On The Road: Priority Healthcare Group Administrator Appreciation Event

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

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

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."

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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.

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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

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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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.

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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

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! 

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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

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?

  • RESTORE offers fun and competitive skill building activities therapists can adapt to every patient.

  • Each RESTORE game highlights which skills that game addresses.

2. What is the patient experience like?

  • RESTORE games feature many activities for residents to enjoy, while working on skills, which will get them back to their highest level of function.

  • 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.

  • Facilities love to share those smiling faces on social media. *Social media is a beautiful thing*

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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:

  • Facilities set up patients with RESTORE upon their discharge. Patients can continue playing at home, for free, up to 45 days post discharge.

  • Each resident's data is available to all RESTORE users in a facility and can be saved & printed. 

  • 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.

  • 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.

 

 

Empowering Everyday Living #HappyOTMonth

Hello RESTORE Blog Readers,

It’s JaKaylah, one of the Clinical Success Directors at RESTORE, who just so happens to be a COTA!

Did you know that you are able to utilize RESTORE to reach your Life Skills goals?

All of our Life Skills games have qualities that we know, as clinicians, are important to us: safety awareness, cognitive skills, and sequencing. Under the Play & Practice section of the RESTORE platform, you are able to choose games that target specific IADL’s and are beneficial to your patients overall progress.

  • While playing RESTORE's Safely Home game, you are able to help both the resident and their family members recognize the safety hazards they may encounter inside or outside their home. As an OT Practitioner, one benefit of this game is, you can complete a Home Assessment which might have been challenging, in other circumstances.

  • Grocery Grab is played by using the grocery item list to begin your shopping experience in our market. The benefit of this game is the ability to simulate a shopping experience for your patients. They have to follow a specific list, add items to their cart, utilize money management skills by paying at the register, and even bag their groceries! 

  • Our Pill Skill game highlights medication management. We all know this can be a benefit in itself when patients are discharged to home.

 

Thanks so much for learning more about "Gamifying Life Skills." If you have any questions, please leave a comment or send me an email. Jakaylah@restoreskills.com. I love chatting with fellow practitioners!

Stay tuned! Our next Blog post will be out in 2 weeks. We will be addressing RESTORE as it relates to Admissions and Marketing.

 

 

Q&A: Meet RESTORE Director of Business Development, Mark Petty

Hey Mark. We are excited to introduce the newest member of the team to our users. Let's do it!

Q: What do you do at RESTORE-Skills and in what circumstances would I come to you for something?

A: I bring solutions to therapists and operators designed to maximize the patient experience and generate meaningful outcomes.

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Q: What energizes you at work? 

A. Meaningful interactions with customers, prospects and team members.  I try to learn something new each day.

Q: Who has influenced you most when it comes to how you approach your work?

A. Many have, but if I had to select one, it would be Deb Bielek from Ensign Services.  Her energy and passion was infectious from the first time I met her.

Q: What is your favorite thing to do when not at work? 

A. Play poker.

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Q. What’s one thing most people don’t know about you?

A. That I am a true introvert but often don’t come off that way!

Q: What’s something you recently saw that made you smile?

A. My kids every day - well most days….

Q: If you could snap your fingers and become an expert in something, what would it be?

A. Investing!

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Well Mark, we sure are glad RESTORE invested in you. Thanks for helping us get to know you better. Have a question for Mark? Drop us a comment and we will get you an answer.

Q&A: Meet RESTORE Clinical Success Director, JaKaylah Joyner

Hello JaKaylah. We are so happy to have you on the RESTORE team. Let's introduce you to our users, so they can be happy too.

Q: What do you do at RESTORE-Skills and in what circumstances would I come to you for something?

A: I am a Clinical Success Director at RESTORE and my priority is to collaborate with healthcare professionals to: introduce a fun, skilled platform, provide clinical suggestions and creative ideas to inspire users as they navigate RESTORE. As a treating therapist by practice I have an immense passion for patient care and providing them with not only fun but also purposeful ways to overcome barriers and foster independence in their everyday lives.

Q: What led you to this career path?

A. I am a COTA/L by practice and I wanted to use my clinical knowledge and experience to provide a platform for treating clinicians that would help foster higher skilled outcomes for their patients. 

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Q: Who has influenced you most when it comes to how you approach your work?

A. My parents. They both work in the helping profession with a genuine desire to help people. We did not come from a wealthy family so they worked hard to get everything we have. They instilled in me core values when it comes to work ethic and how you should treat everyone with kindness and respect, no matter their title.

Q: What is your favorite thing to do when not at work? 

A. I love watching cooking shows and trying new recipes.

Q. What’s the best advice you were ever given? Who was it from?

A. My mother always told me that the ability to be educated is a privilege and for me to make sure that I take every opportunity to learn because people can take a lot from you in this world, but they can never take your knowledge.

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Q: If you could choose a superpower, what would it be?

A. I think my superpower would be time traveling.

Q: If you could only eat one food item for the rest of your life, what would it be?

A. Potatoes! I love potatoes in any kind of way (fries, scalloped, baked, tater tots, chips). I love it all.

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And we love you! Thanks so much for sharing with us JaKaylah. Have a question for JaKaylah? Drop a comment below and we will get your question answered.