In this episode of Bridge the Gap, Josh and Lucas welcome Jaime Ojeda of Eldermark, and Shawn Lane of LivTech for a conversation about the evolving role of technology in senior living. They share why communities don’t just need technology, they need trusted partners who listen, build collaboratively, and stay committed long-term. Plus, a 30-year legacy of innovation at Eldermark is merging with LivTech’s vision of real-time healthcare transformation across residential, physician, home health, and hospice settings.

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Produced by Solinity Marketing.

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This episode was recorded at the NIC Fall Conference

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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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00:48 - 01:05

Lucas McCurdy

Welcome to Bridge the Gap podcast the Senior Living podcast with Josh and Lucas. A great day here in Austin, Texas, my home state. Loving it here at the Fall NIC Conference. Gonna have a great conversation today. I want to welcome Jaime Ojeda and Shawn Lane, Eldermark and LivTech. Welcome to the show.

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01:05 - 01:05

Shawn Lane

Glad to be here.

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01:05 - 01:06

Jaime Ojeda

Glad to be here.

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01:06 - 01:37

Lucas McCurdy

Yeah, it's great to meet you, gentlemen. A lot of energy here in Austin. At the J.W., day two, and a lot of conversations. And, this is going to be a great one. For anybody who's following our industry and reads the articles, you're going to see these names, you know, Eldermark. And also, we're going to be introducing Sean with LivTech. We'd love to know how this partnership has come together. And then we'll get into kind of like, the goals and what the future brings.

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01:37 - 01:54

Shawn Lane

Elder Mark, as a company, has a 30-year history in senior care. They were one of the first solutions to provide clinical, EMR, and business billing solutions for the space and the heritage. There is tremendous, I think, to really change the industry and the way that operators think about the industry lift equals four and five and a half years ago, January 2020, myself and a group of investors and I got together and assessed the space, and we had an intention to transform senior health care, but not just in residential. We believe that healthcare needs transformation across all sectors. I have a supply chain background. I come from a world where I'm working.

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It was working with Apple, Dell, and Delta Airlines, and real-time was the way business was done. And I looked across healthcare and it took 2.4 attempts to get a prescription changed. And so we thought there was an opportunity to transform healthcare across all settings. And so live tech over the last five years has quietly acquired 15 other software companies. And so now we're a large entity with solutions in residential, in physicians, surrounding physicians, as well as in home care, home health, and hospice.

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02:46 - 02:48

Lucas McCurdy

Well, that's a big deal.

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02:49 - 03:00

Josh Crisp

That's a lot. You guys have accomplished a lot. And I know many senior housing, probably most recognize elder Mark. I didn't realize it had been 30 years, so that's impressive.

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03:00 - 03:06

Shawn Lane

They've been in the space a long time. They've created tremendous amounts of innovation, and we're working on the funding and the talent to continue to do so.

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03:07 - 03:34

Josh Crisp

So with, as Lucas mentioned, a lot of excitement, building this entire year from the spring, Nick to the fall. Nick, probably one of the largest, if not the largest, attendance NICs I've ever been at. But with that excitement or also challenges, from your perspectives, what is the big pressing issue that operators are going to have to solve over the coming years?

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03:34 - 04:27

Jaime Ojeda

Yeah. I mean, it's it really gets down to occupancy and, a lot of the, you know, the strain on on the system right now in terms of capacity, especially in memory care is going to it's going to come in in the next year. But again, it's turnover in the turnover of the workforce. And that has always been an issue.

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And so that's why we designed solutions and software around that to really make that easier to manage. Have our, you know, the residents spend more time with and the care provider spends more time with the residents versus spending time in the software and driving those kinds of things. So we're really gearing towards all of that. There's so much to be gained by having all of that data that can be used for operational clinical improvement that, but you have to make it easy on the care providers to capture that.

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04:27 - 05:25

Josh Crisp

Well, so as a technology partner to the industry, building that trust that you all have been able to do over 30 years, and now, just radically changing into what you said, real-time, where I think most providers have acknowledged that and have made strides to get to real-time data, we're trying to solve that problem.

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How do you see that, that pathway moving ahead as we're being more further and further grafted into the health care delivery system, as I would call it, you know, many of us have been we want to stay on the residential side, and we want to, not have to manage the acuity or we're afraid to know that information because we'll have to do something about it but we're there. Yeah. There's no going back. So as a trusted partner to the industry, how are you equipping the leaders to be able to be in that next generation of senior housing?

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05:25 - 06:11

Jaime Ojeda

How we are doing it with Eldermark right now is we're just really collaborating with our customers. We listen very, very deeply and very closely to what their wants and needs are, where they change. I mean, it is rapidly changing in this, in this new atmosphere of, you know, growth and senior living and the challenges that they deal with.

