Leslie Powell, Regional Director of Sales and Marketing at Milestone Retirement Communities, will be the first to say you should not underestimate the senior population. This past year brought a lot of challenges to senior living communities and the need for clear and efficient communication became of the utmost importance for residents, their families, and staff. But, to really have communication, you need to adopt efficient technologies into the community.
What is Milestone Retirement Communities?
Milestone Retirement has created a culture of caring and is proud to provide management services to senior living investors specializing in independent living, assisted living, memory care and specialty care.
Leslie and her team have been working tirelessly to provide the best care for their residents. However, in recent months, it’s been evident that they are working inefficiently. For instance, a staff member has to input 150 residents, all their families, and who is moving in or out into a database manually on an on-going basis. Leslie knew there needed to be a more efficient way to handle the administrative side of the community without losing focus on communication among residents, families, and staff.
“To just have better use of their time,” Leslie said. “Our teams have never worked harder and right now it’s about being efficient and being laser-focused on what we need to do to refill our communities and do it safely. So just try to create that whole mentality of work smarter not harder.”
Establishing the work smarter not harder mentality through implementation of various software and other technologies pays dividends.
By embracing emerging technologies, we are able to look at things differently and handle communications within the community at an efficient rate, says Leslie. However, this is easier said than done. Lelsie understands there is a learning curve when it comes to incorporating new technologies into an industry that is far behind. But, this doesn’t mean we can assume the senior population isn’t capable of adapting to the change. To help the transition, you can check out our blog discussing 7 ways we can help seniors use technology .
“We really shouldn’t be underestimating this population,” Leslie said. “ This population has done so much in their lifetime. Has done so much for this country. They really are an impressive generation.”
Seeing that this population can work with these new technologies and are better able to communicate with family through applications like Zoom is a true testament to their willingness to adapt to the times.
Even though the senior generation shows a willingness to adopt technology into their everyday lives, there are a 1000 reasons why senior living communities don’t use the software. However, it’s still worth understanding whether that reason is something you can overcome as a community with training or if you just need to scrap it and move on to a different option. Whatever the reason may be, take time to evaluate your systems in place.
“Are they really working? Are they bringing you value? What is the percentage of usage?”
Leslie recommends asking these questions in order to better understand if you are optimizing your software and technological capabilities. This ensures your community is running efficiently. But, don’t just rely on your staff for help because your residents are capable and ready to take that next step forward in senior living’s technological transformation.
watch senior living industry leader interviews
