Carol McKinley, President & CEO, Simpson

Carol McKinley, president and CEO of Simpson, spoke with Invest: about fostering innovation to heighten elder care. “At Simpson, we support new technologies for our communities to stay relevant in today’s environment; to provide our staff with innovative tools to support the care of our residents.”

What is your overview of Simpson Living and its mission in the Philadelphia market?

Simpson was founded in 1865 and is the oldest United Methodist retirement organization in the United States. The idea of Simpson came from Jane Henry, widow of a Methodist Pastor. Mrs. Henry aided largely in providing for the relief of wounded soldiers brought to Philadelphia, and when the war was over, it was she who conceived the idea of providing a home for aged Methodists and looking to organize such. Through the help of Bishop and Mrs. Simpson and others, Simpson House came to fruition. 

What changes over the past year have most influenced senior living in Pennsylvania, and how have those shifts shaped the market for providers like Simpson?

Major shifts in the areas of funding, workforce, and regulation have influenced senior living in Pennsylvania. Providers depend on various levels of financial support to meet the care and services of elder adults. Certainly there are those who pay privately for care. Significant dollars come from State and Federal programs of Medicaid and Medicare. Changes on both the Federal and State level have and will continue to impact the accessibility to care and services throughout the Commonwealth. The changes in these resources and their impact are seen in providers having to down-size their communities, close wings, or close entirely. An increase in acquisitions and affiliations have occurred for similar reasons. 

In regard to the workforce, providers are struggling in Pennsylvania as well as nationally to have enough staff to meet the care and needs of the residents served. The change in financial resources makes it difficult for nursing homes, assisted living, and life plan communities to compete for wages. Adjusting fee structures to increase wages causes accessibility issues as it relates to affordability for residents. People need care, the workforce is tight, and providers compete with each other and in general the rest of the world for workforce. 

Finally, workforce regulation does not support the required staffing ratios needed in our communities. Federal and state mandates have changed these ratios and in some cases are conflictive of each other. Ratios are not reflective of the actual shortages of professionals in the health care industry. There are just not enough nurses and aides to cover the current staff openings throughout Pennsylvania and the nation. Overall, the funding changes, the workforce issues, and updated regulation have created an environment that impacts accessibility for our aged, sustains workforce challenges, and fosters an ongoing trend for providers to downsize, shutdown, be acquired, or affiliate. 

On the positive side, there is a push toward innovation and utilizing technology and AI to support efficiencies and different ways to provide quality care. At Simpson, we support new technologies to make sure our communities stay relevant and that residents want to come to us. We provide our staff with the tools to support the care of our residents. 

How are new technologies such as VirtuSense or AMBA health monitoring changing care delivery? 

VirtuSense is one of the first technologies I brought into Simpson. It takes the subjectivity out of understanding how somebody recovers physically from surgery, stroke, hip replacement, or other disease treatment. This program is completed by a certified physical therapist looking at a camera connected to a computer and television. You can see the patient as a stick figure on the television, and the program collects data based on the patient’s movements and can track improvements in rehabilitation and whether or not surgery is successful. This type of technology is not just gathering data, it also analyzes what the data can tell us. 

Amba is our newest pilot. It tracks specific data that provide us with outcomes that demonstrate patterns and predictability, allowing us to be proactive about health issues before they become major medical problems. We utilize passive sensors that provide us with resident information. These include motion and sleep sensors. The sensors pick up patterns and abnormalities related to movement, sleep, respiration, heart rate, and more. Our nursing teams can view the information through a dashboard. The information is in real-time.

Given labor shortages and the increasing need for certified physicians, how do you approach retaining and upskilling workers to handle this new technology?

It starts with ensuring that we adopt technology that is usable and not too challenging for your staff. A strong partnership with the technology providers and a solid training program that is supported from the start helps in upskilling the staff. The training must be long-term and not be complicated. We utilize pilots to understand if we are bringing in the right technologies; and that the technologies do what have been told to us. We also keep in mind that we are working with multiple generations of staff. We have traditional staff who have been working for years, and staff coming right out of school. Younger staff is used to technology, and older staff grew up without computers. That’s a huge difference. We recognize the students are utilizing “cool” technologies within their classrooms and laboratories. When they come out of school they are facing an industry that is still very traditional. Having these new technologies on site helps with workforce marketing. People are looking for this type of innovation.

How is demand for senior living evolving in the Philadelphia region, and what trends are shaping the choices families are making today?

The demand is there. Hospital systems struggle because they need to get patients out of the hospital and into communities like Simpson. Communities downsizing and closing have limited access. We all have faced that in the Philadelphia region. It’s hard on the hospitals and hard on long-term providers. Family choices will be limited to what is available and they may choose to try to sustain their loved ones at home longer. 

Looking ahead, what opportunities stand out for expanding or strengthening senior living options in the Philadelphia region over the next five to 10 years? 

Senior living needs to be nimble. Philadelphia is a wonderful city with great resources. There are people within the healthcare industry who are open to innovation and technology. There are lots of different types of innovation that happen that aren’t just about technology. Staying relevant to innovation will help support our workforce. Getting people interested in the healthcare industry again will happen through innovation. Partnerships, creative partnerships will help strengthen the senior living options — and there is an abundance of opportunity for such with open minds.

What are your top priorities for Simpson in the next two to three years?

One is to continue to work toward additional technologies that heighten service and care for our residents and bring efficiencies to our staff so they want to work in our environment. The second is to continue to have a voice in advocating in the Philadelphia region and the state of Pennsylvania, to ensure that elder care is heightened.