Tech Talks for Senior Care
with Guest Katelyn Burns

Dan Roberge
All right. Caitlin, thank you for coming to talk to me. Who are you and what do you do? 

Katelyn Burns
I'm Katelyn, the acting administrator of Shalom Village in Hamilton

Dan Roberge
So what does an acting administrator do?

Katelyn Burns
Right now, I'm the administrator for the home. The acting is, I've just been covering for somebody that's on a leave right now. So still kind of organizing, running the majority of the home, kind of the overseeing of the big portions of it, and then having all of the department leads report to myself.

Dan Roberge
Oh, wow. So, did they leave it a mess for you? Is that what you're doing? You're coming in to clean up?

Katelyn Burns
Oh, No. 

Dan Roberge
What makes you qualified to do this? Like, what did you do before that?

Katelyn Burns
I actually have my diploma in recreation and leisure services, and then I was a rec manager, a business manager, an educator, and finished off with an administrator course. That was like a one year course.

Dan Roberge
Okay. And so this is what you aspired to do. And this is what you've been striving for. You're getting a chance to fill in now and do it while somebody is away. And so what do you find challenging that you didn't expect maybe from that role?

Katelyn Burns
I think I expected a lot of challenges, but the biggest is all the implementation of different software, like maintenance care, for example, point click care, all of these different software we need to integrate within the home.

Dan Roberge
okay.

Katelyn Burns
It can be a lot more challenging than I thought it was going to be.

Dan Roberge
And so that goes back to you're the one that has to make sure that it drives forward in every department. How many people report to you now?

Katelyn Burns
I have, I believe ten leaders that report to me.

Dan Roberge
Wow. Very good, very good.

Katelyn Burns
I think there's like, 260 staff in the entire building.

Dan Roberge
Oh, wow. Okay. So how big is the home in total?

Katelyn Burns
127 long term care beds. But then there's assisted living attached to it as well, which I believe has 81 rooms, if I'm not mistaken.

Dan Roberge
That's amazing. So, Maintenance Care, you said you use it at your home. So how do you use it? Like, what's been your exposure to it? You just submit work orders, you get reports, what do you get?

Katelyn Burns
My exposure to it is submitting the work orders, with the help of Dino, who I am getting the training on the getting the reports and getting all of that through. But I know the maintenance team uses it a lot more. And the environmental supervisor and manager.

Dan Roberge
Okay. Oh, wow.

Katelyn Burns
The reports, kind of do their follow up, look at the pending tasks, the closed, the opened, all of those.

Dan Roberge
Okay, now just regarding not just maintenance, but just compliance in general. You know, you get the ministry that comes in and asks for reports on things that you're supposed to do. Do you find that stressful? All of that information you've got to track? 

Katelyn Burns
Yes. Especially because you have to do compliance for every department. It's not just environmental or just nursing. You have to make sure that the compliance for each department is there. And then how they also loop together, sometimes environmental and nursing integrate with each each aspect, because maintenance has to audit a bed, for example, for the nursing.

Dan Roberge
Okay. So how do you keep track of everything? Maintenance Care can help you do that. But how do you keep track of all the other compliance? 

Katelyn Burns
A lot of audits. 

Dan Roberge
Really? Oh, wow. Well, good luck in your active role right now, and hopefully you get to keep doing it for many years to come. So, thank you for talking to me.