How Broadmead Simplifies Resident Engagement with Caremerge

A life enrichment program can be the core differentiating feature of a senior living community. When older adults choose to move into a community, they look forward to expanded opportunities to connect with new people and explore new interests.

But staff can’t provide a wide range of senior living activities to hundreds of residents without the right tools.

Broadmead, a life plan community in Cockeysville, Maryland, found that support through Caremerge’s technology. Stacey Young, Broadmead’s Director of Lifestyle and Dementia Programs, shares how the community uses Caremerge to efficiently deliver incredible programming to residents.

Before Caremerge: A Manual Resident Communications System

Stacey and her technology initiative co-leaders – Andy Switzer, Director of Center of Excellence in Health and Wellness and George Pattee, Director of Capital Projects and Master Planning – wanted to find a new senior living technology platform that could cover more communication needs and activities planning.

Prior to introducing Caremerge, Broadmead was using another platform for its lobby kiosks and TV channel. But the platform was mostly manual: staff had to queue up slides with activity information on the TV channel themselves.

Broadmead also relied on an appointment book to handle senior living activities scheduling needs, with staff penciling in room reservations and time slots by hand.

What drew Stacey and her team to Caremerge is how adaptable the platform is. They felt confident that Caremerge would be able to respond to feedback and provide new solutions as their needs evolve, especially throughout the pandemic, and this has proven to be the case.

Stacey says that the pandemic catalyzed Broadmead’s transition to digital communications and scheduling on Caremerge, both for staff and residents. She says folks who may have been hesitant to start using the technology were inclined to check it out during early COVID-19 lockdowns, when digital communications became a lifeline overnight.

Caremerge Supports Broadmead’s Push Toward Paperless 

Now that Broadmead is using Caremerge’s Calendar Central, Community Engagement, and Broadcast features, the community has been able to scale back on time-consuming manual tasks and paper usage.

While the community hasn’t gone fully paperless, Stacey’s team will be able to shift the bulk of written communications for residents to Caremerge channels like the Community Engagement resident app. 

By tracking which residents prefer to receive communications electronically, instead of sending out over 300 newsletters to each mailbox, the team could only need to send about 50 – an 83% reduction in newsletter production.

One major challenge that comes from a paper-based manual system is human error, like missing or double-booked senior living activities on the schedule. Caremerge has helped Stacey’s team avoid these errors: an electronic calendar streamlines scheduling and attendance documentation and ensures no activity information goes unrecorded.

Plus, the team now moves a lot faster. Broadmead can send out an announcement via Caremerge in a fraction of the time it takes to print 100 copies.

Caremerge’s Easy-to-Access Resident Directory Connects the Community

As public health restrictions lift, residents are eager for opportunities that bolster their social well-being, especially if that means spending time with friends and meeting new people.

Caremerge’s emphasis on social connection has been another major benefit for Broadmead. Once residents realized Caremerge’s potential to serve as a community-specific social network, they got more and more excited about using it.

One of Caremerge’s appealing social features for residents is the interactive directory in the Community Engagement resident app, which allows residents to easily find and connect with one another. Broadmead’s residents have even taken it upon themselves to keep the directory accurate and up to date, adding in headshots, new contact information, and birthdays to their friends’ profiles.

What’s Next: Explore New Ways to Leverage Senior Living Technology to Improve Resident Well-Being

Now that Broadmead has successfully transitioned to using Caremerge to support its resident engagement operations, Stacey is excited to expand the community’s technology offerings even further.

Broadmead has recently adopted or plans to introduce other senior living technology solutions, including… 

• Skylight Frame, a digital frame service that allows residents to enjoy photo collections of loved ones, which is especially impactful for memory care residents.
• Voice technology with Caremerge’s Alexa integration.

She’s confident that these solutions will work well in conjunction with the digital engagement foundation that Caremerge provides.

To learn more about how Caremerge can simplify resident engagement in your community