Senior Living Analytics: A Guide to Actionable Insights

The senior living market is changing. Spurred on by the pandemic, there’s a growing need for new technology that addresses changing business dynamics and resident needs. There's a pressing array of business issues that all senior living organizations now face, staff turnover, rising operational costs, changing consumer expectations, and more, the challenges facing the senior living business line are complex and multifaceted. At the same time, the U.S. population continues to grow older, increasing the demand for exceptional senior care. This growth in demand means technology that guides decision making and increases efficiency has become essential for any senior living organization looking to thrive in 2023.  

In response to these evolving needs, Eldermark is looking to provide software, solutions and expert consultation that directly address these business issues. Senior living operators need to make rapid and accurate decisions based on real-time data every day. Driving decisions with data can lead to improved care quality, streamlined operations, and the delivery of more meaningful outcomes for residents.  

That’s where ElderSmarts the built-for-senior-living analytics platform comes in. It brings all your data into one place, analyzes it, benchmarks you against your competitors, and proactively provides your team with actionable insights and prescriptive recommendations your team can take.  

In this page, explore what’s possible when a senior living organization turns to analytics, functionally how tools like ElderSmarts can empower teams with actionable insights, what types of recommendations it can make for you, and how you can apply technology like this at your senior living organization. 

Jump to any section:

• The Importance of Data Analytics in Senior Living
• Real-Life Examples of Ways Analytics Can Help a Senior Living Team
• How to Find the Right Analytics Software
• ElderSmarts: Your Decision-Making Companion 
• Frequently Asked Questions About Senior Living Analytics
• How to Get Started With ElderSmarts
  

 The Importance of Data Analytics in Senior Living

The COVID-19 pandemic not only intensified existing challenges for senior living communities, but it also brought new ones to light. One of the most critical revelations has been the vital role data and analytics can play in running efficient operations. The ability to leverage data has swiftly become a top priority for senior living communities nationwide — and it makes sense why.  

Leaders within senior and assisted living organizations are responsible for making decisions that impact the critical care of residents every day. For example:

• Strategic Decision Making: Insights address operational challenges like declining occupancy rates and staffing shortages. 
• Customer Behavior Analysis: Insights assist in understanding and catering to resident needs.
• Staffing Optimization: Predictive analytics optimize caregiver scheduling. 
• Increased Profitability: Actionable insights can improve marketing, resident retention, and efficiency.

Without the right data, those decisions become more risky. 

As a leading provider of software in the senior living industry, Eldermark noticed this growing demand for data-driven insights — the need to use data to describe, diagnose, and prescribe action. The ElderSmarts platform we designed proactively prescribes these insights to senior living teams, guiding them toward more efficient and effective operations. 

Related article: The Demand for Data in Senior Living

What Exactly is “Actionable Data?”

Actionable data is information that provides clear and relevant insights that can lead to practical steps or strategies. Anyone can gather data, but what you do with it is what truly matters. 

Senior living communities need tools that can distill data and provide informed business decisions and strategies without requiring a data scientist on the team. That’s exactly what ElderSmarts Analytics offers.

Related article: Turning Data Into Actionable Insights at Your Senior Living Community 

Real Examples of Ways Analytics Can Help a Senior Living Team 

Analytics empowers senior living teams to make data-driven decisions that ultimately enhance operational efficiency, improve resident satisfaction, and maximize profitability. Below are some specific ways the right data can benefit your community:

• Streamline Workflows: Improve efficiency in processes and staff scheduling. 
• Boost Occupancy Rates: Use insights to make the community more attractive to potential residents and make use of marketing tactics that local competitors have found success with.
• Personalize Care: Utilize data to tailor care to resident needs. 
• Reduce Revenue Leakage: Automatically adjust charges based on changing resident needs. 
• Risk Management: Analytics can highlight patterns leading to incidents like medication errors or falls, allowing the team to put preventative measures in place. 
• Understanding Customer Behavior: By examining attendance trends for activities or evaluating survey responses, teams can gauge what services or events are most favored by residents, helping in planning future activities.

How to Find the Right Analytics Software

Finding the right analytics software tailored to your senior living team's unique needs requires a systematic approach. Here are some steps you should consider: 

• Identify Your Specific Needs: Note the specific challenges and initiatives of the community. Are occupancy rates a primary concern? Is there a focus on improving personalized care? Need to stay on top of revenue-generating opportunities? The answers will help define the kind of software features you need. 
• Gather Recommendations: Speak with peers in the industry, consult industry-specific publications, read testimonials, or attend webinars/conferences. Often, firsthand experiences of other senior living teams can provide valuable insights into software effectiveness.
• Software Demonstrations: Once a shortlist of potential software is identified, request live demonstrations. This will allow your team to get a feel for the software's user interface, functionality, and suitability for your needs. 
• Integration Capabilities: Ensure the software can seamlessly integrate with any existing systems, like Electronic Health Records (EHR) or Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools, to avoid data silos and promote efficient data flow. 
• Scalability: The software should be scalable to accommodate the desired growth of your community or organization. This means it should be adaptable to an increase in residents, staff, or facilities. 
• Training and Support: Check what kind of training and ongoing support the software provider offers. Adequate training can smooth the transition, and reliable support ensures any issues are promptly addressed.

