At Merrill Gardens, we are constantly striving to improve the lives of our residents and provide as much safety and security as possible. That is why we have implemented a pilot program to install the Safely You system which works to aid in fall prevention and improve response time for our memory care residents.
Through this new pilot program, Merrill Gardens was awarded the Safety Award silver medal in McKnight's 2020 Excellence in Technology Awards! Currently, Merrill Gardens at Santa Maria (CA), Gilroy (CA), The Pines (CA), and The Oaks (AZ) have all implemented the program with amazing results. If you'd like to take a look at the article click here.
This program focuses on our memory care residents, as seniors with dementia are statistically twice as likely to experience a fall. With artificial intelligence (AI) camera technology, we are able to determine what caused a fall, are notified as soon as a fall happens, and can provide emergency services with situational knowledge we didn't have before. When it comes to cameras, the issue of privacy comes along with it; however, we have also solved this as the AI only starts to record when a fall is detected.
In the short time that the program has been active, we have seen results that are unimaginable. We have reduced emergency room visits due to falls by 33 percent, dropped the average response time from ten minutes down to five, and caught three silent falls that could have led to serious injury.
Following such a successful pilot program at a number of our communities, we look forward to rolling this out at more locations in the future!