Assisted Living Facilities Struggling to Meet Staff Care Standards; Zanthion Creates Tech-Based Solutions to Close Care Gap
Staff shortages are endemic in assisted living facilities across the country, resulting in diminished quality of care for seniors. Zanthion addresses the care gap with tech-based solutions centered around the need for care with dignity.
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 20, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Recent reports show that a shortage of direct care staff is affecting the ability of senior care facilities to maintain quality of care to elderly residents. For example, the Texas Center for Nursing Workforce Studies documented a 97% staff turnover rate for certified nurse aides and an average 90% turnover rate for registered nurses and licensed vocational nurses.1 With the median age of the U.S. population rising2, it is becoming even more critical to find caring and effective methods for care facilities and caregivers to keep up. Zanthion, a technology-based senior care solutions company, is making both in-home and facility-based senior care drastically easier, all while maintaining the dignity of aging patients that is so often lost in the end-of-life care process.
Evidence has begun to emerge suggesting that quality of care in assisted living facilities has been declining, in many cases due to inadequate staffing numbers – and sometimes the consequences are tragic. After one instance occurring in 2016, a medical malpractice lawsuit was filed against a Maryland assisted living facility after the plaintiff's father fell three times in a single day and died due to coverage gaps in monitoring him3. National news outlets have been reporting on this crisis of staff shortages at homes for the elderly. At Laughlin Healthcare Center in Greenville, Tennessee, visitors noticed in July that a facility resident walked through the Center's front doors, fell over in the parking lot, and then headed into a wooded area before he was noted missing and brought back.4
Per Philip Regenie, CEO of Zanthion, the difficulties of senior care in America show that seniors are a disenfranchised population – an unfortunate reality given the wisdom and experience they have to offer.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), falling is the second leading cause of accidental injuries and deaths worldwide for the elderly population. But Regenie says there is new artificial intelligence (AI) technology that can be implemented to identify risks, predict situations and prevent the rise in deadly and expensive outcomes with elderly falls.
"The rising number of deaths from falls can be addressed by screening for fall risk and intervening to address modifiable risk factors such as polypharmacy or gait, strength, and balance issues," said Regenie.
Regenie predicts that AI, along with advancements in health education and awareness, senior services, robotics, sensor technology, big data and remote healthcare, will over the next 10 years:
- Reduce senior fall related deaths by 80%
- Reduce negative drug interactions by 80%
- Reduce urinary tract infections and sepsis by 50%
- Increase aging in place by 50%
- Decrease the cost of emergency transport per year from $224 billion to $50 billion
- Reduce emergency room visits by seniors by 50%
- Reduce the cost of dementia care by more than 50%
Regenie's own experience with the indignity of his aging parents' deaths led him to invest his resources in a business dedicated to creating the necessary solutions. Zanthion has developed attractive and comfortable wearables, such as beautifully-designed necklaces and watches, that act as personal emergency response systems for seniors, accurately assessing any needs for assistance (emergency and non-urgent) and directing them automatically to the appropriate party. The senior care solutions company is also working with developments in the Internet of Things (IOT) to create in-home senior monitoring devices that function while integrating seamlessly into people's everyday lives.
These products and services can allow seniors to age in place for longer periods of time, enabling protection and much easier monitoring by family and close friends. The technology has the potential to keep falls and expensive rehabilitation to a minimum, and when applied to a facility setting, can conceivably allow a smaller staff to keep a closer eye on a larger population of seniors.
"Zanthion's goal is to enable safe, enjoyable, and healthy communities," said Regenie, "where seniors remain connected and active as long as possible."
About Zanthion:
Zanthion is an AI Digital Healthcare Company specializing in the integration of an extensible architecture of sensors and protective clothing and environmental equipment for both Assisted Living Communities and the home; a cross between Uber, smart homes, fall detection, and senior care. Zanthion exists to create new and disruptive solutions for seniors and their families to track and detect possible issues and injuries for today's senior citizens—using technology to provide a better quality of life for everyone involved. Zanthion is a pioneer in changing our social environment with future vision, solution-based systems that improve the world based on an open source, transparent, crowd-sourced platform and social processes that accurately assess what happened, inform the correct resources, provide resources to the problem efficiently, and keep track of the efficiency of fixing the problem. Zanthion embraces a responsible future. Visit http://www.Zanthion.com.
1. Garcia, Laura. "Report Shows Statewide Nursing Home Workforce Crisis." The Victoria Advocate, 20 July 2018, http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/local/report-shows-statewide-nursing-home-workforce-crisis/article_4e6bb93c-8c2f-11e8-8370-5f6d04e10d45.html.
2. US Census Bureau. "Older People Projected to Outnumber Children." U.S. Trade with Haiti, 13 Mar. 2018, http://www.census.gov/newsroom/press-releases/2018/cb18-41-population-projections.html.
3. Hill, Michael. "Multiple Falls at Assisted Living Facility Caused Residents Wrongful Death, Lawsuit Claims. - Eadie Hill Trial Lawyers - Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Attorneys." Eadie Hill Trial Lawyers, Eadie Hill Trial Lawyers - Nursing Home Abuse and Neglect Attorneys, 20 Jan. 2018, http://www.eadiehill.com/nursing-home/assisted-living-abuse-neglect-lawyers/multiple-falls-assisted-living-facility-caused-residents-wrongful-death-lawsuit-claims/.
4. Little, Ken. "Assisted Living Staffing Called Into Question." Greeneville Publishing Company, 20 July 2018, http://www.greenevillesun.com/news/local_news/assisted-living-staffing-called-into-question/article_4cce5c90-29f7-5216-9873-7e0004e38cb4.html.
SOURCE Zanthion
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