What to Look For in Skilled Nursing Software

The highly proficient, hardworking medical professionals in skilled nursing bring expertise that supports longer, healthier lives. The past few years have seen nurses undergo incredible strain and have led to an unprecedented exodus from the profession. Only 15% of nurses plan to keep working as hard for the same number of hours, long term.

It’s no surprise that nurses are reaching their breaking point and leaving the field, but the senior living industry is acutely feeling their absence. In some cases, senior housing communities are closing down without them. As senior living industry leaders focus on retaining nursing talent while also hiring new nursing staff, they are looking to dedicated technology and software for support. These systems help lighten their workload and eliminate the pain points that cause them to leave their jobs or the profession entirely.

Challenges Facing Skilled Nursing

Senior living is a service industry that depends on its workforce to provide top-tier service and attention to residents and their families. Workforce deficiencies could mean less engagement or, for higher levels of care such as skilled nursing or hospice, they could pose serious health consequences or preventable health crises. Senior living providers, especially those that require a higher level of care, have been forced to limit new admissions, which results in bottlenecks as prospective

Nurses in the senior living industry have a strong desire to help residents live their best, healthiest lives. They face significant challenges, however, that make their jobs far more difficult than they should be:

• Inadequate facilities
• Over-scheduling
• Difficult and time-consuming administrative duties
• Inconsistent and siloed record-keeping
• Demanding medical compliance rules
• Communication barriers between coworkers, residents, and the residents’ families

Many of these issues can be solved with the right senior living operating systems. That’s because technology simplifies or automates many labor- and time-intensive tasks. Processes that require less hands-on interaction will free staff to focus on the most meaningful (and satisfying) parts of their job. A well-designed senior living operating system can handle much of the background — yet necessary — work in caring for seniors, such as scheduling and reporting. It can also empower residents and their families to have greater visibility and control of their own healthcare.

Smart Scheduling to Prevent Burnout

Senior living software platforms are designed to address pain points like overscheduling, one of the major reasons nurses leave the profession. The same amount feel their employers aren’t doing enough to address these shortages. 60–80% of nurses are used to working 12-hour shifts, yet as work hours rise beyond that, nurses are more prone to quitting the profession due to burnout.

Aline’s operating system is built specifically for senior housing to make staff scheduling easier and smarter.

• Tracking and matching each resident with their preferred caregiver
• Color-coded heat maps show where nurses spend most of their time per shift
• Tasks can be easily reassigned
• Distributing tasks evenly prevents over-scheduling and keeps operators within overtime pay budget

Compliance Confidence

Medical compliance can be another major source of stress for skilled nursing providers. With understaffing, caregivers often need to do their own administrative work. As a result:

• A lot of time is spent making sure patient medical records are accurate and up-to-date
• There’s more risk for HIPAA violations that carry serious consequences including fines, loss of accreditation, and even loss of professional licenses

Senior living operating systems can automatically update and check records, requiring minimal manual data entry or interaction from busy medical professionals. Key information is available to any nursing professional at any time, without getting lost in data silos.

Tools for Efficient Care and Operations

To provide the best possible experience to residents and their families, skilled nursing providers can use technology to automate vital yet time-consuming tasks like regulatory compliance and record-keeping. Aline’s operating system keeps you compliant, connected, and focused on delivering exceptional care. Book a demo to learn more.