Senior living communities generate a vast amount of data every day. Incident notes, social media engagement statistics, and other things help you evaluate and improve your organization’s performance. Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need a team of professional data analysts or a Ph.D. in statistics to interpret and use this information. Turning data into actionable insights just requires the right knowledge and technology.
That’s where data analytics and management tools like ElderSmarts come in. This user-friendly software enables you to assess data, and empowers you with insights into resident acuity, occupancy trends, how to improve your team’s day-to-day work, and more. This guide explores how you can generate and apply meaningful insights to revolutionize your senior care community.
If you’re new to data analysis, analytics can seem mysterious and even intimidating. However, the concept is simple. Analytics can provide you with actionable insights or reccomendations by analyzing large amounts of raw data, forecasting what may happen in the future, and benchmarking against other sets of data. Organizations can then use these insights and findings to make data-driven decisions and solve problems.
In other words, actionable insights bridge the gap between data science and informed business decisions. They’re tangible and specific strategies that senior living communities can implement to develop better practices, improve the resident experience, and reach business goals.
Actionable data insights are among the most useful tools for modern senior living organizations. They have many practical applications, including:
Using data to make better decisions might seem complicated, but don’t worry. Everyone can manage data and generate meaningful insights with the help of accessible software like ElderSmarts. Here’s a quick overview of the process.
First, you’ll need to ensure that you ask the right questions. For ElderSmarts users, you’ll want to equip yourself with the right groups of reports that will be the most relevant to your current goals and makeup of your senior living organization. Examples of questions you can answer with data analytics include:
ElderSmarts enables you to gather relevant information from every data source you rely on, bringing everything quickly into one place with nothing lost in data silos.
ElderSmarts can help you gather key performance indicators (KPIs) related to resident satisfaction, such as attendance trends for community fitness classes or survey responses.
Or, if you want to assess the effectiveness of your digital marketing campaigns, ElderSmarts can gather information from Google Analytics, Mailchimp, LinkedIn, and other platforms to help you learn more about the people interacting with your content, and what are the most impactful pieces of marketing collateral your team is producing.
ElderSmarts automatically analyzes big data using machine learning algorithms, statistical models, and integrations with other Eldermark dashboards and software solutions. The software reveals patterns and trends in the data sets, such as numbers of tours or decreasing referrals.
Additionally, ElderSmarts enables users to narrow the results through segmentation. For instance, you might focus your analysis on a particular client demographic or geographic region.
ElderSmarts translates data analytics into accessible data visualizations like charts and graphs. These colorful images are much easier to interpret than vast spreadsheets or mathematical formulas. As a result, they allow business leaders, stakeholders, and other decision makers to understand the data and results quickly.
Finally, ElderSmarts goes beyond just data dashboards, it actively suggests insights based on findings. It proactively provides new recommendations into your operations so you can actively work towards improving performance and pursuing business goals. Business leaders can use these recommendations to create new initiatives and quickly make impactful decisions.
Here are three examples of ways senior living communities can use data analytics to transform raw data into actionable insights.
Tasks like administering medication and completing move–in paperwork are complex and time-consuming. Data analytics can reveal inefficiencies in these processes and make it easier to schedule adequate staff during busy periods, making the routine better for both your residents and their caregivers.
Senior living occupancy rates have improved slowly in the last two years but remain below pre-COVID levels in many communities. Data analytics allows organizations to identify areas to improve to attract new residents. For instance, benchmarking with ElderSmarts could reveal that your prices are 30% higher than local competitors. Based on this finding, you can adjust pricing models to draw more people to your community.
ElderSmarts can analyze electronic health records, changing resident acuity, and assessments to gain insights into a resident’s needs and preferences, and so you can make sure their care plans are up-to-date and the right staff are meeting their needs.
Do you know how many of your residents have higher acuity levels than when they moved in but are not being charged based on their care plan? ElderSmarts won’t just give you a report, it will tell you which residents need a change, what their new level of care should be, and outline the financial impact those changes will make.
The senior living industry is on the verge of a digital transformation driven by data analytics and other ground-breaking technologies. Join this exciting revolution by using ElderSmarts to gain new insights into your community’s past, present, and future operations.
ElderSmarts allows senior living professionals to harness the power of business intelligence tools and data to make smarter decisions and improve functionality. The best part? You don’t need a background in data analytics to use this simple but effective technology.
Get in touch with Eldermark today to learn more about how you can use ElderSmarts to boost performance and increase resident satisfaction.