5 Things You Need to Know About Your Residents

As a senior living provider, there are several resident-specific details that you should always be aware of — some obvious, some not so obvious. And keeping track of every resident preference or requirement can feel overwhelming. Leveraging technology to better document and manage resident details can help your team deliver a personalized service and help in driving satisfaction.

Here are five things you should know about all your residents to help guarantee their health and happiness:

1. Their Medications
The average senior living resident takes nine different medications. As a senior living provider, it’s your responsibility to know all medications that each resident must take, and when. When you consider this, along with the dire consequences of possible medication errors, the day-to-day management can become very complicated. Luckily, having a cloud-based electronic health record (EHR) solution will help you accomplish this — and it will help guarantee that your residents receive the best possible care at all times.

2. Their Dietary Preferences and Requirements
Your residents likely won’t be happy if their meals regularly include food they dislike. Given the importance of proper nutrition, their willingness to eat their meals is essential. By understanding their preferences, you can ensure that they have options made available to them regularly. Moreover, if there are foods that they must eat or avoid due to other health issues, you can provide meals that meet these needs. Residents’ personal dietary information can also, helpfully, be stored within your community’s cloud-based EHR, so you’ll never get Lawrence’s affinity for broccoli mixed up with Nancy’s love for chocolate.

3. Their Lifestyle Preferences
Every community has early risers, afternoon exercisers, frequent coffee drinkers, and avid readers. Knowing the lifestyle preferences and hobbies of your residents will help your staff better understand and connect with each of them while delivering a more personalized experience. Additionally, once you’re familiar with different residents’ routines and hobbies, you’ll be able to spot when residents are straying from what’s normal for them — which could signal a change in their physical or psychosocial wellbeing that requires attention.

4. Their Mobility Challenges
With more than half of senior living residents moving in at 85 or older, it is understanding that their levels of independence may vary more significantly than they have in the past — and your community must be prepared. While some may be taking long walks after lunch, the average resident requiring assistance with their daily activities has grown to 75%. Knowing which residents need a little help will allow you to allocate the appropriate staff members to aid with dressing or taking the stairs to the dining room.

5. Their Close Family Members and Primary Contacts
As a senior living provider, you should do your best to learn which of your residents’ family members they have a close connection with. Not only are these family members typically more involved in the health and wellbeing of their senior parents, but it’s important to know who your point of contact is in the event of an emergency. They can also help identify if a resident is behaving differently and may require additional attention from your staff or care team.

It can take time to learn all of these things about your residents — and it’s hard to ensure that all of your staff members learn and remember this information. But that’s where a cloud-based EHR provides benefit. By storing all this information within each resident’s record as it’s learned, your team will have access to the same details whenever and where ever they’re interacting with a resident. Trust us, your residents — and your bottom line — will thank you.

To learn more about the benefits of documenting and managing your residents’ details, check out Tips and Tricks to Driving Revenue with Better Assessments.