How Software for Assisted Living Programs Can Help Prepare for an Aging Population
Population increases and longer life expectancies mean the world’s aging population is expanding. In 2020, the number of people aged 60 years and older outnumbered children younger than 5 years. The World Health Organization reports that between 2015 and 2050, the proportion of the world’s senior population will nearly double from 12% to 22%.
This growing population of seniors, along with people with disabilities, will require more care as they age, and many will employ the services of assisted living facilities. The nearly 30,000 assisted living facilities in the U.S. today will need to make changes to keep up with demand — and a growing pool of competitors.
One of the most impactful changes assisted living communities can make to their workflows is use of specialized care management software. With a little bit of training on a user-friendly software system, care communities can do more with less time and more confidence.
Why Do Assisted Living Facilities Need Specialized Software?
Maintaining or improving quality of care for a rapidly expanding and vulnerable population is no small feat. Senior living centers have been experiencing unprecedented growth for decades, providing consistent long-term care to residents with diverse needs and care plans. Care providers — both within and outside of a professional setting — are prone to experiencing “burnout” due to increasing demand for their time and their sense of responsibility for those in their care.
Assisted living facilities must also manage an immense amount of data about their providers and their clients for the sake of their care quality. They must manage this data in specific, regulation-compliant ways. Electronic health records (EHRs) are protected by HIPAA, and electronic medication administration records must be meticulously documented and tracked to ensure medication dosages remain safe and appropriate.
Care management software solutions like CaseWorthy can help streamline and automate many tasks that can take caregivers’ valuable time and attention away from their residents, protecting providers’ and residents’ health and well-being.
ServTracker by CaseWorthy Can Help Providers Rise to the Challenge
Noting this impending “Gray Wave,” CaseWorthy has developed and acquired digital tools for human services providers to help these facilities serve more patients more efficiently. The most recent addition to our lineup, ServTracker, was specially designed to assist the aging population. When paired with core CaseWorthy features, our software solution is able to address an extensive range of needs tailored to assisted living facilities.
CommHUB is CaseWorthy’s secure, in-platform communication portal. Anyone with permission and credentials to sign in to the CaseWorthy platform is able to help set up real-time communication between residents and their loved ones, healthcare providers, support groups, volunteers, and more. With CommHUB, users can schedule and send invitations to calls, record and transcribe conversations, and store and share data securely, so entire care teams can have case notes to refer to after each call.
Reporting
Assisted living facilities must collect, measure, and report on an enormous amount of information — individuals with varying needs and care plans, facility occupancy, programs and resources, and staff with differing qualifications, duties, and schedules. Quality reporting and analysis is vital to setting and meeting objectives for these communities and their occupants. CaseWorthy’s fully customizable interface can attach data points via free fields in any dashboard. These data points can be automatically fed into the platform’s PowerBI-based analysis engine to be connected and converted into stunning visualizations. With these charts and tables, staff and management can interpret huge bodies of data in seconds to inform their decision-making for their residents.
Shift Notes
By documenting important information about a resident’s care — including assessments, side effects, complications, dietary restrictions, and supplements — around the clock, care teams can share the burden of care and keep patients safe. Shift notes are typically maintained in the resident’s electronic health record (EHR) and made accessible to authorized staff members for review to ensure they are up-to-date on any important changes or concerns related to their assigned residents. CaseWorthy supports voice note-taking and advanced data-sharing so client information is accessible to anyone who needs it.
Medication Administration Records (MARs)
Staff responsible for medication administration use MARs to ensure that each resident receives the correct medication, in the correct dosage, at the correct time. MARs are also used to document any side effects or adverse reactions to medications, as well as any changes to a resident’s medication regimen. Accurate and up-to-date MARs are critical for ensuring that residents receive safe and effective medication management. They provide a valuable record of medication administration that can be used to track medication compliance, identify potential medication-related issues, and coordinate care among healthcare providers.
ServTracker and CaseWorthy Combined Support Agencies Like Yours
CaseWorthy’s cloud-based care software is unique in its customizability. No matter what kind of care your facility provides, what residents it serves, or what organizations and entities it coordinates with, CaseWorthy can make data entry, management, and reporting simple by consolidating data streams under one roof.
Long-term care facilities offer much-needed support to patients and their loved ones, they deserve to have the best assisted living software for their preferred management systems. Don’t let staffing challenges get between your organization and offering best-in-class care services. Provide your staff with the tools they need to provide best-in-class care services to their clients.
Want to discuss your needs and our solutions with a care management expert? Let us know what you’re looking for and we will show you how we do it.