The Future Leaders Awards program is brought to you in partnership with PointClickCare. The program is designed to recognize up-and-coming industry members who are shaping the next decade of senior housing, skilled nursing, home health and hospice care.
Austin Steele, chief strategy officer at Journey, has been named a 2024 Future Leader by Skilled Nursing News.
To become a Future Leader, an individual is nominated by their peers. The candidate must be a high-performing employee who is 40-years-old or younger, a passionate worker who knows how to put vision into action, and an advocate for seniors, and the committed professionals who ensure their well-being.
Steele sat down with Skilled Nursing News to discuss embracing change – especially through technological advancements – in order to improve patient outcomes and provide even better personalized care.
To learn more about the Future Leaders program, visit https://futureleaders.agingmedia.com/.
SNN: What drew you to the industry?
Steele: What drew me to the industry was the opportunity to make an impact on people’s lives by creating well-being for a vulnerable population.
SNN: What’s your biggest lesson learned since starting to work in this industry?
Steele: Health care and senior living is always evolving, and that’s probably my biggest lesson learned. What you know today is going to change tomorrow just because our industry is changing all the time.
SNN: If you could change one thing with an eye toward the future of skilled nursing, what would it be?
Steele: Providing more technologically advanced patient care outcomes. We’re starting to see some shifts in this area, but I believe more work is needed to create efficiencies and improve patient care outcomes through technology.
And while we’re seeing advancements, I’m not sure that the adoption rate for technology in skilled nursing is keeping pace with other sectors. I’m also not confident that all of us operators are embracing these innovations. We tend to view skilled nursing as a ‘people space,’ and while technology will never replace human interaction at the bedside, it can be deployed to enhance that interaction.
Other sectors – whether banking, finance, sales, or others – are adopting technology to improve their operations more rapidly than we are.
Frankly, we are faced with razor thin margins, and so this means additional costs. And then, we have to interweave it into the day-to-day operational strategies within the buildings. We also need to weigh the implementation of these new ideas against our staffing capacity because it’s not like we have a whole lot of people on the sidelines or employees who aren’t jam packed with their schedules and can take on [new-technology-based initiatives].
SNN: What do you foresee as being different about the skilled nursing industry looking ahead to 2025?
Steele: What is probably going to be different is a greater emphasis on personalized care. I think we’re starting to see this trend more, and it continues to grow. What’s also being asked of us as operators – by our residents – is evolving, as is what’s being asked of us by CMS regarding the capabilities we have in our nursing homes.
SNN: In a word, how would you describe the future of skilled nursing?
Steele: Innovative. Technology is evolving and the future will have skilled nursing operators adopting more technology.
SNN: What quality must all Future Leaders possess?
Steele: I think they need to have vision. We talked about change, and embracing change to improve what we do.
SNN: If you could give advice to yourself looking back to your first day in the industry, what would it be and why?
Steele: Be curious. If you want to grow and make yourself and your organization better, you have to be curious.
