Another group of vendors, such as Relay Health and Medem, offer secure Web messaging and e-visit services so that doctors visit with patients from afar. A resident can ask about a health condition, “describe symptoms and medication history, and see medical assistance,” says Wang. That should greatly reduce the cost—both in dollars and time—associated with office visits, not to mention the hassle factor for an elderly patient.
In a similar way, a property’s on-site fitness center has the potential to be transformed into a cardio theater, where workouts are monitored and tracked thanks to equipment sensors, which then transmit the data to facility staff or offsite medical personnel.
Sound too elaborate? Think again. Multifamily fitness centers can be as sophisticated as those found at many independent fitness or rehabilitation centers, according to Richard Holtz, president of Infinisys, an Ormond Beach, Fla.-based firm that designs technology for multifamily communities. “The sky’s the limit,” he says.
At the Bellmare luxury high-rise condo building in Williams Island, Fla., residents already can track their work-outs in the onsite health club, monitoring heart rate, calories burned, and the like. Can vital signs monitoring as part of a cardiac rehab program be far behind?
HEALTH CONCERNS But there are some challenges to implementing such high-tech offerings. Most don’t have anything to do with the technology itself, which has matured and stabilized. Instead, the big questions revolve around cost, revenue, staffing, training, and liability.
Who pays for wellness and medical offerings on-site? Such programs obviously require hardware and software, costing $1 to $2 per square foot of a dwelling. There also are ongoing costs of monitoring and staffing high-tech facilities. “Putting the technology in doesn’t cost as much as staffing and maintaining it,” says Holtz.
There’s also the question of liability. If an apartment property offers medical and wellness services, what happens if someone is seriously injured—or even dies—if the proper medical care is not given? With some technologies, such as home-based blood pressure, heart performance, and glucose level monitoring, the liability worries are relatively unfounded. Health Buddy and other technologies transmit data to a medical or healthcare service or facility where medical professionals—not multifamily staffers—make the determination about the type of treatment a patient needs.
Plus, the liability of not providing services to a community in need might be a greater liability. In fact, it is usually a medical incident that prompts a management company or developer to add such high-tech health services. “What makes an owner put it in is an incident on a property or in a town,” Holtz says.
HEALTH PLANS Regardless of the motivation, technology geared toward fitness, wellness, and healthcare is popping up in the multifamily world. While the market for such high-tech services may not come to fruition until 2009, according to Heile of the ZigBee Alliance, many multifamily owners, developers, and managers are taking notice.