Ep:51: How Smart Home Technology is Helping Agencies Care for More Clients Amid Caregiver Shortages

Miriam Allred (00:00):

Welcome to Vision | The Care Leaders’ Podcast. I’m Miriam Allred with Home Care Pulse. My guest today is Andy Droney, the Senior Director of Health and Innovation Programs at ADT. Andy, welcome to the show!

Andy Droney (00:21):

Thanks for having me happy to be here.

Miriam Allred (00:23):

This is a neat opportunity. You know, when I, or a lot of people think of ADT, they probably think of the small blue octagonal signs in people’s yards. But before we jump into today’s topic, tell people a little bit about ADT where you guys are at right now and what your role looks like as the Senior Director of Health and Innovative Programs that are ADT.

Andy Droney (00:46):

Sure. So I’ve been with the company for 13 years. I started on the security side of the business, as you mentioned, the ADTs most widely known for our, our home and business and commercial security product line. But what I like to tell people is we’re really our DNA’s motto monitoring and response company. And I currently run the ADT health business, which is our line of products and services associated with medical or so if you think about it, your, your traditional medical alert a pendant, a fall detection, pendant connected to a device where we can get, receive a signal and respond to you. And I think we, we obviously benefit from our brand presence of being ADT, but it’s also when I, when I explained to people, Hey, we do this medical alert business. They’re like, oh, I didn’t know you were in that.

Andy Droney (01:38):

And when I start to explain to him, well, you know, our expertise is monitoring and responding. We’ve been doing it for over 145 years. They start to nod their heads and say, oh, that, that makes perfect sense that you’re in this business. So I’d say that, you know, nobody has more experienced than us in terms of the monitoring response aspects. And it makes us a really good fit. And the challenge is just letting people know that, Hey, ADTs in this business and we’re on the medical or, you know, in the businesses as the large medical or provider. And it seems to make sense. And some of the things that are exciting about what we’re doing is you know, partnering with, with companies. We recently partnered with Google on some product innovation and, and they’re going to be a product provider for us. And what we can do with combining not just the medical or piece of business, but also other things in the home, home security devices, and how do you repurpose some of those to provide, you know, a level of care in the home for folks that can allow them to age longer at the place that they call home

Miriam Allred (02:39):

Exciting. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today is really the impact of some of this smart home technology on the safety and opportunities for seniors as they age in place. So let’s take kind of a walk down memory lane and talking about where have we come the last three to five years with home care tech. We know the pandemic has sped up tremendously, this concept, but it doesn’t mean we haven’t done some things over the last few years to innovate. So before we start, let’s talk a little bit about what’s happened over the last few years with home care tech in general.

Andy Droney (03:14):

Sure. So I think over the, let’s say three to five years, I’ve been with the health business, you know, intimately here for about the last three and, and when I was coming on board and just before that, the, the the goal was to how can we get a mobile type of service that can go with people who are active, who aren’t necessarily home bound now, how can we provide a level of care for those folks? And there was a, there was a rush to kind of get a cellular product that was, that was mobile in nature that could send GPS location if you push the button to get a response. And that was, that was a big push. When I, and then maybe say three years ago, there was a, there was a big move towards a wearable device, typically a lot of focus placed on, on watches.

Andy Droney (04:03):

And, and what can I do with a watch that can conserve as a, as a medical alert pendant, maybe give me some fitness and activity information or send reminders and things like that. And you know, that’s certainly made a number of strides. I think one of the challenges that we’ve had on that front and across the industry has just been getting the, the interface, correct. What’s an interface that seniors that may be having difficulty with vision or dexterity or things like that can interact with. And watches can be challenging sometimes because you don’t want a giant watch that, that, you know, it was very heavy and uncomfortable to wear. What do you want to watch? That’s got enough features and functionality built into it. And sometimes cramming all that technology into a small form factor is a challenge. But most recently, I think where we’ve gotten is really looking at the smart home and I can, I can do some mobile things with, with phones as adoption rates continue to grow for mobile mobile phones and smartphones amongst typically the senior population.

