The Chief Operating Officer (COO) of a multi-site assisted living community, we’ll call him Tom, shuffles through a thick stack of printed survey results. Morale has been low lately, reflected in below average survey results, which Tom suspects may echo some recent service changes.
The Chief Operating Officer (COO) of a multi-site assisted living community, we’ll call him Tom, shuffles through a thick stack of printed survey results. Morale has been low lately, reflected in below average survey results, which Tom suspects may echo some recent service changes.
Just as concerning, a couple of his top performing centers have been lagging in other areas as well. Searching for a correlation, Tom sorts through reports, jotting notes in the margins. If there is an issue with the change in services then why are some centers still scoring higher? Exasperated, he stacks the papers on the corner of his desk, with a silent promise to read through them Sunday afternoon with a few cups of coffee.
Come Monday, Tom takes steps which he knows may not be accurate, but will hopefully correct some of the most serious issues. He keeps his fingers crossed. Sound familiar?
The question is, why is Tom still shuffling paper in a world where big data intelligence works behind the scenes to improve our daily lives? Even our traffic lights are smart, using data-driven analytics to dynamically adjust to high and low traffic volumes.
Out With the Old, In With the New
It may not be surprising that one of the last frontiers in the deployment of data-driven analytics is senior living. From assisted living to skilled nursing communities, outdated record keeping and quality monitoring techniques continue to hamper efforts to attract and engage a new generation of senior living clients and their families.
I recently spoke with Michael Johnson, VP of Research at ServiceTrac, a Senior Housing Forum Partner, about how their team helps senior living communities effectively analyze all of the data generated in the process of conducting satisfaction surveys. The company has effectively taken the antiquated, paper-based survey reporting process and moved it into the 21st century where it desperately needs to be.
Limited Systems = Limited Data Intelligence
Unfortunately, most survey solutions still lag behind the technology curve. They either generate a static set of pdf reports for manual analysis, or allow only a limited amount of querying, sorting and drill down; insufficient to meet today’s deep data analysis needs. Senior living communities are left with the following issues:
- Limited-to-no interaction with the data
- Inability to drill down and re-distribute survey data by location or region
- Inability to track and properly organize open-ended responses
- Lack of password-secure access for different levels of users
- Limited performance tracking across regions or within communities
- Lack of ability to conduct complex system queries
Wow. No wonder Tom pushed that stack to the corner of his desk!
The Data Makes the Difference
According to Michael, the underlying problem is a lack of dynamic access and control over the data that drives the survey results. Most reports provide only a basic core set of questions, which barely scratch the surface on the wide range and variety of senior care services, processes and personnel.
ServiceTrac goes far beyond solving a paper problem. Their survey reporting provides an interactive platform that crunches vast amounts of data from multiple sources on the back end, while providing a friendly, easy to use interface on the front end. Here are some of the groundbreaking capabilities that ServiceTrac has incorporated into their solution:
- Data-driven survey results updated in real time
- Dashboard interface
- Color-coded, graphical presentation of data
- Enhanced sorting capabilities view data details
- Ability to dynamically change date and time of day ranges
- User access for all levels of management to view their own results and take action
- Sorting ability across locations and regions
- Ability to ‘ask questions’ of the data and identify patterns
- Accepts multiple source input to enrich data quality
- Actionable intelligence to pinpoint where issues are and to help identify solutions
As for ‘actionable intelligence,’ according to Michael, “satisfaction surveys should not only point out where satisfaction levels are low, but help identify what actions can be taken to pull them back up.” Conversely, he notes, “They should also help identify positive patterns that can be replicated and transferred to other areas of the organization.”
It’s hard to think of an industry that can benefit more from ServiceTrac’s level of automation and data intelligence than senior care. Imagine having the ability to channel the input of your clients and employees into high-level adjustments to improve and enhance your senior care environment and services. The good news is that it exists and is available today. For COOs like Tom, the wait is finally over.
-Sue
