How it came to be that CareStory brings care efficiency into long-term care.

From VR to LTC

In 2016, when the craze over virtual reality was peaking, and that of augmented reality was starting to ramp up, we had no idea of where we would be today. Definitely not offering an efficient solution to long-term care across the continent. When we first reached out to healthcare, it was for staff training and patient rehabilitation. We saw the potential of this new technology and wanted to share it. And like any miracle technology, the magic enthralls, brings joy, delights. But if you look around, there are very few magicians in the world. Why is that? Why isn’t everyone a tech wizard? What’s wrong with people? We were fortunate with our misfortune in having loved ones in long term care. This opened doors. Our hubris had us preaching of the magical technology and its infinite potential. The people we spoke with loved the magic, loved the technology, and had grand plans for it; we like to believe they still do. Having someone who cared for us and willing to try Virtual Reality and give us feedback, what worked and what did not quickly had us close our mouths and open our ears. As dreamers, as we all were, reality had to hit eventually, and it came slowly.

The State of Long Term Care

Reality brought its numbers down on us: staff turnover rate; average ages of people working in long term care; budget or lack thereof; staff to resident ratios. And each chipped away at our dreams, at our faith in the technology. But this frustration often reignited our desire to bring this into healthcare, to the bedside, to the caregivers’ hand. And by 2018, speaking with our champions of this technology in healthcare, we realized where we needed to focus on, who we needed to focus on, and with 1 month of work, we had a working prototype, and everyone loved it.

What does magic look like in Long Term Care

Technology tends to complicate things, to add layers. Magic is the opposite; it hides all the complexity and makes things look easy, trivial – a flick of the wand, snap of the fingers. We have glimpsed magical worlds in 2016; expensive, out of scope, out of budget, hard to travel to, magical worlds. They still have their place, but what is needed is a snap of the fingers or a wave of the wand; that is what real magic looks like in long term care: fast, easy, and uncompromising when it comes to the quality of care; that is how CareStory brings care efficiency into long term care. We believe that since 2019 we can bring this magic to where it’s needed. And we’re getting better at it. we are committed to making more things happen when administrators wave a wand or caregivers snap their fingers. Yet, we do not mean to trivialize CareStory by comparing it to a magic show. As any professional magician will tell you: a single trick, a single act, requires months, if not years, of practice and experimentation. All that to bring it to life, and only for that single moment of joy when you see it being performed. Our magic links each moment and offers continuity of care across shifts, lanes, across new and veteran staff. And we have no intention of slowing down in our journey to improve our loved ones’ quality of care. After all, soon we may take their place.