Andy Droney (05:08):

But what can I do to combine, you know, those types of mobile devices with the smart home devices? And just like a simple thing to think about is from a security perspective, you’ve may have motion detectors in your house or door and window sensors in your house. And there, they had been traditionally used to keep people out, right? If the door opens, the alarm goes off, but now with, you know, the, the growth in technology, we can use those for multiple things. We can use those two to signal when the systems arm that somebody may be trying to intrude, but you can also use motion detectors to collect data and say, Hey, this is what’s. What are your activity levels? Or I’m a perfect example. I’ll use this. My parents are aging and I can look on my phone and see when they wake up and not so much that constantly checking.

Andy Droney (05:58):

They’re pretty independent that I’m checking to see if they’re awake, although you can certainly do that. And you can set notifications that at a certain time, if there hasn’t been motioned and say the living room, you get a notification, or if at a certain time, if there is motion, you get a notification, you can customize those things. So I, I, I look to see if they’re awake before I call them. So on that, waking them up, they just want to sleep in. And that’s, that’s great when you can take that another level and say, you know, what can I do to either set alerts or reminders of some stuff that something happens if someone tends to wander and the door opens at a time where you don’t think the door should be open and you could get a notification and check in and see what’s what’s happening.

Andy Droney (06:36):

And a check-in maybe just taking a peek at the camera and seeing what’s going on inside the house, over interacting through the camera, because our cameras have speakers and microphones built into them. So there’s, there’s a whole lot of customization that can happen. And the challenge has always been, and I think something that, the thing that we’re, we’re doing a good job with now is making it simple to set those things up and to create those recipes, if you will, or those notifications so that you don’t have to be a computer programmer to get the thing working the way that you want it to. And I think that is really the key to adoption and the key to people using it and feeling comfortable with it. You know, we’ve all seen, you know, I’m not going to program this VCR, I’m going to throw it out to them.

Andy Droney (07:18):

So, you know, if you can make it very easy by the click of a few buttons in an app, or just a very easy set up process to set those up, that goes a long way towards, towards adoption and use and the effectiveness of what you can do. But the number of things that you can do with, with the new smart home devices and repurposing, and re-imagining them, even something as simple as waking up in the middle of the night, say between 11 o’clock and 5:00 AM a motion detector might pick you up your motion and turn the lights off, but they don’t turn them on a hundred percent. They turn them on 15%. So it’s like a nightlight. And then you don’t trip on something, walk into the bathroom, you get back into bed, the motion detector doesn’t detect any emotion and the lights go off automatically so that you can do with, with the smart home. Now it’s becoming more and more I guess, easy to program, or you can provide canned type of, of setups that makes it really easy for people to utilize.

Miriam Allred (08:19):

It’s exciting. We have come such a long way and there’s so much to go. You know, I think of AI and voice. There’s so much more that we’re about to experience over the next few years. And to me, it’s, it’s really exciting. So my next question really is, is so what, you know, how does this impact home care providers they hesitate or worry about what’s coming, but let’s talk about this being, you know, a supplemental resource for home care providers and how it’s going to affect them.

Andy Droney (08:51):

I think that’s a really important point in, in that the, the smart home things that we’re doing at ADT, whether it be on the medical alert side or on the smart home side, or the combination of both should be the way I see it. It should be viewed as a, as a supplement to what’s happening in home care. You’re never going to replace someone being an in home agent thinking can and know have a hands-on experience with someone, but we all know with, with the limitation on shortage of caregivers, that you’re not going to necessarily be there 24 7. So the way I view the services that we provide are we’re a supplement to those companies. We can be beneficial in terms of providing insight and information as to what’s going on so that you can be prepared when you go in there and make your visits as effective as possible.

Andy Droney (09:39):

But also if something were to happen, when you know, it can happen in an hour after somebody leaves or 10 minutes after somebody leaves for that matter you know, we’re there to help protect those folks, get them help if they need it, let the home care provider know, Hey something’s happened. And it can be something as simple as saying, okay you know, Joan fell and we dispatched emergency medical services to have her taken to the hospital. She might be spending the night in the hospital with you have a scheduled visit. The next day. We could let you know ahead of time that, you know, this is where Joe May be and he’s in the hospital. So you know that you’re not gonna, you know, show up to the door and knock on the door and have nobody be there. The other thing I really view kind of the services as a supplement in that weekend serve as is what I, I like to call it an attrition prevention tool, if you will.

