Senior Living & Wellness: Part 2

FOX Vice President of Senior Living Partnerships Jason Hazel, PT, DPT, looks at the business relationships between senior living communities and rehabilitation providers. To him, three factors can make these relationships more power than just a community and its vendor. He looks at how they can be a true, collaborative partnership.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Jason Hazel, Doctor of Physical Therapy and Vice President of Senior Living Partnerships with FOX rehabilitation, and I’m here today to talk a little bit about functional wellness within the confines of senior living in particular.

I really want to hit on three key areas: one being the epidemic that is the rising acuity level of senior living residents that we see today, two being some of the limitations that skilled therapies and the payer sources that back them face today, and then three, from an outcomes perspective, why should you be considering functional wellness.

What does it do for you, for your residents, and for the long-term success of your community?

So I’m preaching to the choir here when it comes to senior living operators in regards to the rising acuity level of the older adults moving into our communities.

There’s a massive number of older adults. The numbers are growing exponentially each and every day. And when they decide to make the move to senior living, it’s often in crisis mode. It is a situation where it’s far along in the game and they probably should have made the move earlier. And so, their acuity level, from a medical comorbidity and medical complexity perspective, is exorbitantly high. It’s a huge burden and challenge for senior living operators to have to deal with.

The second: again, limitations when it comes to payer sources for physical, occupational, and speech therapies.

FOX Rehab is founded on a novel concept, a novel model that is outpatient house calls.

And, with that being the case, we fight and advocate and justify when clinical skill and medical necessity drives the need for skilled therapies. But at the end of the day, there is always a finite date. There is a discharge point or the end of an episode of care or plan of care in which our physical and occupational therapists and speech-language pathologists have to discharge patients.

So the question that then arises is, “Well what then?”

And, we’ve created a model in which we can take a highly trained exercise physiologist and build a functional wellness continuum.

So that being the case: What is functional wellness?

A lot of residents within your communities may appear medically well but be quite functionally sick. And what I mean when I say that is: There are no red flags going off. Their labs look good. They are in a state where their medicines are managing blood pressures and cholesterol and things of that nature. But when you dive deeper into the functional appearance of that individual they’re quite sick. What I mean when I say that is: There’s a significant need with assistance with activities of daily living, major balance and gait disorders, the use of multiple pieces of durable medical equipment to get them through their day to function at as close to an independent level as they can.

And, the challenge there is the ability to identify that someone is functionally sick is far too often overlooked.

So, we created this functional wellness model in which once those the skilled therapy services are done there are pathways in which you can monitor and continue to at least maintain, and in many instances, even advance someone’s level of functional wellness.

And so the question for you now is: What does it all matter? Is it worth it? Are you able to get outcomes?

And so, we’ve built a program here at FOX called FOX Optimal Living. It’s a program that utilizes those skilled therapies to the extent that they’re allowed. And then when those skilled therapies are not warranted, there’s a functional wellness model that allows us to engage.

In most instances, our goal is to have 100 percent of the residents within the community in this functional wellness programming, either in a one-on-one or a group setting.

And, the outcomes are pretty staggering. So looking at the data, after a year of exposure to the program, we’re seeing in our partner communities that have chosen to utilize this optimal living program, we’re seeing drops in falls of 35 to 40 percent. We’re seeing reductions in hospital admissions between 25 and 30 percent. And, we’re seeing a median length of stay at 33 months and the national averages, I’m sure many of you know in in the assisted living realm and memory care, is about 23 months today.

So, these are healthier communities that have the ability to effectively allow their residents to age in place for a longer period of time and fight the good fight and continue to live very functionally well, fulfilling lives.

So, what does it all mean?

Our message to you is: Start thinking about functional wellness, and if it isn’t already part of your programming and an amenity essentially within your community, start to ponder it.

There are partners out there that know functional wellness, that can deliver it for you, reduce the burden on some of your team, and deliver even better care than is currently out there and available for your residents to allow them to age in place and live life to the fullest.

Thanks so much.