:03 - 01:08

Lucas McCurdy

We want to welcome Ryan Fischer, president and CEO of Fischer Health Care Consulting. Welcome to the program.

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01:08 - 01:28

Ryan Fischer

Thanks, guys. I appreciate you having me today. It's great to be with you. And, also great to be here at Aline and see so many old friends that we didn't get to see back in the Covid days. It looks like everybody's back together again, discussing all the new and exciting things that are lines rolling out. So it's been an exciting morning so far.

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01:28 - 02:03

Lucas McCurdy

We agree. There's been a great keynote, there's been great sessions and a lot of great conversations. So Ryan, we want to pick your brain today. You are on the consulting side of the industry, which gives you the opportunity to have a lot of unique conversations where people kind of, you know, open up the kimono, so to speak. You know, you get to see here are some stories and see some things and then solve some problems. What are some of the consistent challenges you deal with when you're consulting with operators?

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02:03 - 03:34

Ryan Fischer

First of all, I would say one of the things I like about it is that you really work with those individuals, groups, operators, whatever you want to call them, that really want to look for ways to do things differently. They wouldn't be, you know, looking at different technologies, solutions or consulting solutions if they didn't want to change the way they were doing things.

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So that's what's really, you know, exciting for me is that, I get to work with people that they want to look for a better, way better mousetrap. They want to be more efficient. They want to, really make more revenue or, you know, whatever the end goal might be. So, you know, some of the things that that constantly come up, of course, we've always got, staffing is always a huge issue.

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Technology is always a huge issue. And I think, you know, probably putting those two together, you know, we have a crisis in the industry, but, you know, it's not like, we're not going to be running around replacing people. We need to work smarter. We need to work better. There are amazing solutions out there. Like, well, for, what?

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You know, what Aline offers, for example, there are amazing, amazing solutions out there, but it's finding the right one for your organization, finding the right one for your people to work with. It's not too complicated. You know, Data is overwhelming, but if you can really boil it down and just give people those items that they really need to act on to make a difference, that's where we can all become more efficient. And then we can hit those goals, whatever they might be, whether that's occupancy or whether that's revenue or things like that.

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03:34 - 04:28

Josh Crisp

Well, we were talking with Aline's new CEO and talking about one of the challenges for our space that operators have had to use multiple different platforms that often don't talk to each other. They're not integrated. And, it's a very inefficient process and also just leaves a lot of room for mistakes for data, maybe that you are collecting to not be transferred to the areas that you need to put it to use, which is just bad in a lot of different ways. So, from what you're seeing, with the tools that are now coming to market with the integrated products like Launch Suite, what do you think we're going to start seeing happening as far as seeing that needle move from a quality and efficiency standpoint, where do you think we'll start seeing that first?

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04:28 - 04:52

Ryan Fischer

To your point, consolidation is happening. It's coming. Most of these communities are skilled nursing buildings. They do deal with like five different, you know, systems. The physicians on one system, laboratory on another, you got pharmacy on another, you got the building's EMR itself, whether they're using, you know, one of the large, well known EMR is out there.

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So you have all these different systems. And I think we're already starting to see it come together with products like the line. Also on the clinical side, there's other products that are putting lab clinical and pharmacy together. Also, there's products out there that pull data from information exchanges that might be out in the community. They're bringing in community records, community data.

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So I think we're I think we're kind of seeing across all, all areas. But I would say, you know, customer, the customer focus data, like what? Like what a is doing and also the clinical I think maybe those are two major areas where you're, where you're starting to see a lot of this data come together.

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05:34 - 06:02

Josh Crisp

So the biggest challenges we obviously talked about a little bit about technology and all that goes with that. But there's the labor. Is there things beyond that when you start looking at the next few years with this, the tsunami of of older adults that are going to start thinking about or are pursuing housing and services as they age, what are some of the unique obstacles and challenges that you think we need to be talking about right now as existing providers?

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06:02 - 07:14

Ryan Fischer

I think just getting ready for that future customer base, you know, as things have progressed, as we were, very immediate with everything like, when you get an email, you're expected to answer it immediately on your phone. You know, there's no really weekends anymore or working hours. And so I think a lot of that is going to carry over into, what we call like the baby boomers and the, the folks that are going to be occupying, our senior living communities and skilled nursing facilities.

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They're going to have different expectations, and they're going to want different choices. They're going to want their needs met immediately. So those are all things that I think we have to, get prepared for and that, that really leads us down the road of how do we be more efficient? Because you're gonna have to be very, service oriented, amenity oriented, if you will.

