By Susan Saldibar
Have you ever experienced pushback from a family member when you tell them you will need to bill them a few hundred dollars more each month because their loved one now needs more help with their ADLs and mobility? Have they ever said something like, “What? She was getting around just fine only a couple weeks ago. I’ve seen her.”
Odds are that the resident’s decline was noticed sooner, but their CNA may have waited until it was bad enough to report. Or until it started impacting the rest of their schedule.
By then maybe you’ve lost a couple thousand in additional revenue to balance that increased care level. But, more importantly, you’ve alienated a family member. Your CNA feels like crap. And even more important than that, care for the resident may have been compromised.
This is exactly the kind of issue that better communication could have prevented.
And driving that “better” communication is better data.
I learned just how true this is during a Foresight Radio episode with host Rachel Hill and Marty Damian with PointClickCare (a Foresight partner). Marty’s a self-described “finance guy” who, through some crazy twists and turns in his career, ended up in a place he never dreamed he’d be … senior living.
A former PointClickCare user himself, Marty’s now the one who works with clients to continue to innovate an already impressive platform of integrated applications that are making residents healthier and communities more successful.
No one should have to paw through paper in big three-ring binders to figure out what’s going on.
Relying on bits of paper is not only outdated, it’s dangerously outdated.
Because, given the technology like PointClickCare that’s now available to operators, we still hear these stories of senior living community staff hunting around for residents’ health care records and scribbling down notes. While residents wait for help.
That’s just one of the takeaways from the podcast. Here are a few more:
- Paper keeps you from people. So your CNAs are taking a ton of time entering residents’ ADLs, making notes on what happened. How long does all this take? How would they use their time if they had instant access to critical care data about the residents? Maybe engaging with them?
- Data without context is just data. Why shouldn’t your data tell a story? And one that reflects more than medical information about residents? So instead of offering a “care plan,” how about a “service plan” that includes activities, engagement, and other things because you can collect better data and track it.
- The right data at the right time supports better communication. Think about having real-time data on hand that shows that a resident’s mobility or cognition is gradually declining and needing more help. Now you’re way ahead of the curve and can plan accordingly.
But the real takeaway here is that data turns your team into better communicators.
Back to my original scenario. How would having information at their fingertips as soon as a decline was emerging have changed the conversation with the family members?
Management would have known the care level needed to change earlier and had the data to lead them to more meaningful conversations earlier with family members. They would have been better prepared for the day when they were told that the care level had changed and therefore the cost of care increased.
The CNA would feel better having communicated those subtle changes as they occurred and received more assistance on their shift.
Yes, I used the word data and conversations in one sentence.
And what’s wrong with that? Because when you have all the data in the system to guide your day along, you’re freed up to focus on having meaningful conversations with residents and other team members.
And if that makes data more “warm and fuzzy,” so be it. Isn’t that what this industry is supposed to be about?
Instead of burying those binders under desks and pretending your “automated,” maybe now is the time to reach out to PointClickCare and learn more about how, among a lot of other things, they’re fueling better communication through better data. They can give you a demo. Set one up here (scroll down).
