Kisco Senior Living

THE CHALLENGE

Implement a new campaign that focuses on creating the safest environment for senior living residents to live in and associates to work in.

THE OUTCOME

Visitors and staff are identified, accounted for, and screened properly via the Accushield kiosk, thus ensuring safety and security of everyone in the buildings.

THE IMPACT

In addition to user-friendly screening of all visitors, Kisco Senior Living freed up valuable time for its front desk associates to deliver the excellent customer service that is expected of the brand.

In late 2019, Carlsbad, Calif.-based Kisco Senior Living wanted to create the safest environment for its residents and staff. As part of its newly launched Kisco Confidence campaign, the company began implementation of Accushield terminals in two if its buildings. According to Kisco’s Vice President of Operations and Care Services Ed Ward, the initiative encompassed not just physical safety but also environmental health and safety.

“We were concerned with ensuring better visitor control through Accushield, and we understood the importance of knowing who is in your building, who they are there to see, and making sure they were credentialed,” says Ward. “We wanted to ensure both environmental and physical safety for everyone in our buildings.”

Everything Changed

As the company began its implementation of Accushield, the pandemic hit the United States and shutdowns began. As a result, safety and security suddenly took on new meaning for all senior living providers. Kisco was no exception. “What we found was that the Accushield terminals gave us a great opportunity to handle the health screening that essential visitors were required to complete before entering the building,” Ward says.

When Accushield introduced the infrared thermometer to its terminals, Kisco was also on board and implemented it in all 23 communities. “It combined the visitor management and better physical security with the health screening and environmental safety aspect of keeping our communities as safe as they can possibly be,” says Ward.

Before Accushield, visitor management processes at the Kisco front desks were done manually. All screenings and temperature checks, including those for all associates, were done using paper. “This meant that our customer service representatives at the entrances to all of our buildings weren’t focused on customer service. They were focused on temperature checks and paperwork,” says Ward. “Since the implementation of Accushield terminals they are much freer to provide that customer service that we expect them to provide.”

A Problem Solver

He emphasizes that the multiuse aspect of the system has been highly beneficial for Kisco. “Accushield doesn’t just provide an electronic record of each visitor but the labor that it frees up really more than pays for, on a return on investment basis, the investment in the terminals.”

Ward is also excited about Accushield’s new mobile app, which includes a pre-screening function that contains questions for users to answer before they get to the front desk. The app generates a QR code that is then captured by the Accushield scanner. “This really alleviates any log jam at the front desk when people are trying to check in,” he says.

The app can also be used to schedule resident visits and validate health documents, such as vaccination records.

Value Added

Kisco’s portfolio of senior living communities includes buildings located in both California and Florida, where potentially devastating disasters are not uncommon. “With the potential for wildfires in California and tropical storms in Florida, knowing who is in the buildings and who you might need to evacuate is really critical,” Ward says. “So we train our communities on how to access these critical evacuation lists.”

Ward reports that there has been very little pushback from users of the Accushield system and its added COVID screening requirements. “I thought visitors might not want to be slowed down but it was really pretty seamless,” he says.

Another benefit of working with Accushield, says Ward, is how collaborative and responsive their team is about feedback and input surrounding the products. “What I think is so great about it is that Charles [Mann] and his team are so open to having conversations about what more can it do,” he says. “They’ve come to us for input on ideas, or we’ve come up with a tweak on a new idea and they have completely embraced it very collaboratively. And for that, they’ve been a great partner. I think they will continue to evolve the technology in different ways to help alleviate labor burdens and address the challenges we all have in senior living operations.”