ElderSmarts: Your Decision-Making Companion 

While the existing Eldermark Dashboard Reporting provides basic data on par with anyone in the industry, ElderSmarts is a far more advanced analytics platform specifically tailored to proactively provide insights to users in the senior living sector. The platform is designed to break down data silos, unifying data from every source within an organization and making it accessible on one platform.

But data collection and aggregation isn’t the only thing ElderSmarts does. What really sets our platform apart from any others in the industry is that it takes that data, measures it against industry benchmarks, pairs it with predictive analytics, and then uses that to generate constant, meaningful and actionable insights. This comprehensive approach provides organizations with a holistic view of the following:

• What is happening? (descriptive analytics) 
• Why is it happening? (diagnostic analytics) 
• What is likely to happen next if the trend continues? (predictive analytics) 
• What may be the best course of action? (prescriptive analytics)
  

For example, with insights into occupancy rates, resident acuity, risk management, revenue optimization, and workforce staffing, ElderSmarts actually helps organizations forecast and proactively address problems and inefficiencies allowing for senior living teams to enhance productivity, streamline processes, and identify untapped revenue streams. That’s true data-driven decision making.

How ElderSmarts Helps Senior Living Communities

With the advanced analytics provided by ElderSmarts, the platform helps senior living professionals get deeper insights into the following (and more!):

• How to manage or prevent resident falls
• Required staffing you may need on different days/times
• Ensuring residents are at the appropriate care level for both clinical insight and revenue optimization
• Influencing the length of resident stay
• Achieving occupancy goals
• Capturing all earned revenue
• Measuring resident acuity and its applications 
• Data-driven quality assurance performance improvement

But how does it really work? Sure, you know ElderSmarts offers industry-leading data insights, but where is it all coming from? Let’s explore:

 Fully Comprehensive Data Analysis

ElderSmarts excels at handling and interpreting large amounts of data. Whether it’s your EHR, your social media marketing reports, or your financial software, ElderSmarts is software-neutral and compatible with any existing data at your organization. This capability enables a truly accurate view of what's going on within a community. Data that used to be scattered across various tools is now unified and accessible on one platform. 

Real-time Reporting and Recommendations

The platform uses predictive analytics to identify trends and patterns within real-time data, but ElderSmarts goes beyond just showing you trends — it interprets the meaning of those trends and then provides recommendations on how to increase efficiency, improve care, and more. That feature helps leadership become more agile and responsive with everything from sales and marketing to healthcare operations and nursing. 

Customizable or Out-of-the-box Ready to Use

ElderSmarts also offers flexibility in presenting data. The platform is designed to provide customizable analytic views, allowing you to tailor the presentation of your data to your specific KPIs and your team’s needs. These customizable dashboards give you more control over how data is viewed across your organization.

Beyond customization, ElderSmarts is equipped with pre-made "content sets," which are expertly curated selections of the most sought-after analytics reports in senior living. These sets offer insights into crucial areas, such as:

• Occupancy trends
• Marketing performance metrics
• In-depth financial analyses
• Variations in care levels based on resident acuity
• Staffing patterns 
  

These content sets have been developed based on what Eldermark experts identify as the most insightful and popular reports with existing ElderSmarts users, providing users with a better starting point. 

Read more about how senior living teams can put analytics into action in our eBook. 

See ElderSmarts in Action: Webinars and Expert Walkthroughs

Our analytics platform helps many senior living communities throughout the country. Want to see how it works? In our recent webinar, you can hear from Eldermark data and industry experts about how ElderSmarts assists communities in navigating challenges. Our experts also highlight the platform’s practical applications and demonstrate the system's flexibility in integrating and analyzing varied data sets for actionable insights.

Watch now and learn what’s possible with ElderSmarts: Your Own Data has the Answers to Senior Living Challenges

Frequently Asked Questions About Senior Living Analytics 

Why Should a Senior Living Community Rely on Analytics?

Senior living communities should rely on analytics because it enables them to make smarter, more informed, and more strategic decisions. Whether it’s about optimizing staffing, personalizing care, or enhancing resident satisfaction, analytics help identify and address operational challenges.

From marketing to nursing and everything in between, senior living communities generate vast amounts of data. At many organizations, data is an untapped resource because it’s unorganized, misinterpreted, or not even acknowledged. A tool like ElderSmarts can use data to help leadership get the most out of their team’s work. 

Does ElderSmarts Work for Large Communities With Vast Amounts of Data? 

Absolutely! ElderSmarts was designed to manage large amounts of data. A large Eldermark customer recently ran a comparison between ElderSmarts and its old reporting database, attempting to pull more than 850,000 records with each system. The old system failed multiple times to compile the same number of records as ElderSmarts — and that one time it did succeed, it took 20x longer!

How to Get Started with ElderSmarts

It’s time to embrace data-driven decision-making at your senior housing organization. With the actionable insights from the most advanced senior living analytics platform available, you can scale your business, grow occupancy, simplify your team’s busy schedule, and discover new financial opportunities. 

With the help of our analytics software, along with other services, we recently helped a senior living community in Minnesota increase the monthly revenue at each of its 33 communities by $61,000 — that’s an additional $22 million year over year.

Ready to get started? Contact us today for your first introductory call. In that call, we’ll discuss the current goals of your organization and explain how analytics can help. Then we’ll talk about how it integrates into your team’s current workflows and what process improvements you could expect to see.