Andy Droney (10:30):

So if I can get help to somebody who needs it in a very short period of time, the likelihood that they’re going to come back home and remain independent is significantly higher. And folks, you know, who are unfortunately, you know, happens all the time. They fall there in the, in the house for days. And you know, that may start a quick decline and they have to move into an assisted living facility. And then a home care provider may lose them altogether as a patient or even so much as they go into the hospital. And as they’re, they’re discharged, they’re handed Brooke, you know, pamphlets of, of a home care providers competitor’s says, Hey, mom, check this out. Us being able to provide that information to say, if this person was dispatched or was sent to this hospital, you might want to check in on her gives them a home care provider, an ability to really be a partner with, with the person that they’re caring for and check in on them. Maybe you’re going in there at the hospital say, Hey, how’s everything going? Let’s make sure you’re cared for when you get out.

Miriam Allred (11:26):

And like you mentioned, at the beginning, caregiver shortages are a huge challenge for a lot of providers. And although we’re seeing some of that led up a little bit, it’s going to be an ongoing challenge for the next foreseeable future. And so using technology as a supplemental resource is a great alternative because we know the cost to hire the cost, to retain the cost, to recruit new caregivers is, is a lot for providers. It’s one of their biggest expenditures. And so finding technological alternatives to cut costs and enhance really opportunities and the level of care is a great option. So I know you all work with a number of home care providers. Let’s hear some examples of what providers are doing, how they’re using it, some of the results they’re seeing. Can you speak to some of those outcomes and examples?

Andy Droney (12:18):

On a previous podcast, I think a couple of weeks ago you had Peter Ross from Senior Helpers on. Senior Helpers and ADT have a national partnership where we provide services to Senior Helpers as kind of an integrated model where senior helpers will put ADT services in as a billing line and or as an integrated part of an offering, should you purchase a certain package of hours, you would get an ADT medical alert device that would stay with you in the, in the home. And there’s a couple of ways that that kind of comes to market for the folks that can, can be billed, or it can be something that’s an integrated service. So it allows Senior Helpers to potentially kind of upgrade to the next level of hours. Hey, if you buy, you know, three more hours of service, you get this ADT medical alert device as part of that package.

Andy Droney (13:09):

And that will then kind of cover you 24/7. So we have a great partnership with them. We’re working work very closely with each of their franchisees to work out the plans and the work close to that with training them on how the products work and how to order the products and to get feedback back, their senior helpers is on that call list of the emergency contact list. So when somebody does have an, an an event and not all the events result in, in this batch of emergency services, it’s sometimes somebody is like, Hey, I’m stuck on the couch and I just can’t get up. And I need somebody to come help me and we can provide, we don’t just simply push the ambulance button. We can provide whatever kind of customized assistance they need, if we can get in contact with them.

Andy Droney (13:56):

And, you know, that might be, Hey, can you call my Senior Helpers person to come and give me a hand? So we work hand in hand with Senior Helpers for that, and it’s been a really good partnership. And like I said, I think it serves a couple purposes. It’s, it’s a nice benefit to add, to potentially upgrade work hours you get, but it also serves as a nice attrition tool in terms of saying, Hey, if something were to happen, we can, we can react quickly and get people help immediately should they need it.

Miriam Allred (14:26):

So offering this technology as part of your service line, it takes away the need for the family or the client to find that additional service. So, you know, just like you say, including it in your own packages or it being an upsell tool is a great, because then the family doesn’t have to seek out the home care agency and maybe the technology that could supplement, you know, it’s, it’s just creating that one-stop shop. Is you a seamless process for the family.

Andy Droney (14:53):

Another place where it’s been interesting to see some of the adoption that we’ve had either with home care providers or, or with others, is if someone calls to have an assessment done and they’re shopping around and they may say, I’m not quite ready for in-home care, but, you know, I know, you know, mom or dad is starting to get come a little bit more frail, you know, we can serve on the front end as well in terms of a customer acquisition tool to say, well, if you’re not ready for somebody to come into your home to care for you, you may just want the service that kind of keeps an eye on you over time. And that kind of gets your foot in the door, and then you can continue to check in. So it can actually extend the customer life cycle on the front end, say, you know, you may not be ready to have somebody come in for a set number of hours, but I can provide this service to you, you know, on the front end, so that when you’re ready at, we already have a relationship. And, and you’ve got, you know, you’re happy with the service that we’re providing and, and, and, and what we’re doing for you already. And it, it kind of gives you a chance to potentially get your foot in on the front door versus waiting for them to say, unfortunately, a lot of our business comes after somebody already had their first small, but, you know, if they’re, if there’s something happens and then you’ve at least got a relationship established,

