How To Shift to Digitally Streamlined Workflows to Improve Care In Senior Living
In this article, we look at how shifting to a digitally streamlined workflow can help you improve care in your retirement home by improving the experience for both your residents and staff, while simultaneously improving your bottom line!
The Dining Experience
The dining experience is a critical part of your retirement home experience, as residents eat at least 3 times a day. It’s also one of the most complex and can be a strain on staff. Digitally streamlined workflows mean that your dining experience runs on data, and not guesswork. Data means that you can order food as per resident preferences, reducing wastage. A streamlined system reduces the potential for incorrect orders and errors, as well as noise pollution due to residents being able to choose their meals digitally. Another financial gain is the ease with which one can track and bill residents for billable transactions, making it simple and not adding a burden on staff should residents decide to spend money.
The dining experience can also be a difficult part of the day for staff. Juggling multiple orders while simultaneously acknowledging resident allergies, intolerances, and medicine interactions mean there is little room for error, and this often takes away staff’s time to provide excellent customer service while engaging with residents. Data-driven products mean that resident profiles correlate to dinner options, helping your staff make informed decisions while taking the weight of the possibility of a mistake off their shoulders – freeing them up to do what they love best – interact and provide excellent service to your residents.
The Recreation Experience
Another advantage of digitally streamlined workflows is the recreation experience for residents.
It is notoriously difficult to onboard and get residents involved in activities, with the process often being paper-based. This can use up staff time going from resident to resident asking whether they would like to be involved in the activity or the information ends up in printed paper signs that are often not read around the building. This can be replaced by Digital Signage which is more eye-catching and engaging to residents. Not only that, but it can also allow for residents to sign up easily and receive direct updates on new activities. Also, digital solutions when it comes to the recreation experience, allow you to see data across the board to see patterns (for example, your movie events are far more popular than music events, meaning you may want to prioritize more movie events in your senior living facility). Finally, digital solutions in the area of Recreation helps you easily build calendars and track attendance at each event, helping you monitor who is most engaged while collecting valuable feedback.