As a Senior National Account Manager for Pandion Optimization Alliance, I have the opportunity to visit Senior Living facilities across the country and get a glimpse into how they provide quality care to their residents. At the same time, I get to see how these senior living facilities are differentiating themselves from their peers. Whether it’s through activities, cuisine, or additional hands-on-care staff, these latest trends are geared toward enriching the lives of their residents. Here’s some of the trends that have stood out to me in my recent travels to our members in senior living facilities and the healthcare purchasing group.
Trends in Long-Term Care Facilities
Cuisine
As an example in senior living dining trends and assisted living dining, Kirkhaven Transitional & Long-Term Care is using food as a way to help families spend quality time together. This facility serves pureed foods in the shape of their actual consistency so that members remember what it’s like to eat, say; a real grill-marked steak. This is also for the families of assisted living residents, who are often there at mealtime. It makes mealtime more enjoyable, and culinary directors say it increases the patient and family experience.
Increased Ambiance
Aesthetics, physical environment, and creating shared spaces are other ways senior living facilities are trying to differentiate themselves and create a greater sense of community for their residents. Beechwood Continuing Care, a Senior Care Community, for example, has a courtyard that is completely enclosed by windows where assisted living residents can dine. This creates a more exciting ambiance for residents and makes it more likely for them to leave their rooms to eat and socialize with others.
Capturing Nostalgia
Facilities like the Terrace at Newark Assisted Living Community use nostalgia to help their residents jog their long-term memories with a 1950s style ice cream shop on site. This seizes on a trend that many memory care facilities use to help patients with dementia use sight and sound to help with recollection.
Eco-Friendly Living
As more and more eco-friendly baby boomers reach retirement age, senior living facilities continue to increase their green living amenities to cater to this population. This includes taking large measures like solar power, water conservation, and LEED certification. Kirkhaven recently embarked on a project at their transitional and long-term care facility to replace its old fluorescent lighting with softer, energy efficient lighting.
At the same time, Group Purchasing Organization (GPO) members are taking smaller sustainable measures like buying produce from local farmers and using products like sustainable seating and paper products. This is something Pandion can assist our GPO members with through our sustainability portfolio which has contracts in energy, lighting, food, and more.
As research on health shows, quality of life is essential for the mental, physical, and spiritual well-being of older adults in later years. By exploring and implementing changes and programs that improve the comfort level of their residents, senior living facilities have the potential to see these residents exude more energy, decreased stress, and better appetites, while possibly slowing cognitive decline.
Save on Long-Term Care Facility Supplies
If concerned about cost of supplies, these trends could seem unattainable. However, in joining a group purchasing organization, long-term care facilities will find they can save on food supplies, medical supplies, and other products or services to make implementing these trends affordable.
Allyson Perdue is a Senior National Account Executive with Pandion Optimization Alliance who works primarily with members in the long-term care industry.