Operations innovation for senior living communities

Senior living operators face the challenge of making the most of limited resources, like staff time, community budgets, and their own bandwidth as a team leader. By implementing innovative operations strategies that maximize these resources, operators can not only drive business outcomes like occupancy and length of stay, but enhance the community experience for residents, families, and staff as well.

When it comes to innovation in senior living operations, operators should prioritize technology solutions that streamline processes and save staff time, without adding unnecessary complexity to their existing tech stack. The following piece expands on the insights in our executive guide, Future-proofing senior living communities, to outline how operators can innovate to optimize their community operations and drive greater efficiency and ease. 

Automate routine tasks

One of the most effective ways to save staff time and streamline operations is to identify the most time-consuming tasks, and find ways to automate them.

When we asked senior living operators which tasks are the most labor-intensive, they listed creating activity calendars and communicating with families, in that order. Of course, these tasks can’t be fully automated, but there are ways to streamline these processes without compromising quality.

Creating activity calendars tailored to resident preferences is an essential element of helping residents thrive, by providing physically, mentally, and socially stimulating programming that connects them to staff and other residents. But generating ideas for activities involves extensive research and planning, as well as scheduling coordination to fit it into other day-to-day programming. Implementing a calendar management and activity planning system can result in significant time savings. By offering functionality like streamlined activity generation and the ability to set recurring events, calendar management software can ease the burden of activity planning and allow staff to divert energy towards facilitating programs and engaging directly with residents.

Along the same lines, communication solutions can help staff spend less time receiving and making calls and messages to family members. Features like broadcast messaging, photo uploads, and automated newsletters allow staff members to keep families in the loop, without fielding multiple messages every day. And solutions that give residents and family members their own portal enables them to interact directly within the platform, making it easy for family members to stay in the loop about their loved one’s well-being and community life.

Aside from engagement and family communication, operators can also streamline operational areas like maintenance and transportation requests by implementing technology that automates task assignments, tracks progress, and allows residents, family, or staff members to submit requests in real-time. This reduces the administrative burden on staff, enabling them to focus on higher-value tasks, while ensuring that issues are addressed promptly and efficiently.

Automating routine tasks not only drives operational efficiency, it yields the positive side effects of increasing staff satisfaction and reducing turnover. When staff can spend less time on mundane tasks and more time engaging directly with residents, they can feel more rewarded and satisfied in their role. This can also have the ripple effect of creating more human-centered resident experiences, and enhance community health as a whole. 

Streamline resident personalization

Personalizing residents’ experiences can have a tremendous impact on their satisfaction and increase length of stay in the community. When residents feel that their unique preferences are being considered, they participate more actively in community life and experience more connection with those around them.

Traditionally, communities relied too heavily on staff members’ individual knowledge of resident preferences to provide a personalized experience. But especially as staff members turn over, or a resident moves on in the continuum of care, and as new residents enter, it becomes essential for communities to adopt systems that can effectively intake, store, and incorporate resident preferences into their community life.

An effective place to begin the resident personalization process is during onboarding. Communities can adopt a technology solution that streamlines the intake and recordkeeping of residents’ background and preferences, to make it easily accessible to staff who weren’t present during the interview.

Then, finding a solution that incorporates resident preferences into various elements of community life, such as activities, engagement content, meals, and social connections, can help deliver a seamlessly personalized experience.

By implementing innovative resident personalization solutions, operators can offer residents a seamlessly customized community experience while reducing administrative burden on staff.

Consolidate technology

As we outline various areas that technology can streamline community operations, it’s important to consider how each solution will work together. Even if point solutions address needs in different operational areas, if the platforms aren’t able to communicate and share data amongst themselves, then there’s the risk of causing inefficient processes.

Instead, the best way to ensure efficient operations is to consolidate technology into a unified system. With a comprehensive solution, operators can ensure that the various areas of operations work seamlessly together. For instance, the software used to record and store resident information can flow into the activity planning solution, providing recommendations customized to residents’ preferences. Information on resident participation and usage can then integrate with the data management solution, providing operators with a holistic perspective of resident wellness and community operational performance.

By approaching operational innovation with a proactive, strategic lens, operators can ensure that their technology investments provide financial returns and community outcomes long into the future.

Drive continuous innovation

Want more inspiration for innovative practices that will help you retain staff, increase occupancy, and differentiate your community? Download our free guide, Future-proofing senior living communities, for best practices in adopting AI, reducing risk, and more.