Author Archive: Bonnie Tilley
On The Road: RESTORE’s Dev Team Tackles the U.S.
Posted on by Bonnie Tilley
Hey RESTORE Tribe,
As a remote company many of our calls take place via the computer. This week was a very exciting week for us because members of our Development Team were able to travel to the U.S. Many of our development team members are based out of Israel, so this was a rare treat.
The team hit the streets and were thrilled to see our users in person. Our team members were able to have face-to-face conversations and receive valuable feedback. They also enjoyed getting to know the residents they met, as they played RESTORE games together.
Lior Barak and Ido Moskovitch, from our Dev Team, are visiting Cottingham Retirement Community with Julie Gala, our Sr. Director of Clinical Success. We want to say, "Well done!" to both our users and our team. #RESTOREtribe ♥️
Monarch Healthcare Management: Improving COVID Long-Haul Resident Outcomes
Posted on by Bonnie Tilley
Hey RESTORE Tribe,
Who hasn't been impacted by COVID in some form or fashion? The amazing team at Monarch Healthcare Management got together with our RESTORE clinicians to do a Case Study related to improving COVID long-haul outcomes. Click the link below to read how these two teams worked together to alter the trajectory of resident Richard's life. We are grateful to work with people who are changing the lives of their residents on a daily basis.
Monarch_Imprvoing COVID Long Haul
If you are a RESTORE user and are interested in participating in a Case Study with us or have questions about this case study, please Email Us.
If you are not yet a RESTORE user and would like more information, we would love to connect. Click here to schedule your live RESTORE Demo.
Thank you!
On The Road: Priority Healthcare Group Administrator Appreciation Event
Posted on by Bonnie Tilley
Hey RESTORE Tribe,
Once again our team has been out on the road. RESTORE team members Johanna Salmon, Vice President of Partnership Development and Amanda Capone, Sr. Director of Education snatched a golf cart to get to their latest destination.
Thank you Priority Healthcare for giving us the opportunity to be an Administrator Appreciation Event 2022 sponsor!
Johanna and Amanda had a great time playing the real version of some of our RESTORE games. #GolfMasters ⛳ #HoopStars 🏀 What a great time! And a great opportunity to connect with our #RESTOREtribe. Thank you again Priority Healthcare Group!
Evolve Therapy: Optimizing Reimbursment
Posted on by Bonnie Tilley
Hey RESTORE Tribe,
We recently did a case study with the teams at Evolve Therapy and Emerald Healthcare. Evolve Therapy clinicians demonstrated greater patient participation during therapy sessions when benefiting from RESTORE-Skills. RESTORE increases engagement and activity tolerance, improves outcomes, and increases overall reimbursement potential. Click the link below to read more about the results of this case study.
Evolve_UPV Case Study
If you are a RESTORE user and are interested in participating in a Case Study with us or have questions about this case study, please Email Us.
If you are not yet a RESTORE user and would like more information, we would love to connect. Click here to schedule your live RESTORE Demo.
Thank you!
Empower Interactions With The New RESTORE Communication Board
Posted on by Bonnie Tilley
Hey RESTORE Tribe,
We are placing the spotlight on communication for National Aphasia Awareness Month and we enlisted the help of our Sr. Directors of Clinical Success, Julie Gala and Lana Dorffer, who are both Speech Language Pathologists.
RESTORE: "Lana, tell us a little bit about what the RESTORE Communication Board means to our players and users."
Lana: "We take for granted the many nuances of language and how they impact our relationships. Our new Communication Board gives our players and users the ability to communicate with each other and build relationships."
RESTORE: "Julie, besides Aphasia, what other populations might be helped by using our Communication Board to provide quality of care?"
Julie: "There are many populations who would benefit from a Communication Board. We would take up a lot of space listing all of them, so let me share a few."
- Adults with Developmental Disabilities
- Motor Speech Deficits
- Cognitive communicative deficits
- Mechanically ventilated/tracheostomy patients
- Language Barriers/Multilingual
RESTORE: "When you say Language Barriers/Multilingual Julie, exactly how many languages will be on the Communication Board, as it launches?"
Julie: "As we launch, there are 40 languages on the Communication Board. Our users have the ability to choose their language and change their language, as needed.
