By Steve Moran
It is not unreasonable for family members to be concerned with how a loved one is doing in a senior living community. It is not unreasonable on the part of families who want to “know what is going on”. And yet, if every relative or friend of every resident calls your community for an update on their loved one, the call volume becomes overwhelming; creating an impossible situation. Not responding has the potential to increase the likelihood of lawsuits and bad press.
But, what if it were possible to fix this problem?
There is A Solution
I recently spent some time talking to Susan Hull, Chief Health Information Officer, and Kevin Dempster, Director of Sales at Careloop (a Senior Living Foresight partner) about this HUGE problem. And about how they are helping senior living organizations crack it by providing families the information and updates they want and need, and substantially reducing the burden on staff.
First
When you first look at Careloop you are likely to go, “Oh yeah, seen something just like that from a dozen other companies that provide social interaction between residents and family members. Nothing new here”.
But it is very different and very cool.
Very Different
Careloop is a very different platform/app than those dozens of other apps. They are laser-focused on making sure family members have the most current, best clinical information about their loved ones.
I want to be a little careful here, but family members are a lot more interested in knowing what is going on with their loved ones medically and functionally than what they had for lunch or whether or not they played bingo today.
They want to know what the caregivers are seeing and what the medical professionals are thinking about their loved ones.
My Personal Experience
Yesterday afternoon, my stepmom called to tell me that she had just dropped my 92-year-old retired physician father at the emergency room because his heart was doing some weird stuff. You might be picturing: 92-years-old, frail, incompetent. Nope, not my dad. He still drives and, if not for COVID, we would be “doing lunch” every week or two. But, because of COVID, all my stepmom could do, all I could do was wait for him or some nameless, faceless medical person to tell us what is going on.
After an overnight stay, some tests, and studies, they found nothing, and he is off to the Pacific Coast to celebrate his wife’s birthday.
BUT, the only way I knew that was because I called and asked. This might not sound so bad, except they were in the car and I could barely hear them. And as I write this I only sort of know what is going on.
IF . . .
If he had the Careloop platform I would know all I want to know (with his permission, of course). And I would not need to try to figure out what is going on via a crummy stupid phone conversation.
What Could Careloop Do For You?
I wish I could promise you that if you had Careloop, 100% of those status calls would stop. But that is not likely to happen. What would it do for your staff if those calls were reduced by 50%? How much more would your family members love your community if they could just look at an app or website to know, in real-time, what is going on medically with their loved one?
With Careloop, you can create highly customized surveys to use in your communities. Careloop is finding they get an early warning about problems and more importantly, it strengthens the relationship between the community and family members.
Read more about communications challenges, including playing phone tag, by downloading this PDF. For a demo of CareLoop, email Keven Dempster at kevin@careloop.co.