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So we are, we really see it as an opportunity to collaborate with them. And that's how we've really designed everything that we do within our platform has been, you know, partnering with our customers to really build the best systems that help them achieve the kind of goals that they want. You, you know, higher occupancy, obviously, the higher gross margins, making sure that their residents are safe and have a great experience.

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06:11 - 06:30

Shawn Lane

And I'd say that the operators today are becoming much more professional than they have been historically. COVID was a forcing event. And those that survived in the industry and have really thrived and have continued to grow and become more and more professional. And as they become professionals, their business needs change and evolve. They need greater data; they need better access to it.

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They need decision-making capabilities, and then they're trying to push authority down in their organization so that decisions can be made at their point. And that's really key. That's why we talk about real time. That's why a number of the technology enhancements that are coming out are really intended to push data down for decision-making processes to happen. And let's face it, this is a business, and we're in the business of helping businesses continue to grow while providing great care.

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06:54 - 07:18

Josh Crisp

Well, I would imagine earning trust over a 30-year period. And a point I heard you say, listening. Such a key component. I would imagine that's something you had to build into your DNA. At Eldermark and at LiveTech there is an intentionality and listening and taking that feedback and turning it into solutions. Do you have any practical examples like what that looks like in real time for you all?

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07:19 - 07:44

Jaime Ojeda

Yeah, I think, again, a lot of our customers talk about what their biggest issues are, such as never events like falls. And they really have said, you know, what are the ways we can help mitigate those things? And so they come up with big problems like that that need to be solved. And we look at it again through the data, and we say, look, our systems are a treasure trove of great data that can be leveraged for good.

And so if your mother isn't eating, you know, we have a dining services management system for that. And we can tell that that's part of that, that that's going on. There are engagement applications. It built on to our platform that again is mom or dad or they are going to their required activities or are they just missing those as well. And of course, all the things that happen in terms of medication changes, and you just added another narcotic, you know, other condition changes, diastolic blood pressure, blood glucose levels, just it's structured and unstructured data and our systems are, and the way that we're leveraging AI is really transformational in that these systems are looking out there. The AI is actually going through every record, every day, every minute, and looking fora  decline in resonance and feeding that to our, you know, our care providers in real time.

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08:40 - 09:34

Josh Crisp

One of the things, you know, that I've seen through the last 20 years of being in the business, it seems like oftentimes there's a a big disconnect and deficiency, between let's, let's say your large scale operators that have sophisticated tools, they have lots of team members that can crunch data, turn that data into usable information for their teams, and then the deficit of downstream to where all of these small to regional, maybe even mom and pop operators while they're doing the best they can.

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Maybe they couldn't afford the tools and equipment, or maybe the teams to interpret all the data. Do you think that all this gives you an opportunity to sort of level the playing field to whether you're in a tertiary or secondary, whether you're a large or small provider, you can still impact the quality of care in your marketplace.

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09:34 - 09:59

Shawn Lane

Yeah, absolutely. The large and the small players have the same opportunity for technology. And what we're trying to provide is an Indian solution where, frankly, the expensive part about gathering your data isn't collecting your data, it's integrating your data. And if you're providing an end-to-end solution from one solution provider, you don't have to jump that hurdle, so the small operators can get the same level of leverage that the larger operators can.

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09:59 - 10:56

Josh Crisp

Well, I think that, you know, Lucas, that helps solve a lot of the problems, not only the consistency and quality of care. That probably helped to maybe shape a not-so-good perception about our industry because of the inconsistency from market to market and community to community. But I would imagine if you level that playing field, it also increases the accessibility and the affordability.

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For a long time in our industry, if you wanted the highest quality of care, you had to move from your hometown. That's the small community. You had to go to the big market, and you had to stay in the Ritz, you know, and a lot of people couldn't afford that. So they just did without. So it's really exciting to me that in this new age of data-driven, information systems, digital technology, and AI that I heard you all talk about, we're not only improving access to care, but affordability and quality of care.

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10:56 - 12:12

Lucas McCurdy

Well, and trust is a, I think, a big factor in the senior housing industry. That's what I tell people who are looking if I'm on the product service side and have been for over 15 years. And what keeps me coming back to this industry is the people are so great, comparatively to other verticals. And, when I meet new vendors that are trying to get in, I say, be curious.

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You have to earn their trust, and you really have to be authentic. And, 30-year track record. Certainly, that trust has long been earned. And when it pertains to this new advancement with AI, we've talked to a number of tech companies, and one of the conversations yesterday was, oh, gosh, are people tired of, worn out from hearing about AI?

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And I was like, well, maybe in your world of tech, you might be run out. But we are still in the senior housing industry is still kind of grasping how what would be your recommendation for the operators that are listening? And they keep hearing AI when it pertains to, I guess, you know, your product and service offering, what would be your recommendation for them to lean into this new advancement of AI?