RESTORE: "Lana, would you share with our readers some benefits of using a Communication Board?"
Lana: "Absolutely! Similar to Julie, if we listed all the benefits, this would be one big Blog. Let me share just a few."
- Express Needs/Preferences
- Increase Autonomy
- Facility Wide Engagement
- Positive Social Interactions
- Say 'YES' to RESTORE!
Lana: "The C-Board not only gives therapists, activities, and staff a crucial tool, but it also gives them an avenue to really get to know their residents/members. Individuals also have an opportunity to tell their family/friends they love them, when they otherwise wouldn’t have a voice."
Julie: "Deanna Prince, who is a Director of Rehab, took our C-Board for a test run and said 'I LOVE the communication board. It's so hard, in my rural SNF, to get access to technology when needed. Sometimes it takes a while and our patients may only be here for a short time. This gives me immediate access to trial a voice output device!'"
RESTORE: "Okay ladies, time to wrap this up. Give us one last comment about the RESTORE Communication Board."
Lana: "The smiles on the faces of your residents/members are going to be so BIG, when they realize, for the first time, there is a tool to help them communicate with others. What we wouldn’t do to see those smiles first hand!"
Julie: "Please leave a comment and let us know if you have any questions or feedback about the C-Board. We are here to help!"
Q&A: Meet RESTORE Clinical Success Director, Amanda Gambrell
Posted on by Bonnie Tilley
The Great Gambino has entered the building! Hey Amanda. Welcome to your RESTORE Q&A. Let's go!
Q: What do you do at RESTORE-Skills and in what circumstances would our users come to you for something?
A: I am a Clinical Success Director. You would come to me if you needed help with user training, onboarding, forms to be signed or returned for business relationship, setting up tournaments, maintaining champions, and so much more...
Q: What led you to this career path?
A. My own injuries and therapy experience helped lead me to this career path. I am a PTA and want to be an advocate for people in as many ways as possible.
Q: Who has influenced you most when it comes to how you approach your work?
A. My husband. He is disciplined, focused, open, and honest.
Q. What three words would your friends use to describe you?
A. Assertive, consistent, loyal.
Q: What is one thing most people don’t know about you?
A. I have 9 tattoos.
Q: What’s something you recently saw that made you smile?
A. My daughter, comforting a friend of hers. Made my heart smile.
Q: If you could only eat one food item for the rest of your life, what would it be?
A. Pickle salsa.
Pickle Salsa?! That sounds interesting, just like you! Have a question for Amanda? Drop a comment below and we will get that question answered. Welcome to the team Amanda!
The RESTORE Platform and SLP/STs
Posted on by Bonnie Tilley
Hey RESTORE Tribe,
We are still in the midst of Better Hearing and Speech Month #BHSM, so we are putting something out there for our SLPs/STs.
FAQ: "Is the RESTORE platform geared toward SLPs/STs and what are some ways they can use it?" As a fellow SLP, I would like to shout from the rooftops, "YES it geared toward SLPs/STs!" Now for the second part of the question, let’s look at a few tips on how SLPs can integrate RESTORE.
Play and Practice: Functional skills for cognition and life skills.
- Need to work on memory? Try Order Up! Or Love Connection.
- Does your resident need to complete medication management to determine a safe discharge to home? Check out Pill Skil
- Are you concerned with your patient’s overall safety awareness and ability to determine solutions to problems in their environment? Set them up with Safely Home.
Mouse Mode: Putting language at the forefront.
- Tap into mouse mode where the resident can verbalize the response and the SLP can use the mouse to select targeted answer.
- Grade the activity in Grocery Grab. SLPs can add/remove object pictures on grocery lists for word to picture matching OR picture to picture matching.
- SLPs can modify game settings to increase or decrease task complexity for categorization, organization, and visual scanning.
Just Play: Setting the right goal.
- Modify any game for a patient’s just right fit, SLPs can identify unique sessions for goal-setting.
- Abby Williams, DOR/SLP at Arbors of Delaware, shared a creative use of our RESTORE game Jackpot, for a patient with memory impairments. The patient loves Jackpot (I mean, who doesn’t?😊) so Abby would initiate a JACKPOT game and have the patient pull the lever to see what three items appeared on the screen. Once the slot stopped spinning, the patient had to immediately recall the items and save them into working memory for the next task. This helped the resident work on delayed recall.
