A registered nurse quoted on the American Assn. of Nurse Assessment Coordination’s website says that obtaining baseline patient health data “is an invaluable tool to us in long-term care. It involves so much of the nurse and her relationship with the resident and getting them to get to that highest level of function. It is so important, it’s so exciting, and it’s a tool that just drives great care.” Completing that assessment, known as the resident assessment instrument minimum data set (RAI MDS), is a mandatory element of guiding resident care planning and monitoring in long-term care settings. But compiling the required information manually often involves uncoordinated efforts by multiple parties who don’t always know if the information they’re dealing with is current. Nurses, administrators and other senior care providers now have the means to complete the RAI MDS process more easily and accurately. Yardi Long Term Care, a new mobile electronic health record solution available in Canada, saves time and eliminates errors by automatically prefilling the RAI MDS with data from previous assessments through electronic workflows. Staff members updating an RAI MDS don’t have to spend time entering data or backtracking through a lengthy paper trail. Mobile charting that sends resident data from the point of care to the MDS saves even more time. Yardi Long Term care also tracks frequently changing regulations and automatically checks submissions for fatal errors, missed fields and inconsistencies. It provides a clear audit trail, with user logs, change reasons and up-to-date chart data housed in a centralized platform. Yardi Long Term Care is the Canadian version of Yardi® Skilled Nursing, a new solution that sends resident data from the point of care directly into the MDS. “Accurate data from Yardi Long Term Care will equip senior living...

The latest addition to the Yardi Senior Living Suite helps senior living staff and residents’ families stay connected as senior living communities maintain largely isolated from outside contact during the COVID-19 pandemic. Community managers can use RENTCafé Wellness to schedule healthy activities, track attendance and create custom-branded online wellness calendars. Activity organizers can create calendars on a community’s marketing website, manage RSVPs from residents and their families, and assign staff to the activities. “RentCafe Wellness combines with the rest of the Yardi Senior Living Suite to help communities elevate residents’ quality of life and maintain connection with family members in these challenging times,” said Ray Elliott, vice president of senior living for Yardi. “The solution also helps community staff work more efficiently by enabling management of calendar content, design, publication, registration and attendance from a single connected solution.” RentCafe Wellness is an element of RentCafe Senior Living, a secure portal that residents, staff and families use for payments, communication, service requests and other operations. Learn more about how RENTCafé Wellness and other RENTCafé Senior Living solutions can help residents of senior living communities stay connected and...

Senior Housing News recently interviewed Fil Southerland, director of healthcare solutions for Yardi, about the biggest changes in senior living technology during the COVID-19 pandemic, how technology is meeting new healthcare demands and his experience growing up in Idaho, where his father operated assisted living facilities and built his own technology platform to support them. Excerpts follow. Q.: One of the early outcomes of the pandemic was the increase in technology adoption. What are the main silver linings in terms of senior living technology? A.: COVID-19 has definitely been hard on our industry and the residents we’re caring for. I think what it’s really highlighted is the incredible resilience of the organizations and their staff members that we work with. I’ve been particularly impressed with the amount of rapid innovation and technology uptake within the industry. Yardi’s contribution is a broad-based platform that helps providers efficiently manage everything from the care-related side to operations to finances. We’ve continued to add new clients at a rapid pace and we’re also seeing our existing clients working to automate and streamline a lot of their workflows. I think that kind of technology adoption is a necessity now. Over the long term, we’re hopeful that it will produce a lot of good dividends for the industry in terms of care coordination and personalization, wellness, operational efficiency and risk mitigation. Q.: Which changes in senior living technology prompted by the pandemic do you think will last? A.: One area is marketing and admissions. Previously, residents or family members had to come into communities to sign leases or changes to service plans. Yardi has a solution that allows all that to be done online. We’ve seen a lot of interest in that. Also, families considering a community are really concerned about...

