With the improvements made and flexibility displayed throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, one senior care company showed its ability to provide excellent care for its residents while keeping families connected.
The pandemic made it difficult for many families to stay connected with those living in senior communities, with visitation either limited or non-existent. To combat this, Atria created ways to share vitals (required multiple times each day per COVID protocols) with residents’ families, as well as other updates about their family members.
Atria Senior Living is helping people live better together.
“We looked at the data our staff are collecting every day when they’re providing care and figured out how we can communicate that in a clear and efficient manner to family members,” said Joanna Mansfield, RN, BSN, Atria Senior Living’s Senior Vice President of Care and Life Guidance®. “It’s even just simple stuff, like sending out push notifications from the community level — daily updates like, ‘Were there any positive [COVID] cases? What are the events? What’s my mom eating today?’”
Leveraging technology
The pandemic forced Atria to adapt on the fly, using technology to become more efficient and effective, providing the best possible experience for residents and giving families added peace of mind, all while reducing strain and burnout among its employees.
“We became more tech-savvy,” Mansfield said. “The pandemic really made us accelerate a lot of the projects that we had been planning for the future from a technology standpoint.”
Although the world is returning to normalcy as the pandemic winds down, the future still holds unknown challenges. Atria stands ready to meet those challenges and adjust practices to continue providing an excellent level of care.
“We’re not the largest senior living provider, but we might be the most intuitive and nimble,” Mansfield said. “We are always looking at ways that we can improve, that we can remain relevant by leveraging current technologies and relationships, even with massive healthcare systems.”
Community offerings
Atria prides itself on creating communal settings that allow its residents to live social and outgoing lives, while still receiving top-of-the-line care.
“That offers an immense benefit because, as humans, we’re social creatures,” said Mansfield, who has a background in geriatric psychology. “When I worked in an individual care setting, it was always fascinating to me to see that, even though there’s no underlying medical need as to why, but social deprivation, depression, loneliness — all of those things result in a sort of loss of meaning and motivation.”
The robust social opportunities mean there’s always something for Atria residents to look forward to, and it’s not your standard senior living fare. Social events are carefully selected to focus on various aspects of well-being, including health and fitness, lifelong learning, civic engagement, creative expression and more. And care is always offered in a discreet way, so as to not interfere with the community aspect of living.
“Even if you’re on a very high level of care, your neighbor is not going to know that you’re getting maybe three hours of care assistance on a daily basis,” said Mansfield. “I think in a communal setting, it’s important to create that even playing field for all residents.”
Peace of mind
Because Atria takes a proactive approach to innovation — collaborating with healthcare organizations (such as Mayo Clinic Laboratories, CVS Health and Northwell Health), leveraging emerging technologies and welcoming feedback from families and residents — it’s easy to rest assured that your family member will receive specialized care and support in one of its communities offering independent living, assisted living, and memory care.
“Our desire to collaborate and solicit feedback, it gives families a level of comfort,” Mansfield said. “We work to create a sense of inclusion, and a huge part of that is recognizing the fact that our customer isn’t just our resident — it’s also the family member. And having their input is invaluable.”
Visit ExploreAtriaCare.com today to see how Atria can help your older family member live their best life and provide you peace of mind. You can also see testimonials from current Atria residents at AtriaTestimonials.com.