Not every organization has the ability to create their own care coordination program . . . this is where Simply Connect comes in!

By Steve Moran

At the Spring (2019) NIC conference, the primary focus was on creating integrated care models that include senior living as a huge player and part of the process. It makes perfect sense. It is good for senior living, good for residents, and good for the healthcare system. It has a high value with little to no downside.

I continue to believe that senior living has a single huge opportunity to radically reduce the cost of healthcare in North America by reducing hospital admissions through better socialization, medication management, nutrition, and wellness. But it also means that senior living communities will need to be the pivot point for management and coordination; this is where the challenge really comes in.

Care Coordination — The Big Challenge

I am a huge fan of Lynne Katzman, Founder and CEO of Juniper Communities and their “Connect4Life” program that does this very well. They have used it to increase occupancy and length of stay. It also saves the healthcare system huge amounts of dollars. It is a win-win for everyone.

The problem is that for a variety of reasons, not every organization has the ability to create their own care coordination program. This is where Senior Housing Forum Partner Eldermark/Simply Connect comes in. Craig Patnode and his team have developed an app-based system that will allow you to very effectively manage your residents care without having to create a new expensive system.  

What It Does For You, Your Residents, and Family Members

  • Easy family engagement

  • Pharmacy integration

  • Easy access to resident medical records

  • Admission, discharge, and transfer information in a single place

  • Resident care notes in an easily accessible place

  • HIPAA-compliant telemedicine

  • A single platform to communicate with each member of the resident’s care team and to collect and disseminate real-time important information

  • Actionable service plans

  • Actionable assessments

  • Secure video

  • Secure text

  • Medication reconciliation

And the price is crazy reasonable.

What Care Coordination Does For You

Here is why you should be doing care coordination — using the Simply Connect platform or something else. Over time, it is inevitable that providing care coordination will become the new norm for senior living communities. Getting started earlier will give you the bonus of a serious point of differentiation.

Day-to-day, it will keep your residents healthier by allowing you to stay ahead of the curve with respect to their optimal health. It will also reduce caregiver burden. You will see an increase in lengths of stay.

Craig has recorded this short video in which he talks more about what the Simply Connect app does.

You can watch it here:

Learn more about Eldermark HERE:

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