By: Jerry Dennany, Chief Technology Officer, MatrixCare

Amid the looming end of pandemic waivers and a possible recession on the horizon, the ongoing staffing crisis remains the most urgent challenge facing Facilities today. With the cost of labor rising and its availability shrinking, here are a few recent trends in long-term care and skilled nursing that leverage technology to help leaders rise to today’s biggest challenges and adapt to the new normal.

The cost of the ongoing staffing crisis

Staffing challenges remain the most impactful trends in long-term care and skilled nursing, as many facilities across the country struggle both to retain current staff, and to find the new workers needed to support a growing resident population. In many instances, facilities have plenty of available beds, but not enough clinical staff to support filling them.

High turnover costs money, and not just for sourcing, hiring and training new workers, but also for the added administrative work of transitioning people in and out of the user system. Credentialing and other data processing tasks can be time-consuming, potentially representing thousands of hours of work — a significant burden on staff members who may already be working at full capacity.

High turnover can also affect quality of care. Each new worker must start a new relationship with a facility’s residents, who may feel disengaged or dissatisfied if that happens too regularly, or if a particular favorite departs. In addition, critical patient data is too often lost when long-serving workers depart without a high-functioning clinical record to back up every piece of information.

In short, the current staffing crisis is causing a cascade of problems. But the good news is that emerging technological applications are giving facilities the solutions they need to meet these challenges, and to simultaneously boost efficiency, retention, and even patient outcomes in the process.

3 technology trends for long-term care and skilled facilities in 2023

#1: Machine learning and artificial intelligence

Facilities are increasingly embracing machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to help ease the effects of the staffing shortage. By optimizing administrative processes, facilities can get more done with fewer workers, helping improve efficiency without having to expand the budget for labor.

In addition, AI and ML can be used to help improve clinical workflows in a way that positively impacts outcomes — for instance, by integrating resident records into a larger system that tracks and flags those at heightened risk of falls or malnutrition. And because they help care teams do their jobs more quickly, efficiently and with lower risk of error, these tools can also help boost staff morale and reduce turnover.

#2: Automated identity management

The high rates of turnover have led to a greater need for identity management and information security. As more people transition in and out of an organization, it’s important to make sure that credentialing and other key processes continue in a secure and reliable way. That’s a big job, and it consumes more and more time as turnover surges — and exposes organizations to greater risk if it’s not done right.

Identity management solutions integrated into a larger EHR system can help streamline the entire process, accelerating a facility’s ability to seamlessly transition people in and out without compromising workflows and saddling staff members with an excess of manual tasks. By quickly deprovisioning users from the system upon departure, organizations lower their risk of security breaches, as well.

#3: Greater ease of use for staff

Offering employees a functional, efficient and productive workplace is another way to curb turnover. And some providers of EHR systems are working to do just that by focusing on user-centered design that makes carrying out daily tasks easy and intuitive. This helps free workers from the tedium and frustration of manual data entry and gives them more time to focus on resident care.

The idea is to use technology to support employees, not get in their way. To that end, leading providers of EHR solutions are working to give clinical workers the same user-centered interface that dominates consumer technology. With better tools available to more efficiently carry out their tasks, staff can get more done in less time, supporting overall efficiency as well as a more positive workforce culture.

Stay on top of today’s trends in long-term care and skilled nursing with MatrixCare

As the leader in EHR solutions for nursing and long-term care facilities, MatrixCare is proud to deliver a suite of technological services designed to meet today’s most pressing challenges, including:

• Identity management functionality to enable an efficient, streamlined and secure turnover process
• Comprehensive, streamlined record keeping, so critical patient information doesn’t depend upon the memory of a single individual
• Integration with the MyData clinical data platform to more closely monitor resident information and trends
• Clinical Advanced Insights, which leverages automation and AI to help facilities detect risk, prioritize care and assign resources
• A user experience team constantly working to ensure that facility staff members have the best possible experience with the system

At MatrixCare, we’re always working on new ways to harness the power of AI, ML and other technology trends to drive efficiencies and outcomes for the nation’s skilled nursing and long-term care facilities. Learn more about how we can help your organization: Request a demo today to see our solutions in action.

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