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Why Senior Care Homes Should Consider Publishing Their Action Plan

Updated: Mar 28, 2022

When retirement homes are making changes, it is important to set goals and milestones to track progress and show that you are listening to your residents. Action plans help accomplish this by showing the changes that will be made in response to resident satisfaction surveys. They show your residents what changes are being made and an approximate timeline, so they do not expect immediate change.


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What Do Senior Care Facilities Do With Their Action Plans?

While some retirement homes do publish the results of their resident satisfaction surveys, few publish the action plans they are implementing in response to their survey results. However, publishing these action plans, along with your survey results, could be beneficial to the overall image of the company as you demonstrate accountability. If one section of your satisfaction survey scores is weaker than average, publishing an action plan with your survey results shows that your home considers its residents' opinions and makes residents feel more valued. Using your survey results for brand marketing is helpful because it shows that your residents enjoy the amenities in your home. However, showing an action plan alongside these results would benefit the company even more as it shows that your home is always striving to improve itself.


Example of an Action Plan

Action plans follow a formula of stating a concern raised within the home and then highlighting the steps which will be taken along the way to resolve the concern. For a more detailed explanation of action plans and their contents, check out our article here. An example of an action plan for retirement homes comes from BRIA Retirement Communities and their 2018 UNIFOCUS SURVEY RESULTS report. The action plan begins by stating a concern that "several respondents commented on the number of walkers and wheelchairs being used by our residents" (BRIA 2019, pg.1). The report continues to provide a solution, stating that "our staff will ensure that walkers are stored safely when not in use during events in our lounge, or in other crowded areas." (BRIA 2019, pg.1). Providing solutions to concerns highlighted by your residents shows not only that your facility cares about the opinions of its residents, but also that you are actively trying to improve. COVID-19 highlighted many issues within the senior living industry, and publishing action plans online can show potential residents that you are trying to address these current concerns and make a change for the better.

Tracking Progress

Tracking the impact of your plan is important for implementing your action plan effectively. Tracking allows you to assess whether changes need to be made to the plan to achieve the desired outcome. As well, tracking the progress of your action plan means you can make updates online, which show the improvements being made in your community, and show your residents that you are addressing their concerns.


Tracking and Measuring Progress with Pulse Surveys

One effective way of tracking the progress of your action plan is the implementation of pulse surveys. Pulse surveys are short, frequent surveys that can be tailored to specific topics to assess their change over time. With action plans and changes to a retirement home, pulse surveys allow staff members to see the impact of their changes in real-time. The frequent nature of pulse surveys means the information management and staff member sees will always be current and the changes to responses over time can be easily assessed.


Transparency build trust. The pandemic has exposed severe flaws in senior care homes, our most vulnerable population. Now more than ever, care home providers need to rebuild trust and regain confidence from residents and their family members one feedback at a time.


How Can We Help?

Retainify offers a unified solution that allows senior living facilities to customize and automate their employee and resident satisfaction surveys to measure what matters to them. Our cost-effective solution can be deployed in less than 24 hours with minimal effort, and customers can access feedback from their staff and residents in real-time.


Contact Us: hello@retainify.com


 

Citations:


Communities, B. (2019). We Heard You! 2018 UNIFOCUS SURVEY RESULTS. Retrieved July 23, 2020, from https://briacommunities.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/BRIA-Survey-Results-Posters-2019-02.pdf

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