With the exception of young children, seniors almost always require the most amount of assistance when it comes to their day-to-day activities. Those who have debilitating conditions, in particular, deserve to be prioritized by organizations offering assisted living services. And, indeed, the efforts of these groups and companies to ease the daily lives of seniors are highly commendable.
That said, the assisted living field is far from being perfect. Even now, a growing number of elderly around the world are not receiving sufficient care, even with the availability of facilities. If you are managing a senior living community yourself, you are probably already aware of these challenges. Nonetheless, we have still listed the latest ones below for everyone’s reference, followed by how assisted living software could very well help curb them.
What are the Top Challenges Faced by the Assisted Living Industry at Present?
- There is an inherent shortage of highly skilled and dedicated caregivers. Most of this stems from the innate difficulty of the job. It’s rare to find people who are both qualified and passionate in serving the elderly on a long-term basis.
- Fewer occupancies as a result of subpar caregiving. This underscores the need for assisted living communities to continuously improve their facilities and services in order to encourage more people to have more trust in senior living communities. The end goal is always to provide a consistently better quality of life.
- Besides the inherent costs of running one, the financial situations of the present and incoming residents should be minded as well. According to trends, more seniors considering assisted living nowadays do not have the same economic capabilities as others that came before them.
- The needs of residents are quickly changing too, particularly when it comes to addressing their medical needs. Fewer hospital readmissions and use of antipsychotic medications are but some of the main gauges of assisted living community performance. Ultimately, as long as their medical needs are met, it will only mean an improved lifestyle for all seniors, which often leads to happiness and longevity as well. And experts point to proper data collection as one of the crucial steps that will lead to this.
Assisted Living Software Improves Management of Senior Living Communities
Since the operation and management of an assisted living community are where the bulk of the challenge lies, it is only crucial to direct available technology towards unburdening the administrative problems faced by its managers. One of the most compelling methods involves using assisted management software. Essentially, it provides a comprehensive platform through which one can ease up different aspects of assisted living management.
Of course, the quality of the software comes to the forefront when gauging its ability to do just that and more. To demonstrate the capabilities of this kind of senior living software, we have opted to highlight the capabilities of the one developed by Genexod. These are the veritable ways in which assisted living software greatly aid administrators and the elderly alike in such a setting.
Greatly reduces the costs of operation.
As said above, the running expenses of assisted living communities can be especially burdensome for organizations. This is why it’s important to optimize operation. Assisted living software obviously has that benefit because it was arguably designed to do just that. Not only is Genexod’s elder care management software affordable but its features readily ensure it will give that benefit.
For example, the software takes care of all the data collection and tracking for you in various essential aspects such as resident information, costs, occupancy, and management of medications, to cite a few. The fact that these are all available in a single platform allows you to completely forgo any other tools to manage this information. In turn, this only ever leads to better saving of resources.
Of course, that’s just one way that an assisted living software helps you have better control of your community’s finances. Since all the necessary data will be accounted for, you will always be able to make informed decisions that will only serve to make the operations more efficient, leading to a trickle-down effect that reduces expenses further.
Helps in the sales aspect of your organization too.
Genexod’s resident management software also actively aids in improving sales cycle, which not a lot of other RMS can boast of giving. This readily provides a solution to the occupancy problems most senior living communities have by helping boost your leads.
Not only will you be able to keep track of every call made or walk-in or referred prospective residents but you will also be able to manage your sales channel better to boost conversions. This proactive approach is preferred as it readily implies your organization’s dedication to providing high-quality service.
Improved medical treatment
It goes without saying that seniors want to be kept as healthy as possible for the remaining years of their lives. An assisted living software makes full use of technology to keep residents’ medical needs in check by, for instance, providing a means to keep track of vital signs every time and giving their physicians quick and ready access to their respective medical reports.
Collects all the data you need
This is one of the most invaluable advantages of assisted living management software because it leads to better performance. From incidents and caregiver and resident performance to daily activities and tracking of billing and service logs, Genexod’s RMS certainly does not pull punches when it comes to gathering and monitoring this vital data and making reports (i.e. compliance reports).
It can be very herculean to keep track of this information in any other way unless a custom solution is developed, which is often more expensive. Also, besides helping you make better decisions, this also lends itself to better scheduling of shifts and overall enhanced monitoring of residents.
Establishes and maintains consistent communication for all essential parties
Smooth and solid communication should be maintained in any organization, all the more so for assisted living communities so the needs and demands of everyone will be heard and met. The elder care management software of Genexod assures excellent communication between each staff, whether caregiver or nurse. Furthermore, the platform also allows the families of residents to keep track of their loved ones’ activities any time, so they will always be connected with them.
Highly personalized approach to caregiving
Assisted living software features an automated functional assessment capability that immediately gauges the level of care needed by any resident. You may even make custom assessments should it be needed by providers. Also, it lets you create custom service plans that you can offer to residents should they be interested in availing of one.
Automation of plenty of processes
A lot of important processes are automated like any deviation from the baseline when monitoring resident vital signs. Also, automated alerts are also featured in billing, particularly when a change occurs in the level of care; the same goes for informing you when a service plan is due.
Conclusion
The undeniable benefits of assisted living software for management only highlight their value in improving the lives of seniors. By the same token, administrators can also be relieved of most of their managerial duties because of the seamless way that these tools help them achieve their tasks faster. It, in short, provides value for all, which only affirms its importance for the future of assisted living especially in tackling its challenges.