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12:12 - 13:22

Shawn Lane

I think that you have to assess your business case and what you're trying to accomplish. I agree that the most important part of this business is people. The people make the difference in providing the care. It's the nurses. It's the nurses. And it's about 70% of the cost for your average operator as well. So there's a tremendous opportunity to improve the productivity of the people, but to give them back more time. If you think about it, when electronic health records came into place, it created an artificial barrier between the resident and the caregiver.

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And we want to take that away. And you do that by leveraging AI to bring the inputs in an easier way. You can use an idea, and you can use other methodologies. You can simplify their workplace to give them actionable insights, so they're prioritizing their work appropriately, so that shift handoffs are done automatically and well-documente,d and ultimately provide better care.

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It will not take away jobs. I will add to the effectiveness and the satisfaction of his employees and hopefully improve the turnover rates in the industry, so shouldn't be afraid of it. You should be embracing it, but should also be carefully selecting how and where and why you're applying it. Build the business case. Finding integrated solutions so that you don't have to rebuild the data and then leverage it from there.

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13:21 - 14:20

Josh Crisp

Well, and I think you just touched on something I want to make sure that we don't miss. So, Bridge the Gap was formed to bridge a lot of gaps for our industry. And, hopefully solve a lot of problems by bringing on trusted partners like you guys, who have obviously been committed to this space for a long time, which I think is an important note.

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For our listeners, because you see a lot of tech when entering the industry. So for many of our listeners, they don't have a big corporate team. They don't have a a person who understands or even speaks the technology language. They're just trying to find great solutions that they can trust for that, and improve their operation. Do you have sort of a cheat sheet of when an operator, when an ownership team, is selecting really kind of any technology partner for their community, what they should be looking for, the boxes that they should be checking that they can they can take away and say, okay, it's got to check these boxes or it's probably not the right fit for us.

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14:20 - 16:02

Jaime Ojeda

Yeah. I think, you know, one of the things that we do really well is we go through and we do what we call a business model assessment with our, you know, with our customers. And that's important in that we really want to understand every operator's different. And that's our secret sauce. And so we want to understand their secret sauce and what makes them successful.

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And then we go through that and we make sure that that helps us understand kind of what their objectives are. Where do they want, you know, what are the goals that they have from, you know, from selecting a software provider like us or an analytics provider? And so it's important for us to really get into it, into their operation, understand that we have people on staff, you know, that have been operators for over two decades.

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We have nurses throughout our organization. We have people who have been care providers, and they have spent a lot of different parts in the billing side, you know, so they understand those financial wherewithal. So we do an assessment of all that. At the end of the day, we have great technology, but we really pride ourselves on the people that we have.

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I mean, that subject matter expertise is second to none. And that's really what helps us be successful and help our operators be successful. Because to your point earlier, you know, they don't want to go. They don't have huge analytics teams that can go in there, and they have data scientists everywhere to kind of go do that stuff. We need to push it to the right people at the right time, in the right format.

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So they can do it. What they need to do is give that resident great care without having to dive into the software to do it. So there are a lot of ways that we do that and embody that. We push text notifications to people at the right place, right time. And we do that in a lot of different formats. But again, it's kind of where it is.

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16:02 - 16:27

Shawn Lane

I'll add one thing to that. I think you should look at people and scale, 35% of our employees in the residential division are nurses. And so people who understand the business and then scale stock markets at an all-time high, we've seen what happens after an all-time high. Look for companies that have the heritage and the stability and the financial scale, so that you can be sure they're around in five years. Think and grow with you.

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16:27 - 17:20

Josh Crisp

Well, that makes a lot of sense. And, you know, I think part of what I think I understood you to say is there's got to be a lot of discovery. There's got to be a lot of listening. You know, if your technology that you're looking at is coming in hot with look at all of our bells and whistles, you know, and not asking questions, about you and listening to your unique challenges and your goals.

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It may be a red flag. You know, that's how I would interpret what you said. As if I dumbed it down for me. So, that seems like a very critical and important piece. It's no wonder the Eldermark has been around for 30 years in our space. Lucas. It's fun. It's fun to be able to, you know, showcase people who have weathered a lot of times in our industry and been committed to the space.

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17:20 - 17:36

Lucas McCurdy

That's right. Bridge the Gap gets a front row seat to have these conversations and then put it out on our network to the audience so that we can educate, inform, and influence the senior housing world that we live in. And so hi, May and Sean, thank you so much for your time today. This is an awesome conversation. Appreciate it.

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17:36 - 17:37

Jaime Ojeda

Appreciate it.

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17:37 - 17:51

Lucas McCurdy

And so for all of our listeners out there that want to learn more about Eldermark and LivTech, you can scroll down to the show notes, click those links. You can go to vtgvoice.com. Download this content. So much more. Thanks for listening to another great episode to 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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