How The Monarch at Richardson Keeps Loved Ones Connected with Senior Living Technology
How The Monarch at Richardson Keeps Loved Ones Connected with Senior Living Technology
When evaluating senior living communities, a robust activities program is a huge draw for families. It creates exciting opportunities for loved ones to connect with others and demonstrates a commitment to residents’ physical and social health.
But as demand for technology grows, communities must evaluate what tools they need to deliver exceptional activities programs, and if their existing tools connect residents to their families and to their communities.
This was an important consideration for the leaders at The Monarch at Richardson, and it ultimately drove them to implement Caremerge in their community. Here’s how Carli Koontz, the Activities Director of The Monarch, uses Caremerge to foster connections between residents and their families.
How a Manual System Limited Staff Visibility into Day-to-Day Operations
Prior to implementing Caremerge, Carli and her team exclusively used printed materials to track events and resident attendance. This negatively impacted their ability to analyze attendance trends and limited opportunities to provide families with real-time updates.
In a community that serves hundreds of assisted living and memory care residents, relying on printed resources to organize and collect resident information hampered the ability of staff to collaborate and deliver the most personalized care possible.
Recognizing this, The Monarch sought out a solution that…
- Centralizes resident information for event planning and attendance.
- Enables data-driven insights.
- Provides families with greater visibility into loved ones.
- Helps boost activity engagement rates.
Find a Senior Living Technology Partner that Engages Residents and Their Families
Caremerge enables Carli and her team to reliably keep residents and their loved ones plugged into the community. This was especially true after the pandemic isolated older adults in the community.
With the aid of Caremerge’s senior living technology, The Monarch could share live updates from residents with their families. Carli recognizes the photo-sharing feature was especially beneficial amid the colder months of 2020, as it gave families the opportunity to safely see their loved ones.
Today, Carli and her team continue using Family Engagement to…
- Instantly share residents’ activity attendance and the community calendar with families and staff.
- Correspond with families over a HIPAA-compliant platform.
- Receive immediate feedback from family members via Caremerge NPS.
But Family Engagement isn’t all that attracted The Monarch to Caremerge. In an effort to boost the reporting it received from its activity programming, The Monarch also implemented Calendar Central.
Beyond the expanded data capabilities it provides, Calendar Central also enables staff members to personalize calendar views by location, time, and service level. This comes in handy when Carli and her team plan community-wide events.
The Monarch also uses Caremerge’s In-Room TV and Digital Display solution, which delivers on-demand content to residents. During periods of quarantine, Carli and her team relied on this solution to deliver engaging, virtual programming.
The Right Technology to Grow Engagement and NPS
The Monarch’s new digital communication strategy continues to yield positive results. In fact, NPS has improved from 88 in 2021 to a perfect 100 in 2022, and usage rates hover near 100 percent.
Another sign of success lies in family testimonials. The Monarch’s implementation of senior living technology regularly inspires responses like “Compassion and care!” and “This is a great platform for sharing information!”
Carli and her team remain committed to keeping enthusiasm and engagement high. One way they’ve found success is by reminding families to enroll for the Family Engagement platform. If loved ones haven’t registered, Carli delivers outreach that walks through the enrollment process, highlighting the advantages of the program for families.
But Family Engagement doesn’t just benefit residents and their loved ones, it also saves staff members time by streamlining tasks like reporting or setting recurring events. This frees staff up to deliver more personalized care to residents and create even more engaging activities.
What’s Next for The Monarch: Increasing the Adoption of Technology for Older Adults
To compete with the rising trend of aging in place – 87 percent of older adults want to remain in their current home – and future-proof communities, leaders must adopt technology that…
- Fosters connections.
- Saves staff members time.
The Monarch plans to do just that as it commits to improving the adoption of Community Engagement and exploring more technology for older adults, like Amazon Voice integrations.
To learn more about how you can strengthen family connections and whether Caremerge is the senior living technology partner for you,