Retain Your Best Caregivers Longer with the Right Technology
While it’s difficult to quantify, the cost of replacing a certified nursing assistant (CNA) shouldn’t be taken lightly. By the time you account for your recruiting expenses, the cost of training and the lost work hours due to the vacancy, the immediate financial impact on your skilled nursing facility can be significant. As if all that weren’t enough, we haven’t even addressed the departed employee’s intangible impact on your residents.
You Aren’t Just Losing an Employee, Residents Are Losing a Friend
One of the most influential factors driving resident satisfaction at your community is your team of caregivers. When employees decide to leave, they don’t just take their years of training, professional development and medical expertise with them – they also take their relationships.
Your front-line employees, the people who interact and form bonds with your residents, are the heart and soul of any skilled nursing facility. While you can’t avoid turnover completely, understanding why some employees leave in the first place can provide valuable insight that you can use to reduce turnover.
How Technology Improves Employee Retention and Resident Satisfaction
The best certified nursing assistants (CNAs), registered nurses and healthcare professionals working in the industry are incredibly passionate about caring for the residents of your facility. In fact, many CNAs and other healthcare professionals choose this line of work because it genuinely makes them happy.
Nurse Journal, a worldwide resource for nursing professionals, lists “Opportunity to make a difference” as the number one reason to choose a career as a CNA.
What doesn’t make them happy? Struggling with the inefficient, clunky technology platforms that are often essential in their day-to-day responsibilities. Some caregivers may view these outdated technologies as barriers to doing the work that they feel is truly meaningful. Given enough time, even your most loyal, veteran caregivers can reach a breaking point that may lead them to consider employment opportunities elsewhere.
On the other hand, a user-friendly technology platform can actually make it faster and easier for caregivers to ensure better quality of care for all of your residents. By improving communication between nurses and other caregivers, the right technology can help your facility offer person-centered care that enhances both resident and family satisfaction.
Choosing the Right Care Management Solution for Your Skilled Nursing Facility
Understandably, you may feel trepidation about switching to a new system. So, before you make a decision, here are few important points to consider to help you identify a great solution for your facility:
- Improves Your Workflow: An intuitive workflow will enable users to quickly learn and navigate the system, allowing more time for resident care. Look for a user-friendly, resident-focused solution that enables your facility to deliver better care while maximizing reimbursement and cash flow.
- Helpful Customer Service: Like any investment in your skilled nursing facility, you want to get the most value possible for your money. A great customer service experience can not only help you find answers to your questions, it can also assist your IT department in training caregivers or other employees.
- Accommodates Existing Data: Your old system likely holds a considerable amount of data. Sometimes this information is easily transferred to a new system; sometimes the process is a bit more complicated. Whatever the case, make sure that your new vendor is willing to work with you to find a feasible solution for preserving legacy data.
- Ensures Regulatory Compliance: The skilled nursing industry is one of the most heavily regulated industries in the country. The best integrated clinical and financial software solutions for your skilled nursing facility will help you stay on top of all industry regulations. This includes keeping you ahead of the curve with embedded workflows and configurations that support Bundled Payment and ACOs, Managed Care, PBJ, and the IMPACT Act.
Integrated Care, Better Outcomes
MatrixCare is the industry’s most comprehensive solution for managing resident care and business operations for skilled nursing facilities. Not only do our solutions help ensure residents get great care but also that caregivers get to spend more time doing what they love, which can dramatically improve retention. Contact us today to learn more.
