The sheer value of applying technology on assisted living facilities is proven not only by the myriad conveniences they bring to residents but to the business owners and managers as well. For owners, in particular, one of the most compelling advantages they need to capitalize on is the possibility to boost their facility’s revenue.
It goes without saying that every owner wants this, as, besides boosting your overall finances, it will also only good for the continuous improvement of the community as a whole. This is why you should be open to adopting smart technologies (e.g. an assisted living management software) and utilizing what they offer to the fullest.
Below are but 5 of the best smart technologies you can start applying now to set up your senior living community for financial success in the long run. We will explain how each one is able to impart this specific benefit.
1. Assisted Living Software
You can integrate Assisted living software into your facilities. These can be different senior living software or resident management software that provides you with plenty of organizational tools to ease up your work and improve the daily lives of residents.
Most of these software use automation technology to the fullest so plenty of tasks and reports can be done with minimal effort. This applies to patient care, report generation, transition processes (like transfers to other facilities), to cite a few. These are practically essential processes that any assisted living facility should be able to accomplish regularly, which this software can greatly ease up (if not completely handle on their own)
2. Digital Marketing Automation
Automation has been proven to increase productivity in numerous industries and healthcare is definitely one of those that are enjoying the best boons out of its application. Digital marketing automation in assisted living settings has proven to be a very efficient tool in boosting your facility’s revenue directly by acquiring and converting more leads.
What does it bring to the table? Engagement, access to the right information at the right time, and interactivity. These are vital aspects of an effective sales funnel that only seizes leads and guides all the way throughout the buying process. It informs just as it entertains and even socializes with the prospective client.
We know how hard this can be for any business owner on the constant hunt for leads. Digital marketing automation provides you with all the right tools that will not turn your prospect off with marketing “techniques” email blasts, rather they are assuredly more personalized and focuses on what each prospective client is looking for in a senior living facility. This only translates to better conversions as many facilities that have utilized it can attest.
3. Digital Signage
Senior living digital signage technology brings a breath of fresh air to most senior living settings because of its highly engaging presentation and functionalities. With it, you can practically place any number of displays and monitors you want in areas all throughout your facilities to relay any kind of information. Not only does this boost communication, but it also greatly mitigates errors and provides plenty of new ways to entertain residents and even impart physical and mental stimulation.
All of these features can be made available within arms’ reach of residents, which only leads to a general improvement in how you can conduct your senior living services and get large cuts in running costs as well. And again, it really is based a lot on the software’s ability to streamline a fundamental process (most prominently, communication in this regard) in assisted living administration.
4. Employee Time Tracking
Another undeniable obstacle that assisted living facilities and most healthcare-oriented organizations encounter is the need to account for their employee’s time. Assisted living, in particular, normally needs biometric time tracking, tracking at multiple locations, freedom to conduct schedule adjustments, keep a record of leaves and personal time offs and the ability to create and manage direct and indirect reports.
For this, you can rely on employee time tracking software. It is specifically designed to handle all of the said needs of the employer and employees when it comes to setting the exact times to work and accurately keeping track of it. It can seamlessly incorporate biometric and attendance tracking features and provide an overview of employees’ working times, which makes monitoring and optimization always possible and easy to do.
Furthermore, it greatly simplifies the need to pay careful attention to detail when keeping track of employee time and address absenteeism. That said, one of the ready benefits of employee tracking software is reductions in administrative costs, which again, lends itself to improving the revenue of most assisted living businesses. Another is the almost guaranteed increased productivity of the employee, which, more or less, will benefit the growth of your business in the long term.
5. Staff Scheduling
If there is one way that lets businesses gain more revenue without actively looking for more clients, it is by optimizing an essential aspect of it, which in turn leads to great reductions in costs. As you are probably already aware, staffing is one of the most vital and most difficult to manage due to the sheer complexity of it. Besides putting up with shortages in qualified caregivers, you also have to pay attention to reporting mandates and issues in wages.
This underscores the need to have a sound plan for staff scheduling. Doing so will only allow you to prevent overstaffing, hire the right number of full-time and part-time employees, address staffing gaps, and managing overtime better, among others. All of these factors have a big influence on operating costs, after all.
The challenge, of course, lies in how you are going to pinpoint the areas that you need to optimize, organize them, and keep track of staff scheduling. Well, with shift planning & staff scheduling software, you can greatly reduce the difficulties that administrators usually encounter when trying to handle staffing schedules. It gives them great insight into how to plan shifts for everyone and how to better scheduling practices. This, in turn, only results in you empowering your staff in the process, besides significantly cutting labor costs.
Other tools you can consider are a senior emergency notification system or a senior crisis communication system which only makes it possible to promptly respond to life-threatening situations and save the lives of residents. As a whole, these solutions really point toward one thing: optimization. And, if there is one constant positive effect that it has on any enterprise, it is better revenues.
Conclusion
Assisted living facilities need not put up with the usual hurdles that come their way if they only open up to smart technologies that are just waiting to be implemented in their establishments. Considering their proven benefits, it is safe to say that these are opportunities that should not be missed by any owner or manager of senior living communities.
