2023 Fire Awards Blazer winner: Care.ai transforms hospitals and nursing homes into smart care facilities

Orlando-based Care.ai is an Orlando Inno 2023 Fire Awards honoree. The firm ranked No. 1 in the Fresh Faces category, companies in business less than five years.

Care.ai’s platform is a single solution that transforms traditional hospitals and nursing homes into smart care facilities. Facilitated by Care.ai, a traditional hospital becomes a digitally connected environment that is sensitive and responsive to the presence of people. Care.ai operates in more than 1,500-plus facilities across the U.S., including Kaiser Permanente and Tampa General Hospital, and signed recent partnerships with Ardent Health Services and the UAE’s Emirates Health Services.

Read more about the Fire Awards in Orlando Business Journal's June 9-15, 2023, weekly edition.

Here’s more from Care.ai's Kenny Kaht:

What led to your firm’s rapid growth?

Care.ai has taken a novel approach by introducing the transformative power of ambient intelligent awareness to health care. The platform’s defining factor is that it is the only unified platform enabling smart care facilities by addressing the most compelling needs in health care, improving quality, safety and regulatory compliance within the limitations of current labor issues and fiscal constraints. The simplicity and power to transform traditional hospitals into smart care facilities through one connected platform provides a unique opportunity for care organizations to address existential challenges of workforce shortages, increasing costs and declining reimbursements with urgency and confidence backed by truly transformative technology.

How did you accomplish it?

A neural network of sensors deployed throughout the care facility continuously monitors conditions, learning from behaviors. Collecting behavioral data over time, the care facility becomes smarter and more self-aware, automating many burdensome tasks. Real-time clinical and operational insights into behaviors and conditions allow for process improvements and optimized care. The key to this technology truly becoming commonplace is for it to elevate and maintain the care of trained professionals. Health care will always require a human touch. As we continue to expand into new facilities in the United States and across the globe, our task is to keep finding new ways to alleviate burdens for care providers and grant them new means of focusing on what matters most: patient care.

A little-known fact about your company:

In 2018, CEO Chakri Toleti received a life-changing phone call that his mother had fallen in a hospital halfway across the world in India, and was lying on the floor for half an hour before her caregiver found her. He realized then that even the best medical professionals cannot be aware of everything happening in the care setting, and delays in responding to patient issues can have serious consequences. Following his mother’s accident, he asked, “Why don’t hospitals use ambient sensors to monitor patient safety? Ambient sensors have transformed nearly every other industry, including automotive, manufacturing, even entertainment.” This moment of inspiration and Toleti’s experience led to the creation of Care.ai. And while the platform enables smart care teams in new, more powerful ways, its original purpose already is being fulfilled. In an early post-acute deployment, falls went from 22 per month to zero.

Top 2023 goal:

Continue to explore partnership opportunities with health systems across the U.S. and abroad. Facilities can incorporate Care.ai’s entire smart care facility platform or specific elements based on their needs, such as the Care.ai’s Smart Virtual Nursing Solution with ambient intelligence support.

How does your company stay on the cutting edge?

Using AI-enabled sensors and ambient intelligent monitoring, the platform detects patient risk factors and monitors vitals, then uses data algorithms to provide insights into improving clinical care efficiency. The neural network of sensors deployed throughout the care facility continuously monitors and learns from conditions.

Care.ai

Sign up here for The Beat, Orlando Inno’s free newsletter. And be sure to follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.