For Greenbrier Senior Living, a full-service senior living management company based in Birmingham, Alabama, with 30+ properties spanning several states, choosing a senior living platform wasn't just a routine operational upgrade. It was a deeply deliberate decision to find a true partner—one capable of helping them navigate rising resident acuity and thinner staffing while elevating quality of resident care and safety.
They found that partner in August Health. “It’s kind of like family,” says Cynthia Burleson, VP of Clinical Services at Greenbrier.
Built for purpose, not novelty
While evaluating platforms, a face-to-face meeting with August Health's team, which included Co-founder, Justin Schram, M.D. immediately set the partnership apart. As a physician and former Medical Director at Landmark Health, Schram brought a rare clinical perspective to the table—one that resonated deeply with Greenbrier’s leadership.
"To see someone as passionate as he was to get a product out there that helps to support what we do... was heartwarming," Burleson reflects. "You knew that the product was there for that purpose, not just a novelty."
"That purpose" is rooted in a simple truth: caregivers are stretched thin, but many are still tracking everything by hand. As resident acuity climbs, so does the risk that something gets overlooked, and the margin for error keeps narrowing. Moving documentation online not only provides a better experience for caregivers, but also gives leadership visibility to support daily care within their communities.
“August Health is truly designed for senior living,” Burleson emphasizes. “It has the important pieces. It gives you usable data, not just data that is stored.”
For Greenbrier, the clearest proof of this was August Health's clinical approach to day-to-day risk management—specifically, the data-driven Watchlist, which Burleson calls the "biggest seller" during their decision.
Catching risk before it becomes a crisis
“We take risks very seriously,” Burleson says. “In the past, we had a manual process on identifying those risks. But there's always human error when you are trying to do it yourself.”
August Health’s data-driven Watchlist uses the data captured with the EHR to flag at-risk residents more consistently and faster than traditional manual reviews. For communities, this means they have the insights they need to intervene sooner, before a potential issue becomes a crisis. For regional and corporate leaders, it gives them transparency into how communities are responding.
“We can follow up and make sure that we are intervening," Burleson explains. “From my perspective, knowing that my communities are doing this and being able to just at a glance look in and see that yes, they're doing the right things.”
For portfolio leadership accountable for both care quality and regulatory compliance, that visibility carries real weight. It confirms that early interventions are happening across every community, while also helping them spot when a resident's acuity outpaces what a community can safely support.
As Burleson notes, the insights in August Health mean discharges are no longer a subjective "we've done everything we can do," but a decision rooted in objective data and a clear timeline of interventions. That same record makes the conversation with families easier. When they can see the full timeline of what was tried and when, a transition reads as a clinical decision, not a community giving up.
Simplicity at the point of care
Of course, this level of visibility is highly dependent on one specific thing: whether or not a caregiver has the tools they need to efficiently and accurately document at the point of care—a task that becomes more difficult as workforce shortages leave fewer caregivers managing residents with increasingly complex needs.
Today’s caregivers need tech solutions that help carry some of the load for them. "They need something that's intuitive to resident needs, to help them identify changes of condition, to understand what they are seeing and how to report it," Burleson notes.
With August Health, caregivers can easily document care as it’s delivered with a few taps, or simply by speaking from any mobile device. Unscheduled care, effort levels, and caregiver observations are captured the moment they happen, not hours later.
"They're not reading records. They're not handwriting things. Everything is electronic," Burleson explains. "Within just a few minutes a staff member can utilize the platform."
When documentation is easy, caregivers can focus more on the person in front of them—work that, in Burleson's words, “affects the health and well-being of every resident.”
A Relationship Built on More Than Software
Powerful technology is only half the equation. In senior living, the human support behind the software matters as much as the features. For Greenbrier, the deciding factor was finding a company that treats implementation as a collaboration, not a handoff.
"From day one, August Health has been very personable, very easygoing. The relationship has been a true partnership," Burleson says. "It's not a lot of times that you start a partnership where you can just pick up and call and say, 'time out,' or 'let's fast forward,' or 'let's get this done.'”
By pairing a clinically smart platform with a team that actually answers the phone when operators call, August Health and Greenbrier show what's possible when technology is built for the right purpose—it just feels like family.
About Greenbrier Senior Living
Greenbrier Senior Living is a full-service senior living management company based in Birmingham, Alabama, with more than 30 communities across 15 states. Greenbrier is currently utilizing the full August Health platform, which includes Move-Ins, EHR, Care Track, eMAR, Insights and Billing & Payments. One platform, one record—from the point of care to the bottom line.
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