When we think about mobile devices, there are literally millions of apps designed to serve very specific purposes. Some apps are very basic and silly ones, like the “beer drinking app”, where your phone display turns into a diminishing glass of grog as you tilt it backward. Other apps serve much more important purposes, such as those that deal with finances and banking.
But an area of the app market that many people don’t consider, is that of senior living apps. Senior living apps can improve the productivity of a facility, while also improving resident, family, and staff satisfaction. Truly, senior living apps create a win-win-win situation for everyone involved.
Naturally, there are many choices when it comes to choosing senior living software for your facility. However, not all apps are created equal. There are some important features that every good senior living app should have, the most crucial of which, are listed below.
Many residents are no longer able to see their families on a regular basis. This can create a feeling of loneliness and isolation that is hard to overcome. Fortunately, with the best senior living software, residents can view family photos from a mobile device any time they want.
Furthermore, family members can easily upload pictures to albums such as those related to weddings or birthdays that the senior resident may have not been able to attend for one reason or another.
Burnout and staff turnover are at an all-time high. This is true across many industries, but nowhere is it more evident than in senior living homes. Staff are often underappreciated and after a few months or maybe a year, many of them leave the profession, never to return.
But many residents and their family members truly do appreciate the hard work and caring actions of the staff in these facilities. Through good senior living apps, residents and family members can leave reviews and positive feedback about staff members so that everyone can see just how much of an impact these dedicated workers have on residents.
Sadly, emergencies and crises are becoming all-too-common in our world. There have been countless tragedies due to natural disasters and violence over the past few years that have cost many people their lives. Additionally, these events have left the survivors shaken for the rest of their days.
When emergencies do occur in or near a senior living center, there needs to be an efficient system that can notify and coordinate everyone in the facility. The best way to achieve this is through the use of senior living software that can be immediately accessed by all residents and staff.
There are few universals in life, but one thing that is common amongst almost all people is the love of a good meal. Meal time in a senior living facility can sometimes feel chaotic. These points throughout the day are often filled with confusion and frustration on the part of both the staff and the residents.
Fortunately, senior living apps can make menu services easy and intuitive for all involved. Through simple clicking, residents can order a meal, make modifications, and specify certain requests to ensure that they are getting exactly what they want to eat. This makes it easier on the staff as well, as they have to deal with fewer back and forth interactions and mistakes in translating orders to those in the kitchen.
How do we really know if something is working? We can design a formal research study and determine whether or not we are achieving the desired effects of a given intervention. Or, we can conduct surveys.
Surveys and feedback options through senior living apps are essential pieces of the assisted living software puzzle. Residents and families can provide meaningful narrative responses to new changes and issues as they arise throughout the facility. While it may seem simple, this capability isp erhaps one of the most important parts of a good senior living app.
Most of the time, families move their loved ones into senior living facilities because they are unable to care for them, have no space in their own homes, or for any number of other reasons. They still love their older family member, they just might feel as if they can’t provide for them in the way they need at home.
Families want to know that their loved one is being taken care of and that they are having meaningful, fulfilling experiences while living in a senior care community.
Senior living apps allow families to check in on residents any time they want, regardless of whether there are quarantine restrictions or other considerations that must be made. Furthermore, as mentioned in the previous section, families can easily upload content such as pictures and videos to the resident’s app, allowing them to scroll through and experience events as if they were there, in person.
Truth be told, there are often massively inefficient processes in place at most places of business, senior living communities included. Staff often have to do double work, take tons of time when updating things such as activity calendars, and often there are simple ways in which efficiency can be improved.
One such way is through the use of senior living software. By automating some of the mundane and repetitive (yet necessary) tasks inherent in these facilities, workers can interact more with residents and devote their time and energy to ensuring that the seniors have more quality interactions.
It may seem counterintuitive that technology would increase engagement and interactions. But when software is used as it was intended, it takes care of the things that it does best, while people take care of the things they do best.
If you run a senior living center and are interested in learning more, check out all of the features that Quiltt, the best senior living software available, offers to its users!
