How Tech Can Help Improve On-Site Safety for Residents and Employees

Senior living communities provide a safe and healthy space for adults to live and as the leaders of these communities, you have a lot to keep track of. Between resident safety, employee satisfaction, and the upkeep of your community, your days are busy.

Luckily, senior living technology solutions can enhance the overall efficiency and health of your community. Here’s how this tech can improve resident and employee safety.

Improve Risk Management and Patient Outcomes with EHR

From your activity directors to your nutritionists to your CNAs, it’s vital your care staff is on the same page regarding resident care. One of the best ways to streamline communication is to rely on an Electronic Health Record (EHR) platform.

Implementing an EHR platform ensures a high quality of care while simplifying staff communication. Using EHR, your care staff can…

• Approve activities of daily living.
• Manage resident assessment calendars.
• Set up alerts for when your resident’s health is outside of normal thresholds.
• Schedule health assessments.
• Submit incident reports.

Your caregivers do the best they can to elevate the health and wellbeing of your residents. While accidents are bound to happen, incidents must be documented properly and communicated clearly. Using an EHR, caregivers can easily create thorough compliance reports and work to mitigate the risk of repeated events.

Combat Infection Rates Among Residents

An EHR platform works to improve the day-to-day operations of your senior living community. It can also help your caregivers detect and track infection rates among residents.

Whether it’s COVID-19 or yearly influenza, EHR platforms can help your staff deliver preventative care to your residents and make evidence-based decisions at the point of care.

Due to changing healthcare regulations, monitoring COVID-19 outbreaks can be challenging. An EHR platform can help keep track of infections, symptoms, and isolation periods.

While more senior living communities have relied on tech assistance since the start of the pandemic, EHR platforms will continue to be helpful after the height of the pandemic is over.

For example, if a stomach bug has been spreading throughout your community and a resident shows an early sign of sickness, your care staff can take the proper steps to isolate and care for them.

Through early detection, your caregivers can provide a higher quality of care while also preventing the spread of further infection, keeping both your residents and your staff safe.

Streamline Medication Administration with eMAR

Medication administration is a huge responsibility for your care staff. While an EHR platform is a great tool to document and store health information, an electronic medication administration records (eMAR) solution allows your care staff to update, approve, and keep track of your residents’ prescriptions.

Implementing an eMAR platform is a win-win for your staff and your residents. EMAR solutions improve medication administration and decrease the risk of errors.

Overall, health information technology enhances patient safety outcomes, by reducing adverse drug reactions and promoting compliance to practice guidelines. One study showed an eMAR system eliminated transcription errors and lowered dispensing errors by 96 percent.

Further, communities can add integrations to personalize their eMAR systems, like connecting directly with pharmacies to communicate residents’ health conditions. This personalized approach is beneficial in providing high-quality care.

Promote a Clean and Healthy Living Space

In addition to supporting resident care and promoting employee safety, tech integrations also foster a healthy community space.

Since the onset of the pandemic, you’ve probably implemented additional cleaning practices. But keeping track of a cleaning schedule is an additional task to add to your busy days. Luckily, tech platforms make this easy.

Tools like smart purification systems are a great way to filter the air throughout your communities. Or, consider finding a tech platform that organizes your cleaning schedule, marks areas that need to be sanitized, and designates isolation units.

From Resident Health to Community Cleanliness, Senior Living Technology Solutions Aid Operations

As a senior living community leader, you have a lot to keep track of. Instead of relying on handwritten schedules or using a myriad of outdated platforms, you need a tech partner who can provide solutions to all of your problems.

Besides just optimizing your daily operations, senior living technology solutions support your community’s overall safety. Studies show the use of electronic medical records improves patient care by reducing documentation time, meaning your care staff can spend more time with residents and less time filing documents.

Caremerge offers a number of solutions to promote resident safety, simplify employee operations, and enhance a healthy living community. To learn more,