At Comfort Keepers in Gainesville, FL, Bryan Burns (Owner), Julie Burns (CEO), and Heather Tabares (VP of Operations) are leading the way in proactive home care by using AI to improve communication and support better outcomes for seniors. From identifying trends to helping intervene in cases of senior depression, their team is redefining what it means to keep aging adults safe and at home.
Bryan Burns, Owner:
I’m part of the innovation council for corporate comfort keepers to try to lead us into the future. You know to quote movie titles or whatever, if you ain’t first, you’re last. And, you know what, we don’t want to sit and think, gosh, I wish we’d have done that. We are doing it. And we will make it succeed. And it’s a great partnership. And I really believe other people are going to look at us like, darn it, I wish we’d done that.
My in-laws, Julie’s parents, live with us. So we’re like, okay, they’re 80-ish, and we’re like, okay, we want to learn this. Let’s plug it in at home and see what’s going on when we’re not home. So we never realized her mom was in so much pain and had so much difficulty doing simple things until we plugged the Sensi in. And finally she was like, unplug that thing. I’m not in that much pain. Like, yeah, but we hear you at 3 a.m. thinking, oh my God, I hurt. Going to the bathroom is so hard. Like. We never knew that. And she lives with us. And we didn’t know it. And that opened our eyes versus sticking it in a client’s home and hoping for the best. We had it a month in our home with our mom. And we’re like, wow, we didn’t know. And it’s just it’s an eye opener. It really is.
The Power of Seeing Change Before It’s a Crisis
Julie Burns, CEO:
I’ve been here, this will be my 19th year working for Comfort Keepers. And one of the great things is how this helps us with communication, helps us with prevention. Maybe, it’s going to help us catch the falls, for example. But over time is what I’m looking forward to. When the care coordinator goes back three months later and says, hey, I’ve seen this trend. I’ve seen mom change. It sounds like, you know, she’s getting up more often. She’s coughing more. I’m looking forward to seeing how that’s going to help us show the family the value.
Heather Tabares, VP of Operations:
Sensi has really been a game changer. You know, in the past, we’ve had clients fall and usually when they fall, they don’t get to return home because a fall will end somebody’s life, send them to a nursing home, and other times because of their age or their fragility, they can’t ever get repaired and returned to what they were. Surgeries are denied. So far, we’ve had a lot of instances where there’s been bumps and scrapes and actual falls, and the very first call we had, the client was actually super excited with us because she’s like, yay, it works, and everybody in the office called her. And what that was able to do was help us connect her home health to get her the services, to get her patched up.
Better Communication Drives Proactive Care
Julie Burns:
The biggest challenge, I think, in our industry is the communication piece, is being able to communicate with our clients regularly and with our caregivers. So that’s one of the things you have recently added, Olly, which is amazing. But we love it. We love that communication back and forth. We’re seeing that. It’s great to see the caregivers have that constant communication that we didn’t have before. So we’re very excited about that piece. So looking forward to helping us communicate more with the client, having a better way to communicate with them with more information, which is what Sensi is providing us. Reasons to call them in between assessments to say, hey, I’m noticing this. Maybe we need to schedule an appointment with your doctor. Maybe I need to update the care plan. So we can always be that care team for the client.
Heather Tabares:
Again, this is really opening up the bridge to allow us to be more proactive, keep people home. And just this past weekend, something I didn’t foresee us being able to use Sensi for is we actually had somebody who was admitted to the hospital. Senior depression is a very serious thing, and I have seen the worst of it in this industry. I’ve actually had a client lose their life because we weren’t able to recognize it. And so this weekend, this past weekend, we actually got our client the help that they needed and possibly saved a life.