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And also, you know, everything is getting pushed out to, home based, you know, so also, you're going to have to be more focused on being more clinical. The actual care that's going on within the community. So I think those are all the areas where we've got to get ready and really start making some changes.

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07:14 - 07:36

Josh Crisp

When you start talking about getting ready for that, making changes and you talking about acuity creep and all the different forms of senior living that are emerging, do you think that's going to create like whole new types of positions and senior housing that we traditionally haven't seen? Like on a pro forma that's being underwritten? Do you see any trends in that area?

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07:36 - 08:14

Ryan Fischer

I would say to some extent we're still going to see the, you know, traditional things out there. But I think there's going to be more sharing, more like a crossover. Not everyone is going to do everything. For example, we just can't anymore. So you might see certain specializations or you might see a certain chain of communities that goes in a different direction from another one.

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There's probably going to be more choices out there. There's going to be more focus out there. So I think we might start seeing those things happening. And to some degree, we're seeing it, you know, already.

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08:14 - 09:18

Josh Crisp

Lucas, we were talking about this earlier, with, you know, there's obviously going to be a huge deficit between supply and demand and that's pushing occupancies up post-Covid. We're starting to see that. But it's going to be interesting because we're going to have to, as an industry, really understand it's not just a singular vanilla product and service that's being sold.

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And there's all these emerging models. To your point, Ryan. And so we're going to have to be really knowledgeable as sales teams and as leaders to understand where our product is. Our service, our housing type, our price point and understanding which target, in the market, is uniquely qualified for our product and service. And that seems like a unique challenge because already, to be candid, we have a little bit of a turnover issue, right, with the sales force. So, how do you think tools like Aline are going to uniquely prepare salespeople to be able to overcome some of those challenges?

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09:18 - 10:42

Ryan Fischer

You know, a lot of what happens, to your point, there is some turnover, a lot of what happens in those positions. Let's say you have someone in, in a development position, our sales marketing, perhaps, you know, they stay, a year, a couple of years, they get promoted or they move on to other opportunities. Well, you're essentially starting all over again. Like, you know, let's do a market analysis. Who is the competition? Well, that you already did a lot of that maybe months ago or a year ago. And so when you get a new person, you shouldn't necessarily have to start all over again. So I think like what airlines do with their tools, with their, with their AI assistance, things of that nature.

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I think you can be much more informed. It's not like you're starting over every time. And you can really keep a handle on what the market is doing. What are my competitors doing? To your point, to what's out there in the market in terms of what are the price points? Where are the amenities people are looking for? What does that sales cycle look like? How long is this going to take? Is it going to take me a year to get a move in, or is it going to take me over a year? So all those tools that are out there, I think they will really help the operators and the communities be much more efficient so that you're not essentially, you know, starting over every time.

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10:42 - 11:20

Josh Crisp

Well, we know, here at the airline Summit, there's actually a whole educational track around AI that seems to be a super hot topic. We've heard in the hallways and networking receptions, there's several folks that have traveled in specifically to learn about AI. Such a huge topic. I think it's a little bit of a mystery to all of us, like, if you're not using some aspect of it, like, where do you start? So what's the low hanging fruit from your perspective, when you're talking to communities and providers of how they can use that and kind of dip their toe into the water to use AI pretty effectively to start moving the needle?

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11:20 - 12:31

Ryan Fischer

Yeah. I'm a proponent of it. I say go ahead and use it. You should be using it. But also at the same time, you know, I don't really take it for granted. If I use it, I'm checking, you know, the results. So I think, you know, and so and so there's more information or more guardrails or any type of regulation that might come. You have to do your due diligence and, you know, really check out what is the result of that. I wouldn't just ask it a question and then just, you know, take that as fact and, you know, report that out to somebody without checking it myself. I think that's kind of where we're at right now.

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So, you know, in some respects, I think, you know, it can make us work faster. And it can make us work smarter. But you still have to take the time to check your work right now, that's kind of my feeling about it. And then as we progress, I'm sure, you know, things will change. And, it will make us even more, you know, efficient, make things even faster. We may get to the point where you don't have to double check anything, but that's really where I'm at with it right now. But I don't ever discourage someone from using it.

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12:31 - 13:10

Lucas McCurdy

Well, let's transition the conversation a little bit to the future. You know, we follow and love to look at the, nic map data about the 80 plus population. So in 2005, we're seeing a 4% growth, and in 2027, we're seeing a projected growth model north of 7%. So a massive increase against historical percentages, which are typically under 2% per year. So when occupancy no longer becomes the problem, what is going to be the problem for operators at that point?