Yardi created the Yardi Senior Living Suite to encompass every element of senior housing management within a single platform, from sales, marketing and care management to payments, family communication and medication administration. The suite helps facility operators grow their occupancy, deliver quality care and lower total costs of ownership. A recent addition brings even more key operations into the suite. Yardi Skilled Nursing is a mobile solution that helps senior living staff members deliver care and document their actions more efficiently. Yardi Skilled Nursing saves time in resident assessment, charting and reporting by sending resident data from the point of care directly into a standardized patient health assessment repository known as the MDS. This streamlined documentation process lets staff members spend more time on resident care instead of entering and validating data. The solution also fortifies compliance by ensuring operators are current on frequently changing regulations and automatically checking for fatal errors, missed fields and inconsistencies. User logs, change reasons and up-to-date chart data establish a clear audit trail. Advanced reporting, clinical key performance indicators and financial measures enable full oversight of care services. Yardi Skilled Nursing also delivers value to senior living facility operators by: Reducing manual data entry errors with automatic pre-population of MDS with information from previous assessments Providing a user-friendly interface that helps lighten staff workloads and improve productivity Streamlining government reimbursements with simplified, error-free claims management Delivering full access to real-time clinical information for staff across the business “Staff members can devote their energies to resident care because all electronic point-of-care charting is readily available on any mobile device,” said Ray Elliott, vice president of senior living for Yardi. “That benefit combines with real-time availability of full service information to give facility operators the means to improve health outcomes,...

Data analytics may not be easy, but they’re often necessary. You can’t just gather data. You’ve got to know what the numbers actually mean if you want to push your teams forward in senior living. That’s just one piece of advice that Dave Eskenazy, an industry expert with over 25 years’ experience, recently shared with us. We sat down with Dave to hear how he’s used the Yardi Senior Living Suite to drive growth through technology. From the importance of integration to the value of easy-to-understand metrics, he had plenty of insight to offer. Q: How do you track prospects in senior living? What I love about RENTCafé Senior CRM is that from the very first moment an inquiry is made, the prospect’s name is entered into the system. And I begin to track that. At some point, that prospect moves in, but the ability to move that prospect in and change them from a prospect to a resident becomes so much easier and so much quicker. Oftentimes, when somebody is looking for senior housing, they take a lot of time to really make a decision. But once that decision is made, it’s time to move. Having a lot of that information already in the system – and being able to simply pick up from before – is a key benefit of RENTCafé Senior CRM and the complete stack of Yardi products. One of the things I like most about Yardi is that there are a lot of modules that follow us all the way through the system. And it starts with RENTCafé Senior CRM. Q: How does data sync improve billing? One of the problems with billing is if you have separate systems for capturing your care than you do for billing your...

Employing disconnected procurement processes eats up staff members’ valuable time, fritters away resources and creates opportunities for runaway spending. Managers of senior living communities need to direct their resources toward productive activities. So why not find a better way to purchase, approve and pay for goods and services? That was the purpose of a recent webinar moderated by Senior Living Foresight and featuring Yardi Procure to Pay manager Kim Hensley along with Carmin Tomassi, vice president controller for Silverado, an Irvine, Calif.-based assisted living, home care and hospice care provider. The traditional approach to purchasing goods and services involved manually scanning data and routing paper around for approvals. The lack of formal workflows and repeated manual tasks obscured budget visibility, duplicated payments, and created opportunities for duplicate payments and other errors. The sheer volume of invoices to be processed – up to 35,000 per year for a typical user of Yardi PayScan – made the process even more daunting. Silverado offers an example of a senior living community operator overcoming the flaws inherent in manual procurement processing. Tomassi recounted how Silverado reduced its payables reversed rate to 0.56%, versus the industry average of 1.8%, and its checks voided rate to 0.43%, versus 2.1% for the industry, by automating the process end to end with Yardi Procure to Pay. The system, he said, produced “a night-and-day difference from where we were just four years ago. Now we have one automated system paying all our bills. All approvals are electronic, we have vendors set up in workflows, and we have centralized a big chunk of the business function, with better results. It’s been real win for us.” Silverado uses Yardi Procure to Pay to move its purchase orders through the approval process electronically, with customized approval...

Charlie Trefzger is no stranger to change. Already this year, as president and CEO, he oversaw the rebrand of his company from Affinity Living Group to ALG Senior. At the same time, he reorganized his company’s operational structure. ALG communities now have more autonomy in how they operate, able to make decisions and take action without a set directive from headquarters. That’s not to say that Trefzger and his team don’t support their communities, however. When the coronavirus first started making news, they instituted change after change to ensure resident safety. They reacted fast thanks to having prepared well in advance just for this sort of emergency. “We implemented a pandemic flu policy some time ago. Since, we have tailored it to the COVID-19 policy, which is founded upon the CDC guidelines,” said Trefzger. “We’ve been drilling and practicing that for a good portion of the last year, and Lord have mercy, here we are right now dealing with it.” In recognition of the transformations Trefzger has driven, Senior Housing News has inducted him into the 2020 class of Changemakers. Read on to learn what steps ALG took to slow the spread of COVID-19 and how he believes the pandemic will impact senior living going forward. What have been the biggest changes that ALG Senior has made since COVID-19 hit in mid-March? Gosh, what hasn’t changed? There have been so many things that we’ve had to adapt to, such as visitation; narrowing our network of health care professionals; gathering data and having a greater reliance on data; the screening of our employees; using technology, both for visits as well as data-gathering and for activity programs; the need to address loneliness in our residents and trying to be innovative with visits. Probably our biggest change...

