SmartCare sees big future for sensors in elderly care facilities

St. Charles-based SmartCare Consultants seeks to improve the way we care for the elderly, by offering new sensor technology that provides round-the-clock monitoring.
The company expects to bring in $30 million in revenue over the next five years after securing its sensor technology in various senior care facilities across the country.
Scott Mosher, vice president of business development, recently discussed the company’s launch, technology and plan for growth. Here’s an edited portion of the interview.

What service does SmartCare Consultants provide?

I’m sure people have heard of a smart home. Imagine a long-term setting that saves seniors’ lives — that’s what we do. We help senior caregivers provide a safe environment where their loved ones can stay in place with dignity and independence.
The technical answer is: We provide true 24-hour transparent care through a comprehensive cloud-based solution that monitors seniors’ daily activity and reports anomalies. We help caregivers proactively respond to problems, making sure seniors haven’t fallen and that they are drinking, eating, bathing and remaining active — the typical activities of daily living.

How did you come up with the technology?

About eight years ago, (company founder Bryan Jefferson) started a home automation business out of his garage. (Later,) his father was in a car wreck and put in a wheelchair. His dad lives in California and (Bryan) lives here.
Bryan put some basic sensors throughout his dad’s house so he could tell when he got out of bed and was eating and showering, and Bryan got alerts when his dad wasn’t getting out of bed or didn’t eat or didn’t shower.

Can you describe how the technology works?

There are pressure sensors in the couch, and pressure sensors in the bed, pressure sensors in the bathroom so you know if they’re stuck on the toilet, and sensors on the bathmat. There are motion sensors throughout the house so you know when they’ve left; sensors in the fridge and on the stove. All those sensors are all talking to each other and all of that info is being fed to our software, and it’s learning the person’s behavior and when something happens that is different, or out of the ordinary, that’s when someone gets a notice immediately.

When did SmartCare Consultants launch?

We officially set up the company in October 2012. We started working on it full time in January of this year. Today, our first communities that are adopting this technology are now under construction. We have 142 rooms sold today and they are being built right now near Kansas City. There are 1,700 rooms across the country in our pipeline. So that equates to about $30 million in revenue over five years.

How does the payment model work?

It’s a managed service so we are working with the community to raise their prices by about 5 percent on average. We’re adding about $7 to $10 a day, per person, per room.
We’re also being pushed into the home space, your hospice agencies and caregivers, for under $10 per day, so about $275 per month, but it saves you on average $4,000 from going into a retirement community.