Our RESTORE community loves our SLPs/STs! We’re proud to connect with all of you. If you have a question leave a comment or email me julie@restoreskills.com and we will get those questions answered!
Julie
Connecting People: One Facet of an SLP/ST
Posted on by Bonnie Tilley
Hey RESTORE Tribe,
My name is Julie and not only am I one of the Sr. Directors of Clinical Success at RESTORE, I am also a Speech-Language Pathologist or SLP.
“I don’t need speech therapy; my speech is fine.”
How often do we, as Speech-Language Pathologists, hear this in our practice? More often than we would like to count! SLPs also go by the term Speech Therapist or ST, which can imply a person who supports a patient’s speech. So how do we help others understand everything under the SLP/ST umbrella. We talk about it.
Yes, SLPs/STs help patients improve their speech, but we also support language, swallowing disorders, cognition, augmentative and alternative communication, accent modification, aural rehab, orofacial myofunctional disorders, fluency, hearing loss, resonance and voice disorders. Whew, that’s a lot!
This year’s theme for Better Hearing and Speech Month wraps all those disorders and dysfunctions into a central theme that perfectly describes what we do: “Connecting People.” We are the discipline who helps patients relearn to communicate with loved ones, improve their swallow safety to enjoy their favorite foods. and enhance cognitive skills to remain aging in place for as long and safely as possible.
At RESTORE-Skills, we’re grateful to support SLPs in their practice to bring innovative interventions to their residents. We have games like Pill Skill and Money Mania which target community reintegration, Grocery Grab which focuses on cognitive linguistic skills and many other games for residents of varying abilities. Your RESTORE login is designed for your discipline and each game clearly lists which skills will be the focus of that game. So... let the games begin!
If you would like to learn more about the American Speech Language Hearing Association’s Better Hearing and Speech Month (BHSM), and how you can support SLPs/STs, follow this link for more information https://www.asha.org/bhsm/.
Our RESTORE community loves our SLPs/STs! We’re proud to connect with all of you. If you have a question leave a comment or email me julie@restoreskills.com and we will get those questions answered!
Julie
Admissions and Marketing with RESTORE
Posted on by Bonnie Tilley
What's up RESTORE Blog Readers?
My name is Jim Marlowe and I'm one of the Clinical Success Directors at RESTORE. I can also proudly say, I'm a COTA/L.
I worked in Admissions & Marketing at two different Skilled Nursing Facilities, prior to joining the RESTORE team. The admission front is extremely competitive, because every building is looking for something to differentiate themselves. When choosing a rehab facility, two things top the list and RESTORE can help with both.
1. How strong is their therapy team?
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RESTORE offers fun and competitive skill building activities therapists can adapt to every patient.
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Each RESTORE game highlights which skills that game addresses.
2. What is the patient experience like?
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RESTORE games feature many activities for residents to enjoy, while working on skills, which will get them back to their highest level of function.
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Our Jackpot t-shirt program is a fan favorite with residents. Hit 3 Wilds in our Jackpot game and win a free t-shirt, sent directly to your facility.
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Facilities love to share those smiling faces on social media. *Social media is a beautiful thing*
Answering those two questions is important, but facilities must also differentiate themselves to hospitals and physicians. RESTORE Home Player and Data Tracking can help.
Home Player and Data Tracking:
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Facilities set up patients with RESTORE upon their discharge. Patients can continue playing at home, for free, up to 45 days post discharge.
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Each resident's data is available to all RESTORE users in a facility and can be saved & printed.
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Therapists track their patient's participation and progress. If they notice a decline in the patient's function or participation, they follow up to determine the cause.
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Therapists ensure home health is alerted to any changes or possibly bring the patient back to the facility for care, without a trip to the emergency room. Cutting down on rehospitalizations? That is music to everyone's ears!
Use these admission and marketing tools to place your facility in the spotlight! Questions or ideas? Leave a comment or send me an email. Jim@restoreskills.com.
Stay tuned for our next Blog post, which focuses on RESTORE and Speech Language Pathology.