If you are a part of an organization dedicated to culture change, and in particular, developing person-centered care for your residents, you are on the right path. Once you begin this journey of change, it is vital to never give up because of resistance to change, or it just seems too difficult. Person-centered organizations cannot be quitters. It is also important to make culture change highly visible to your residents, employees, families, vendors, referral sources and the community at large. Great change must be noticed to be appreciated and effective.
Gaining a Competitive Edge
You and your staff will undoubtedly exert great amounts of time and energy while flipping your current culture into a person-centered one. Your organization must apply the same levels of energy to promote and market these changes to your community, because dedicating your building or company to person-centered care can be very lucrative. It can give you the advantage over the other care facilities in your town that practice the same old traditional, institutional model of care that no one wants anymore. Older baby boomers certainly won’t go for institutional living.
(NOTE: Interested in CEUs for Nursing Home Administrators? Checkout my Nursing Home Administrator CEUs on CEU Academy and try a FREE CEU today!)
Benefits
The benefits are plenty. Your residents will be able to live comfortably in an environment that reminds them less of a hospital and more of a warm and cozy home. They can live at their own pace and wake up when they want to, eat during flexible meal times, engage in activities around the clock, gather at the pub for a beer or glass of wine, watch movies in the theater and then hit the sack when they please.
Your business will see vast benefits as well, including a full census, satisfied residents and families, a stellar reputation in the community, and a waiting list of future residents. In other words, when done correctly with lots of planning, passion and vision, person-centered care makes everyone a winner. But, you will not attract new business unless you intelligently market the changes being made along your journey to a person-centered community. There is no reason to keep what you are doing a secret. Let everyone know!
Make the Commitment
I have worked with many organizations that have either successfully implemented person-centered care or they began to make changes, stopped for some reason, and the whole thing fell apart. Don’t be one of the companies that starts and then gives up. You must make a commitment to change. Lots of resources are going to be involved. Yes, there will be costs and expenses involved, but care facilities spend money on structural and environmental changes anyway. There will be time and money spent to train and educate employees. You may need to hire outside consultants to help you along your culture change journey. The bottom line is this – many resources go into flipping a culture, so use them wisely and don’t give up and throw all of those investments away.
When you make a commitment to person-centered care, your employees and the entire organization can raise their service performance in clinical areas as well as in customer service areas. Offering residents flexibility in care, medication passes, meal times, and activities are great amenities. Turning shower rooms into spas is very attractive. Redesigning large institutional kitchens into smaller kitchens and large dining rooms into smaller restaurant-style areas is smart. You will see improvement after improvement in every department as you strategize and implement different parts and pieces of person-centered care throughout the care community.
Final Words on Person Centered Care: A Successful Business Model
Smart senior care organizations need to take an honest look at their current state. Is the building attractive and welcoming? Has it been updated and undergone new renovations? Is the staff professional, caring, and resident-centered? Do families feel welcomed and have pleasant experiences as they visit their loved ones? Does your culture need a reboot? How person-centered is your community? All of these are good questions to ask, but once you answer them, you have to do something.
Person-centered care is here to stay. Institutional care and person-centered care are like night and day. The current generations of seniors living in care centers deserve better and the next wave of baby boomers will be very picky about every aspect of their living situation. They like value for their money. They want lots of amenities. They want to feel like living in your community is a lot better than living in their own home.
(NOTE: Interested in CEUs for Nursing Home Administrators? Checkout my Nursing Home Administrator CEUs on CEU Academy and try a FREE CEU today!)