To make new residents feel at home as quickly as possible, Watermark Retirement Communities partnered with LifeLoop, LeadingAge Bronze Partner with CAST Focus, to explore residents’ interests at move-in and introduce them to compatible neighbors and programming. A new LeadingAge CAST case study, “Watermark Retirement Communities & LifeLoop,” details how Watermark deployed LifeLoop’s artificial intelligence (AI) Resident Onboarding across all 22 wellness-based communities. Outcomes include increased resident engagement and staff time savings.

Tying Resident Interests to Engagement

Watermark, which offers independent living, assisted living, and memory care communities, began interviewing residents at move-in and integrating their interests and life experiences into resident profiles and biographies via LifeLoop, which offers a proactive engagement and wellness platform.

The technology enables team members to easily search residents’ experiences, interests, abilities, and preferences. To create programming, activity leaders then tap LifeLoop’s iN2L content, which includes games, music, fitness, travel, spiritual, educational, and reminiscence resources.

The ability to quickly offer personalized programs is another plus. Team members can access ready-to-use content or a tailored activity: virtually visiting a place a resident mentions, streaming a familiar song, or offering an on-demand workout after a missed class.

In addition to guiding decisions about which programs may be best for newcomers to explore, this information assists activity leaders in determining which programming is of most interest to the larger community.

Watermark has found the technology to be a valuable aid to its wellness philosophy. Its 360Well model is a holistic approach that offers programming and personal training to support four “circles” of wellness—mind, body, spirit, and community. The LifeLoop integration helps teams more easily surface information about each resident, then turn those learnings into daily experiences and relationships. The resident insights also inform programming for Watermark University, which offers arts and culture classes, and Extraordinary Outings, which presents adventurous, meaningful experiences.

Outcomes

Watermark teams noted that the AI-supported interviews enable them to create biographies consistently, not just when time allows. The content tools save staff time in sourcing materials and communicating events, which prevents creative burnout by staff members and provides more time to spend with residents. The implementation has increased personalized experiences for residents and fostered connections that reduce social isolation and loneliness. In addition, families stay more connected to their loved ones’ daily lives through direct communication, photos, and program sign-ups.

Maureen Garvey, National Director of Resident Experience, sees the potential for even more resident engagement in the future. “LifeLoop’s Resident Onboarding allows us to dive into learning more about residents from day one, which demonstrates our commitment to resident knowledge and personalization,” she said. “I think we are in the early stages of seeing residents experience purposeful living as a direct result of the LifeLoop platform. In the coming months, I anticipate more residents utilizing LifeLoop to step forward as leaders because they can easily coordinate communication with various resident groups.”

Learnings

The partners advise starting a LifeLoop implementation by thinking through the desired outcomes and immediate goals, such as more resident participation, insights into residents who are less active and staff time savings. Setting a baseline and target at the beginning enables providers to track progress over time.

Likewise, each Watermark community adapted LifeLoop’s various capabilities to meet its own priorities. Implementation across communities set core workflows and data to use consistently, as well as the flexibility to set other priorities specific to each community.

The partners also note the importance of using the platform’s full capabilities to capture residents’ preferences and use those insights to guide engagement decisions. Collecting interviews and attendance data creates value only when teams use that information to make introductions, personalize programs, notice changes in engagement, and follow up with residents who may be losing connection, they said.

As with any new implementation, offering robust training is key, as is clarifying the ownership and purpose behind each workflow. For more details, read the full case study.