Is occupancy or care the top priority? For those in the senior living industry, now more than ever, it can be a tough question to answer.
Financial success — or even just keeping the doors open — hinges on occupancy. At the same time, personalized care is crucial for positive outcomes in both short-term and long-term companion care. Add the complexities of medical needs with aging and the elderly, along with active lifestyles for the vibrant boomer, and we’re suddenly in a pretty complicated business. It can feel like trying to run a Disney Cruise Line with Florence Nightingale as the cruise director, while competing market leadership philosophies battle for the captain’s seat. The ripple effects of the pandemic have brought these struggles front and center, with the hard truth that the traditional system simply falls short.
While public confidence is moving toward an increasing sense of normalcy, including making decisions about the role of senior living communities in care, there are still challenges of low occupancy. With ranges in some locations as low as 30-50% and added health safety regulatory compliance, maintaining adequate staffing to provide resident care is a delicate balancing act.
In the nursing home world, the lens for problem-solving has always been “root cause analysis.” What is the root cause of this issue? It’s time to take a long, hard look in the mirror. Senior living communities are spending endless hours spinning their wheels trying to adapt current systems, when what is really needed is an entirely new outlook and updated processes. The answer to filling vacancies is not a resident market issue, but rather, a leadership and caregiver issue. The secret is partners and people. Now more than ever, survivors will be those who can think outside the box, while finding trusted partners to bring reliable resources with innovative solutions. Covid-19 has proven that traditional models and philosophies are simply not sustainable.
The state of today’s care industry begs the question: how are we recruiting, training and retaining the individuals who are key to delivering essential services? When the conversations around the leadership table prioritize a new perspective on workforce issues and begin exploring breakthrough solutions needed to elevate care roles, occupancy challenges can be put into their proper context.
Enter: ProsperCare. Our team spends their time working to save time for hiring managers and candidates interested in roles in care through people-first technology solutions. With 3x the number of interviews scheduled versus traditional recruiting methods, let ProsperCare smooth the friction for staffing your frontline.