A Culture of Innovation Committed to Evidence Base Use of Technology

This is the 7th in a series of case studies from the Preparing for the Future Report.

You can check out the full Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society case study, or continue reading the summary below.

The Organization 

The Evangelical Lutheran Good Samaritan Society is the nation’s largest not-forprofit provider of senior care and services, serving more than 27,000 people in 240 locations nationwide. 

While it initially focused solely on offering traditional skilled nursing care, the organization now provides senior living apartments, home health, assisted living, hospice care, inpatient and outpatient therapy and specialized units for people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.

Technology

The Good Samaritan Society expects technology-enabled services to help it meet its goal to engage with a broader population of consumers. 

The organization is currently working on several projects to make this possible.

• The LivingWell@Home program, established in June 2010, provides health-monitoring
  technology to older adults living in the place they call home. One month after the program began, the Good Samaritan Society received an $8.1 million grant, which it matched with $3 million of its own funds, to test the ability of the WellAWARE remote monitoring system, the Philips Lifeline personal emergency response system and the Honeywell HomMed telehealth system to facilitate healthy aging in
  place.
  
• Electronic Medical Records: In preparation for implementation of an electronic medical record (EMR) program, Good Samaritan Society staff members spent months streamlining the organization’s business and clinical processes and standardizing the forms it uses to document those processes. Before the streamlining effort began, the Good Samaritan Society used 460 such forms; today it has less than 100.
  
• Center for Innovation: A new Center for Innovation, opened in late 2011, will focus exclusively on helping the Good Samaritan Society work with its own employees and a variety of industry and academic partners to design innovative processes, products and services that will help older adults maintain their health, wellbeing, independence, and quality of life.

Business Case

The LivingWell@Home research is designed to provide critical evidence that technology-enabled services can help older adults optimize their health and independence. 

Armed with this evidence, the Good Samaritan Society and other aging services providers will be able to make a strong case that public and private third-party payers should support these technologies as a way to improve health care quality and reduce costs. 

In addition, evidence from the LivingWell@Home research will allow the Good Samaritan Society to promote itself as a valuable partner that can help Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) and medical homes use technology-enabled services to reduce rehospitalization rates and increase care coordination and efficiency.

You can also view all 18 case studies from the Preparing for the Future report.