Robin Underhill, CEO, Cantex Continuing Care Network, said her organization’s recruitment and hiring process had gotten “sloppy” by the end of last year, and so she took it upon herself to make hiring a function of her CEO role.

Speaking at the LTC 100 conference in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Monday, Underhill said while there are certainly other pressing issues, like winning more Medicaid reimbursement from her home state of Texas or staying ahead of the curve on quality, it is the finding and keeping of workers that leads the way.

The problem for the HR Dept. was that it was taking weeks and sometimes months for this process of recruiting and hiring workers. Underhill said the real light bulb moment came when she attended an Indeed conference, where a speaker referred to job candidates as “consumers.”

This idea to “win over” the potential candidate realigned how Cantex operated its recruitment, from the use of AI to rewrite job descriptions that then match to the right candidates’ resumes.

“We are able to sync that resume to the job description in a more assertive manner” and reach out in a thoughtful way to ensure the candidate is onboard with the mission, goals, and values of the company.

In a second set of comments, Underhill said her goal is to give time back to caregivers and patients for as much hands-on care, making engagement a huge part of Cantex’s thinking on adding new technology or practices. Two of those areas are to employ software and analysis of the patient’s hospital record and other data to make sure an admission makes sense. “Quality begins with admissions,” Underhill said.

A second area is ambient listening, which is meant to restore those close ties between the caregiver/nurse and the resident. Ambient listening in nursing homes refers to the use of AI-powered voice recognition to transcribe and summarize patient–clinician conversations, freeing nurses to spend more time on direct care.

Cantex has 38 facilities in its portfolio with 4,662 beds in three states.

Questions or comments? Contact Patrick Connole pconnole@parkplacelive.com