Miriam Allred (16:11):

Glad you brought that up and it helps them have a good experience with your brand, from the get go, because yeah, maybe it’s not a caregiver that they need, but there’s another offering that you have for them. That could be a good fit for them at the beginning. So really good example there. At the beginning you talked about kind of the example with your own parents, any other stories or examples you can share of caregivers or family caregivers, or family members supplementing the technology in the home and some of the results that have amounted to that?

Andy Droney (16:42):

Oh, goodness. I mean, it’s interesting. As I said before, you know, coming from the security side of ADT we’re we, we handle millions of alarms and millions of signals and, and the, on the alarm side of things, very often that the signals that we get are people setting off their alarm, inadvertently a false alarm, if you will. They walk in with a handful of groceries and they just can’t turn their keypad off quickly enough. And, and oftentimes those alarms certainly are important. We want to respond to them as quickly as possible. There are false alarms on our, on the health side of things. Most, nearly all the time that somebody actually pushes a button it’s, it’s rarely a false alarm. It’s, it’s somebody who needs help. And it’s not always that I need emergency services. That’s I need something I need, you know, call my neighbor to help me off the floor, off the couch or whatnot.

Andy Droney (17:37):

Don’t send an ambulance cause they don’t want the sirens and all that stuff. I just need some help with getting, getting off the couch. W I mean, gosh, we get, we get notifications daily of, of events happen where, where we, we, we, we save people. I mean, it’s, it’s hard to like, I mean, they’re all very similar in the sense it’s, it’s a lot of times it’s false and we have fall detection, pendants that will actually sense the fall. We all have to push the button and we contact folks. And we actually, you know, we record our calls who I’ll hear some of those same stories, and they’re always heartwarming. We do actually try to, to celebrate those, those wins, you know, as a company I’m hopeful. We had a situation where we, we saved the customer down in the Jacksonville beach area.

Andy Droney (18:24):

We’re putting together kind of a celebration where we reunite the agent that took the call with, you know, the person who sold the farm. And we bring in the first responders and try to get some news coverage. So I’m hoping, and about mid August, we’re going to have one of these celebrations and they’re just the most heartwarming kind of of events. And it’s just, it’s, it’s, it’s a nice sort of a PR perspective, obviously, but it’s, they’re just like super touching when you can save somebody’s life and, and, and you see those folks get reunited and all the hugs and tears. And it’s really interesting, but I mean, specific examples, they happen every day. So it’s hard to give just one, they’re all kind of the same type of like, holy cow, this is why, I mean, this is why I love this business so much. It’s, it’s really awesome. We have t-shirts that are our agents wear that, say, I save lives for a living, which is, it reminds them why they come to work each day. And I frequently tell us it’s not cable television. It’s your, you know, when somebody pushes the button on the other end, they’re there, they need your help. And our employees do an amazing job.

Miriam Allred (19:29):

Great examples. And, and like you said, this is such a heart warming business. We have the opportunity to save lives directly and indirectly, and it, and it’s impacting so many people, but for this call, we were talking a little bit about outcome-based care or in our industry, we kind of call it value based care. And you work with Medicare waiver programs as well. And we’re seeing that, you know, private duty, isn’t very regulated, but some of these other sectors of home health are very regulated and we’re moving towards value-based care, you know, proving these outcomes so that we can kind of prove our worth to the whole health care continuum. And this technology, like you said, can measure fall prevention. And that is one of the key outcomes for a lot of home care providers is to reduce hospital readmission rates and to reduce falls. So anything you want to add there on using technology to prove that your agency, our, our industry is helping reduce those outcomes? No,

Andy Droney (20:35):

That’s a great point. That shift is huge. We know that that shift is happening and we’re frequently getting more and more requests for data around a button presses and falls and things like that. And that’s, I think the, the tying in of the smart home, is it going to become extremely important? As I mentioned before, our partnership with Google is very exciting because Google owns fit that now. And what can we potentially do down the road with a Google Fitbit and the smart home plus we’re calling it smart aging and more can we do to provide a lot of insights and data back that helped guide those Medicare programs in terms of like, where are the risks? How do we, how do we avoid those risks? How do we avoid readmissions and something as simple as starting to gather that data from, from an activity perspective, how active is someone in the home and what insights can I use around AI or machine learning to say, okay, you know, this person, you know, moved around and it’s, it’s, it’s almost hard to describe because my mind can’t comprehend all this.

