In senior living communities across the country, fall prevention always remains a top priority. RiverSpring Living aimed to improve its fall prevention efforts through the use of the NexStride gait device.
For its efforts, and corresponding positive results, it was awarded Gold in the Keep It Super Simple category at the 2023 McKnight’s Excellence in Technology awards.
The NexStride device is an advanced neurological tool that can be attached to walkers or canes to provide both auditory and visual cuing while ambulating. Since inception of the partnership, the Hebrew Home at Riverdale has trialed this assistive device with both short- and long-term care patients with various diagnosed neurologic conditions.
The results included increases in gait speed, longer stride length and an overall improvement in balance and function.
“A 73-year-old resident with a long history of Parkinson’s was noted with a significant decline in function, resulting in four falls in less than a one month period. The NexStride device was applied to her rollator and she was educated on the use by the therapy team over three sessions,” RiverSpring wrote in its application.
“Over the next three-week period, subsequent standardized balance and gait assessments were conducted on the patient. During this time, her gait speed increased by 200%. She has had no subsequent falls since we have introduced the NexStride device to her daily routine.”
Other award winners in the Keep It Super Simple category:
Silver: Juniper Communities for its use of Amazon Dots voice technology. It started with an initial deployment of 100 and finished with 1,046 devices deployed by Jan. 31, 2023.
Bronze: Ingleside at King Farm for its use of remote temperature sensors across 66 refrigerators, freezers and coolers, saving employees from performing the task manually for 11 to 12 hours per day.
Read about other 2023 McKnight’s Excellence in Technology award winners in the Skilled Nursing track on the McKnight’s Long-Term Care News website, in the Senior Living track on the McKnight’s Senior Living website, and in the Home Care track on the McKnight’s Home Care website.
Sponsors of the 2023 McKnight’s Tech Awards + Summit include LifeLoop, IntelyCare, MatrixCare, PointClickCare and ShiftKey + OnShift.
To view the virtual awards presentation and recordings of the Summit webinars, visit mcknightstechawards.com (free registration required).
