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Feb 21, 2012

(Sioux Falls, S.D.) – Good Samaritan Society President and CEO David Horazdovsky says innovation is the answer to many of the nation’s healthcare issues. That’s the message he shared with U.S. Senator John Thune during a recent visit Thune made to the Society’s corporate headquarters in Sioux Falls, S.D.

“I’m more and more convinced … that we can’t spend our way out of the problem we’re in with our healthcare,” Horazdovsky told Thune. “We can’t totally cut our costs … so I think the answer is how are we going to innovate our way into a new solution?”

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Horazdovsky and other staff members from the Good Samaritan Society showed Thune, a Republican from South Dakota, one of the Society’s newest and most innovative projects. Called LivingWell@Home, the project is designed to help seniors live longer in their own homes through the use of technology.

LivingWell@Home has three components: non-invasive sensor technology that detects changes in daily living patterns, telehealth systems that monitor vital statistics, and personal emergency response systems. All three were demonstrated for Thune in a living lab at Good Samaritan Society – Prairie Creek, one of the Society’s senior living campuses.

The Good Samaritan Society is researching the effectiveness of the LivingWell@Home technology in helping seniors maintain their wellness and continue to live in their homes for as long as possible. The Society also wants to demonstrate how technology can be more cost effective when compared to traditional forms of care for seniors, and it hopes to persuade government leaders to provide reimbursement for the technology so it’s more affordable for consumers.

In comments after the tour, Thune said it was useful to see how technology might play a role in senior care.

“It was encouraging for me to be able to see today some of the technologies that are being used to allow people to live for longer periods of time in their own homes, where they’re comfortable,” said Thune. “And just to see how that technology can actually, in the end, make us more efficient in how we deliver that sort of care to people in this country. The things that I saw today, the home monitoring technology, the devices that are being used to transmit data to monitor and keep track of people in home settings, I think really is the future of how we deal with long-term care for our elderly in this country. And the fact that it’s being pioneered here at Good Samaritan speaks volumes about the work that’s being done.”

Click here to sign up to participate in LivingWell@Home or to learn more about the program.

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