The annual Argentum Senior Living Executive Conference Argentum wasn’t live with thousands in attendance as is usually the case, but it still lived up to its legacy as a major event in the professionally managed senior living community industry. Held in September and hosted by a major national trade association, Argentum offered 30 hours of programming over three days. Leaders from Life Care Services, Mather, Eclipse Senior Living, Heritage Communities and other providers offered tips on such timely topics as shifting from survival mode to a sales-oriented environment, giving buyers a seamless journey (“omnichannel marketing”), protecting health data from cyberattacks and staying ahead of COVID-19. Besides sponsoring registration for the event, Yardi’s principal contribution was hosting a virtual session that addressed how advanced business intelligence technology can drive informed decision-making. Senior living executives J.R. Southerland and Richard Nix focused on one of Yardi’s new contributions to efficient senior living management – Yardi Senior IQ, a BI solution designed for senior living that compiles portfolio-wide information. Southerland and Nix explained how executives can use Yardi Senior IQ to execute benchmarking, elevate reporting to investors, board members and others, and deliver details on everything from unit availability to current market rates. Please contact us if you would like to know more about the business intelligence presentation or the Argentum conference in...

Over the years, Yardi client Westmont Living has developed creative ways to honor esteemed residents. The tradition continues through the age of social distancing, requiring ingenious workarounds that still help residents feel appreciated and valued. Honoring Lt. Dever’s 105th birthday Westmont Mariposa at Ellwood Shores is home to veteran Charles “Charlie” Dever. First Lt. Dever enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1941, and he served as a lead navigator in the 98th Bombardment Group flying B-24s during World War II. Devers lived independently until he was 103. He then joined the family at Mariposa at Ellewood Shores. The quiet life that he now lives gave no indication of the surprise that awaited him for his birthday. It began when Lt. Dever’s daughter, Kathy, emailed Vandenberg Air Force Base to plan a surprise for her father. In response, the 30th Space Wing leadership notified its members of the momentous occasion. Active Air Force servicemembers near and far penned more than a hundred thank you letters to the veteran. To deliver the letters and show their appreciation, Vandenberg staff, Kathy and Team Mariposa arranged a grand ceremony. Festivities kicked off with a color guard presentation and speeches by Westwood executive director Peter Bonilla and 30th Space Wing Commander, Anthony Mastalir. Mastalir presented Lt. Dever with a 30th Space Wing challenge coin and granted him honorary membership in the United States Space Force. Vandenberg leadership then presented Lt. Devers with an American flag. Party planners arranged a car parade that would allow friends, family and community members to safely show their support for the veteran. Dozens of cars streamed through the property, showcasing their decorations, cheering and sending well-wishes to Devers. During his speech, Commander Mastalir said, “While Charles will tell you that his years in...

It’s easy to attribute the successes of a company to exemplary individuals. Think Steve Jobs of Apple or Elon Musk of Tesla. But in truth, their accomplishments wouldn’t have been possible without those who supported them. Marc Vorkapich is quick to say that his people are the key to success. As the principal and CEO of Watercrest Senior Living, a Yardi client, he’s brought together a team of “servant leaders” who inspire trust from both residents and staff. It’s earned the company a Great Place to Work award, and it’s also caught the attention of Senior Housing News. They’ve given him the title of Changemaker for his history of nurturing strong leaders and promoting collaboration at Watercrest. When they asked him about the association between embracing change and taking risks, Vorkapich made it clear that although he may be in charge, his team gives him the confidence to see things through: “When a call for change derives from a desire to serve something greater than ourselves, any sense of risk is far outweighed by the depth of purpose. My risk tolerance is high, as my entire career over 27 years has developed by having faith that I and others surrounding me have been equipped for what lies ahead.” And during the pandemic, his commitment to teamwork and service has helped ensure that Watercrest can continue to provide great care. In this excerpt from his Changemakers interview, Vorkapich describes their COVID-19 response and offers his thoughts on how the virus may impact senior living as a whole. Do you see Covid-19 changing the senior living industry in lasting ways? If yes, how? One thing is certain, there is an increased awareness and understanding of the importance of having a highly competent operations management team laser-focused...

