Sage and Sonida Win Two McKnight’s Tech Award Gold Medals
Sonida Senior Living Reduces Alert Response Times by 65% with Sage; Sage and Sonida Win Two McKnight’s Tech Award Gold Medals
Sage’s user-friendly, data-driven Operations Management System improved community operations and care team performance
NEW YORK, Oct. 11, 2024 / — Sage, a technology company reinventing care for older adults through its next-gen operations management system, currently is live in 48 Sonida Senior Living communities and is expanding to 8 more. Sonida is a leading senior living provider offering services across 20 states. On October 3rd, 2024, Sonida and Sage won two Gold Medals at the 14th Annual McKnight’s Tech Awards.
Sonida and Sage were nominated and won Gold in the “Emerging Technology” and “Innovative Care Planning” categories. McKnights awarded them for “Transforming Nurse Call into an Operations Management System.”
“Sage’s next-generation operations management system takes a transformational approach to incident response, care tracking, and data collection, and is integrated into a single, modern interface. Full documentation is kept as to resident location and needs, staff response times, services rendered by category, monthly revenue opportunities and, ultimately, whether staffing patterns should be adjusted,” as McKnights put it. “The partners said incident response time dropped by an average of 65%, which has led to increased resident satisfaction. In addition, caregiver satisfaction more than tripled and staff turnover declined by 23%.”
Sonida chose Sage as an innovative solution to boost staff engagement, improve resident care, and identify areas for operational improvements. As the population of older adults booms with 55.8 million Americans aged 65+, caregivers and senior living community leaders are increasingly stretched thin. Sage equips caregivers and operators with a modern, integrated interface, consolidating the tools caregivers carry to streamline communications and provide more informed, productive, collaborative care. This results in a better experience for care teams and residents, as well as improved community operations and financials.
To date, Sage achieved an 84% caregiver satisfaction rate for Sonida, as compared to a 25% satisfaction rate with their previous system, and has reduced caregiver turnover by 23% across their communities. Sage also helped Sonida reduce their incident response time by 65% from the industry average. Not only does faster response time result in higher resident satisfaction, but it means that caregivers are acting quickly during falls and emergencies when every second counts.
“Sage technology is intuitive for the care teams to use and allows me visibility into how our team is performing across a variety of metrics,” said Tabitha Obenour, Chief Clinical Officer at Sonida. “It’s a level of visibility we have not had previously. The analytics scorecards support Sonida’s QA process and help our team improve the performance of our communities – both operations and care response – resulting in an even better resident experience.”
Outsized Results Through a Differentiated Approach
Sage takes a transformational approach to incident response, care tracking, and data collection. When residents need assistance, they press a pendant or button. The on-duty caregiving staff then receives an alert in real time through the Sage app, which includes information about the resident, where they are, and their care history. Caregivers can use the platform to note when they’re responding, escalate the response, or tag in additional caregivers as needed. Sage documents who responds, the response time, and what care was provided. Outside of incident response, caregivers use Sage to log care, communicate with each other, and view which team members are active.
Sage collects data throughout this process. The Sage dashboard surfaces analytical insights about staffing levels, resident needs, claim times, and more, empowering operators to make informed, data-driven, and proactive decisions about care and community management. Sage can also generate transparent reports for residents and their loved ones.
“Performance cannot be improved if it isn’t measured. Sonida now has technology that caregivers are happy to use because it’s both easy but also extremely valuable,” said Sage co-founder and CEO Raj Mehra. “The results seen by Sonida are exciting because it’s an indication of what the industry can achieve – happier, more engaged caregivers who finally have the tools they need to better support residents. This improvement in performance can be celebrated and rewarded.”