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13:10 - 14:07

Ryan Fischer

I just go back to an example of my own family. So my grandmother, she lived to be 106 years old, and she lived in her community for over 18 years. Oh, so you I think there's going to be a new set of problems which has to deal with, you know, the financial side also, the health care side, keeping people in place, those attrition rates that, you know, we all like to freak out about, so there's going to be a, there's going to be a new set of problems.

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Also, you know, how do I become more clinical without quote unquote, becoming more clinical? Trying to keep those people in place and trying to meet their needs as much as we can. So there's going to be a whole shift there. But, I think, you know, there's going to be a new set of problems, which is, we may have people that are in their community for a very long period of time. And so financially, how does that work? What does it look like for their own personal financial situation? So, yeah, probably some new problems are coming.

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14:07 - 15:23

Josh Crisp

Well, and with the growth of the sector, we always go back to talking about labor. There's no doubt we have to attract more people to serve in our industry. What are some of the talking points and maybe some strategy ideas you might have forward looking for things we have to be doing as an industry, not just at a local community, but to be able to attract people, to want to serve in this space.

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15:23 - 16:25

I always tell people that I work with our clients or, a lot of people take on this identity that like me, my logo is my company or my logo is my culture. And I tell people, your logo is not your company. It's not your culture, it's what you find on the inside. And so that's really what I tell people to go back to reflect on. Keep in mind whatever you want to call it. How are you delivering what's on the inside? How are you delivering that care? How are you establishing the bond and the relationship between your teams and your residents and patients? It's everything that lives on the inside. That's what your culture is. And then also, to your point, you have to be very good at showcasing that.

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And, so I always tell people to, you know, you can't you can't be afraid of like, hey, look at me. You have to do some of that in the industry. You have to say, hey, look at me. Look at how we do this differently in my culture, in my organization. And so whether that's through social media or whether that's through other channels or outlets, you have to get the word out about what you do. And then, the other thing that I always tell people is, you know, it's great that you're out there telling those stories. It's great that you're posting this content, you know, definitely showcase your residents, showcase your family, showcase your patients. But there's another whole audience out there that you're speaking to, and that's all the people that might be your prospective employees.

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And so you need to be showcasing it not only to residents, family, what have you, but you have to talk to all the others out there. And I think that gets lost sometimes. And also some people are afraid to say, hey, look at me, but you can't be afraid.

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16:25 - 17:12

Josh Crisp

Well, and, Lucas, we've talked about this a ton. Senior living has such an awesome story to tell. Providers and operators, the management companies, they all do such great work. These team members made it all happen. But we do. We have got to do a better job at telling our own stories. And you got to get outside of your circle, right?

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There's only so much you can grow from the same circle. And so getting outside, there's, we've talked about huge numbers of people that have never had the first level of direct contact with the senior living community in any way, and those are the people that we've got to find a way to reach. I think it's events like this where we're talking about big picture strategies to work together, as providers to help solve some of those problems. So I'm excited. Get good time to sit down with Ryan here at this event.

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17:12 - 17:19

Lucas McCurdy

It is. Thank you so much, Ryan. Any final words of action or encouragement to the Bridge the Gap audience?

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17:19 - 18:05

Ryan Fischer

Thanks a lot for having me. I really appreciate the time. I would say, you know, now is a great time if you haven't done it. Go out there, review your tools, review your processes, look for those efficiencies. Figure out how you can do things differently, figure out how you can do things better. And then as you're doing things better and differently, you need to make sure that you're always, you know, tracking what you do in some way so that you have that data so that you have those outcomes that you need.

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And then as we just mentioned, once you have those outcomes, once you can distinguish yourself from the competition or once you can set yourself apart in terms of your culture, you need to go out and tell your story all day long, and there's many audiences out there for you. And just know that people will listen.

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18:05 - 18:24

Lucas McCurdy

Great words to end by. Thank you so much, Ryan. Ryan Fischer president CEO, Fischer Health Care Consulting. When we have a busy schedule today and for our listeners that want to connect with Ryan, hit him up in the show notes. You can also get a big voice.com download this content. So much more. And thanks for listening to another great episode of Bridge the Gap.

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Outro

Thanks for listening to Bridge the Gap podcast with Josh and Lucas. Connect with the BTG network team and use your voice to influence the industry by connecting with us at btgvoice.com.

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