Andy Droney (21:46):

Like if this then that’s, but when you start to combine them all, like this person’s activity level was X. And over the course of time, I can see it starting to dwindle. So what’s going on there, or even something so simple as saying you know, bathroom usage, okay. You know, this customer goes into the bathroom on average five times a day, and then suddenly they’re going into the bathroom 10 times a day. Like there’s something wrong. There is, there’s something happening, you know, to their health that we need to intervene ahead of. They may not even notice the difference. So being able to gather that information, and we’re kind of uniquely positioned because we have so many of these smart home devices and sensors already deployed out in the world today to really capitalize on that. And what can we do with that data to help those agencies save costs, avoid, improve.

Andy Droney (22:36):

The outcomes is really what, what the goal is and say, can I intervene ahead of time before someone? And that gets into remote patient management and things like that, can I make those devices easy to use? Can I provide, you know, non-intrusive or not annoying reminders to say, Hey, you need to do this. You need to do that. It can be something as simple on say your Fitbit that reminds you that, Hey, get up and take a few steps, steps, or you’ve been sitting a little longer than, than normal is everything okay. And provide that insight or those that information on to a home care provider or caregiver to say, Hey, might want to check in on mom, make sure everything’s okay.

Miriam Allred (23:16):

That’s so exciting. I’m one of the younger people in this industry to speak to some of these topics. But I think it’s really exciting. We’re headed in a really good direction with a lot of opportunities. And with so many seniors turning 60, 65 every single day, we’ve got to come up with solutions that integrate technology with the one-to-one personalized care. This industry is so human to human. And I think providers are going to have somewhat of a hard time adopting this, but it’s really the way forward. So I guess just my last question is, you know, what would you say to a provider that’s hesitant to adapt or even, you know, go to try one of these alternatives? What would you say to help kind of ease some of the hesitancy.

Andy Droney (24:03):

I would say to them and I’ve done this many times is just try and shift your thinking right now. If you think of us as a competitor or somebody that’s disrupting the business, like think of us more as a potential, you know, really solid partner to help you grow your business, either on the front end, like we talked about or, you know, help retain your business, which I think is really important because, you know, the cost of acquiring a new customer is significant. If I can retain those customers for a longer period of time. And that may be through avoiding attrition via adverse event. But it may also be by providing amazing service that that the customer really loves and says, Hey, I’m comfortable staying at home now because I know I’m cared for, I know someone is going to come in every so often and check up on me and help me out.

Andy Droney (24:53):

But I also know that, you know, I feel comfortable and safe that, you know, the devices in my home are, are set up and they’re going to help me out as well. So providing that kind of helpful home is really important. And, and I think we can be a really strong partner in helping, helping folks get there and, and really benefiting. And I think COVID has served as a, as an accelerant to a lot of this folks are not interested or they’re less interested in moving into assisted living facilities. If I could provide, you know, a majority of the services that you may have been able to get at a significantly lower price, that’s really attractive to people. And we can play that, that part and, and helping those agencies who are providing those services, you know, be that that shop and, and retain those customers longer through their life cycle,

Miriam Allred (25:44):

100%. Great response. Andy, it’s been a pleasure talking to you. What’s the best way for people to learn more about ADT and what you’re doing in kind of the senior care space?

Andy Droney (25:54):

So you can go to our website, ADT.com/health. You can see all the products that we offer. ADT.Com lists out all, all the different offerings that ADT has as a whole at /health. We’ll get you to, you know, our current product offerings and give you all the information you need, need to know about, about what we do.

Miriam Allred (26:13):

Awesome. Sounds good. Well, thanks so much for joining me and we’ll look forward to connecting again in the future.

Andy Droney (26:18):

Great. Thank you for having me.