Reducing non-care workload in long-term care facilities
…and improving operating costs with technology
One of the biggest challenges facing long-term care community staff is the volume of non-care related tasks. Answering emails, taking family phone calls, completing regulatory paperwork and completing other documentation take valuable time away from patient-centered activities. Technology and "digital transformation" can help reduce the burden of these non-care activities, allowing staff to spend more time with patients. Family interactions represent a significant portion of staff activity - and an area where technology can help.
Technology can improve working conditions and allow staff to "do more with less" by streamlining or eliminating non-care activities. Leading long term care provider EmpRes recently conducted a controlled study evaluating the impact of How's Mom on staff activity and saw annualized savings of $300k+ per facility in non-care-related activity time.
Over-burdened staff means worse care
The challenge overworked caregivers has serious consequences across the entire healthcare system, including:
- Overwhelmed nurses often forget to turn bedridden patients, leading to increased hospitalizations from bedsores.
- Short-staffing nurses also translates to more patient falls, late delivery of medication and even higher patient mortality
- Thinly stretched nurses burn out
- More code violations occur that can result in lawsuits
Technology can help alleviate the staffing burden
Technology can enable self-service and speed information delivery. According to a recent PWC study, nearly 80% of American consumers say that speed, convenience, knowledgeable help and friendly service are the most important elements of a positive customer experience. Facilities should prioritize technologies that provide these benefits rather than adopting new technologies for the sake of being cutting edge. Putting residents and families enable them to serve themselves will make it easier for them to answer their questions, reduce the frequency of in-person conversations and improve their overall impression of your facility.
The immediate, drastic, and sustained reductions in occupancy effectively eliminated any operating income SNF operators had pre-pandemic. While growing occupancy is critical, growth is dependent on an operator's ability to incrementally increase staffing in correlation with patient admissions. Operators must also consider the reimbursement associated with the admissions.
EmpRes saves significant staff time with How's Mom
Leading long term care provider EmpRes recently conducted a 6-month controlled study comparing labor costs for family communication in 24 facilities. 12 facilities relied on phone calls to communicate outbreaks or other important facility information to family members. The other 12 used How's Mom to automate communication and progress note creation.
The results were staggering. How's Mom cut phone calls with family members by 95%, reduced the time per call from 14 minutes to 4 minutes. Thanks to How's Mom, EmpRes saved 55 hours per month per facility in staff time - a financial benefit of nearly $3,000/month/facility. "That represents time that could be spent providing better care, preventing a fall or a re-hospitalization," noted EmpRes's TK King. Staff members embraced the technology, too. In a post-test survey, staff members even said, "If you take this away, I'll pay for it out of my own pocket." As a result of the test, EmpRes will be rolling out How's Mom to all 60 facilities.
How's Mom Can Help
The How's Mom app and Connections Hub enable organizations to streamline feedback solicitation and communication with residents and family members, with a full suite of tools, including chart views, mass notifications, visit planning, family feedback and more. This convenient software makes family communication a powerful - and easily manageable - tool for improving customer experiences and building census.
Schedule a demo
Contact us today to see how the How's Mom app and Connections Hub can help your organization reduce your team's non-care workload and reduce operating costs.