3 Reasons Why Retirement Homes Need Technology In 2022

Retirement homes are a place where residents can enjoy their golden years in comfort while enjoying themselves. In this article,  we look at three reasons why retirement homes need technology to ensure that the resident experience exceeds expectations!

1. Streamlining Dining Services

Having technology in place when it comes to mealtimes, a key part of the retirement home experience can radically enhance the experience for your residents. How can technology, and more specifically a tableside meal-ordering platform (with POS functionality), streamline mealtimes? 

1. Residents can see pictures of the food choices before telling staff who can easily submit orders to the kitchen without leaving the table, ensuring that residents receive the food they want and quickly.  
2. If residents are unable to come down to the dining room or choose not to, Tray Service orders can also be easily communicated to the Dining Room so that these residents can get the meals they want brought to the comfort of their room while the home ensures that these meals are correctly tracked. 
3. Personal dietary requirements/preferences and alerts for dietary incompatibilities and allergies can help keep residents safe, creating a bespoke dining experience for each resident. 

2. Keep Your Residents Informed

Residents are actively looking to participate in activities so ensuring that they receive the correct information in a timely and accessible way is important.  A great way of doing this is with Digital Signage. Digital Signage can show activity calendar schedules for the day or for the week which is nice for the residents.  Additionally, for staff, it’s much easier to update with a few clicks versus having to constantly update/print paper-based announcements.  Finally, you can use digital signage for fun, engaging activities such as celebrating resident birthdays and easily playing videos on large screens!

3. Allow Families To Stay Connected

We live in a time-crunched society where people are busier than ever, where real estate prices dictate where we live (so people may live in areas based on affordability vs optimal location) and as a result of COVID, it may be harder to regularly visit your loved ones in a home.

Staff are also busier with additional tasks on their plate to help keep homes compliant with COVID-related mandates.  As a result, it may be hard to keep up with requests to arrange virtual video calls with residents, answer all inquiries about schedules at homes or specific inquiries about their loved ones.

A solution to this would be a Family Portal product, that allows families of residents to:

1. Get a quick summary on how their loved ones are doing by getting a summary of their day.
2. Allow family members to book activities, make meal choices and book maintenance requests on behalf of the residents in the home.
3. Book virtual and in-person visits. 

This technology empowers families to check up on their loved ones without needing to take up staff time! This improves the lives of the residents & their families while not overwhelming staff at the retirement home.  

Tableside Meal Ordering (w POS functionality), Digital Signage & Family Portal are all available on the Continyou Care platform, plus much more. Technology can be the key to unlocking the next level of your retirement home, in terms of driving a better experience for all stakeholders at the home including residents, their families, and staff. Contact us today for a Discovery Call so we can learn more about how we can help improve the efficiency and experience at your retirement home!