The senior living industry can be competitive, but it also has no shortage of experienced professionals ready to work together and share their hard-earned knowledge. This sort of collaboration has been needed now more than ever as the industry has had to adapt to new challenges. In search of best practices everyone could use, we interviewed clients who had steadily grown their senior living organizations. We asked them what issues they faced, what goals they pursued and how they leveraged technology in innovative ways. Their answers formed the basis for our How Do You? video series, which you can access and watch on our resources page. But not every piece of advice made it into the final videos. These senior living leaders had a lot to say, and we want to ensure there’s a place for all their insights to be discovered. So we revisited their interviews and pulled their answers together for a new white paper: How do you excel with senior living technology? Here’s a sneak peek at questions we covered: How do you | encourage move-ins? “It’s always ideal to know how close a lead is to moving in. Some leads are two months out. Some are three months out. Some are years out. Understanding that allows us to input a call-out in two years maybe or a follow-up that works for them. We’re not that typical marketing person who’s going to bombard them every week.” – Nicole Graham, Licensed Administrator How do you | improve resident care? “By electronically charting as you go along, it cuts the background stuff out of the process of taking care of a resident. All of the time that they would spend trying to figure out when to chart and what to chart is gone....

Argentum’s largest event of the year is back. And this time, it’s virtual. The Senior Living Executive Conference, originally scheduled for the spring, is now set for September 22-24. Out of consideration for safety, Argentum leadership made the choice back at the start of the pandemic to go virtual, but they’re committed to making the experience as valuable and insightful as it’s ever been. “Through the virtual event, we can continue to educate and advance the industry on important matters through a medium more accessible and convenient given the extraordinary circumstances we are facing as an industry and as a country,” said James Balda in an email announcing the decision. “We can incorporate much of what we are learning as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as focus on what support the industry needs to get through — and eventually beyond — this crisis.” Argentum is offering 30 hours of programming across the three-day live event. From big general sessions with C-suite panelists to smaller breakouts across multiple tracks, there are plenty of opportunities to come together. Those include sessions with best practices and lessons learned for COVID-19. Plan on attending? We hope you do. We’re sponsoring the registration this year, and we’re also hosting a special Zoom Room discussion about business intelligence that you don’t want to miss. Join us for our virtual session Today’s communities require data that combines real-time financial, clinical and marketing intelligence. How can technological advances in BI help? Richard Nix and J.R. Southerland from the Yardi Senior Living team will discuss emerging technologies and how they could impact your community, including your operational processes, resources and residents. We plan to highlight Yardi Senior IQ, our new BI tool built for senior living. The solution offers hundreds...

The pandemic has brought change to senior living like nothing else before it. But through it all, the industry’s commitment to care has never wavered. In fact, many caregivers have gone above and beyond to keep their residents healthy and happy. In honor of these heroes, NCAL has announced “Caring Is EssentiAL” as the theme for this year’s National Assisted Living Week, set for September 13 -19. Established in 1995, National Assisted Living Week provides an opportunity for residents, loved ones, staff and the broader community to recognize the role of assisted living in helping seniors and those with intellectual disabilities. By encouraging senior living providers nationwide to host special events and activities all week long, NCAL plans to celebrate residents and caregivers together as well as educate the public about long-term care. The annual observance will have to adapt to COVID-19 restrictions this year, but despite the hurdles, the staff of senior living deserve to be recognized for their incredible work. And although the event many not look quite the same on the surface, the spirit of celebration will still be there. Socially distant activities for National Assisted Living Week Each year, NCAL puts out a planning guide for National Assisted Living Week with event ideas to inspire providers. This time around the suggestions focus on ways to have fun even with the extra safety protocols in place. Here’s a quick rundown of what they recommend: Celebrations: Try an end-of-summer ice cream delivery, schedule a family car parade and get creative with a dress-up day. Music: Host a hallway singalong, invite musicians among the community to share their gifts or stream a recorded concert. