The Missing Link in Senior Care: Coordination

Lynne Katzmann of Juniper Communities believes coordination with the healthcare world is critical for senior living providers. Indeed, Juniper’s success proves the power of strategic healthcare partnerships. According to Katzmann, the concept of integrated care is the future and will better serve the seniors who rely on our care.

Katzmann’s high-energy talk at the Senior Living Innovation Forum laid out a number of 21st century game changers and how Juniper is helping lead the charge in three capacities.

• Technology: Every day could deliver a new data point. According to Katzmann, the deluge of digital data could help improve evidence-based care through analysis. Juniper recognizes the importance of data and requires all healthcare partners to use EHRs (Electronic Healthcare Records). The records have become “table stakes” for healthcare leaders to collect, analyze and manipulate data to better serve patients.
  
  
• Silver Tsunami: Baby Boomers are coming home to roost…in senior living communities. Currently, someone in America turns 65 every 8 seconds, which means there will be 72.1 million older Americans by 2030. This graying population will have a tremendous impact on resources that by 2022, healthcare will become 20 percent of the country’s GDP--far more than what we can afford. Therefore, Juniper creates and maintains a real-time communication loop with its patients—and their caretakers—through medical concierge services. Not only does this process improve outcomes, but it holds parties accountable for updating records when volume is a variable.
  
  
• Affordable Care Act: The ACA places value on patient engagement and care transformation, which shakes up the way we relate to our customers. Juniper is finding ways to ensure most post-acute care leaders are rallying around patients in ways that are scalable yet personalized. What does this mean? It means Juniper coordinates networks of providers between patients and doctors to aggregate specific needs in accordance to the law. By finding partners that agree to use our electronic records and communication protocols, the unifying advantage of coordination becomes clear.

At the core of these three areas, Katzmann concluded, “Coordination is key to our strategy of creating and sustaining an environment for senior living.” Simply put, the legwork makes all the difference in helping seniors feel safe and not slip through the system.

How Juniper is coordinating care

Katzmann introduced Juniper’s more formal growth plan to unite a senior’s care network, known as “Connect 4 Life.”

• Intentional use of data and outcomes to guide operations, define performance and drive quality.
• Integrating primary care practices on-site using a patient-centered medical home model
• Cultivating wellbeing through therapy-driven physical wellness programming and seamless access to other services through strategy partnerships and alliances.

The prospect of implementing a new process is enough to make the “old guard” worry about training. Katzmann expressed her team used existing skills to build out “Connect 4 Life” without internal restructuring. It can be inferred that her team was naturally excited to be part of such a groundbreaking strategy that it was built on enthusiasm and trust.

Already, Juniper has seen some fantastic results due to the “Connect 4 Life” model as discharges due to health-related decline decreased by 25%. As the silver tsunami crests crash in from the sea, Juniper won’t run, but rather will be prepared in a storm-resistant shelter to help others.

Want to learn more about innovation in senior living? Request an invite to attend the next Senior Living Innovation Forum here.

You can watch Lynne's full presentation below...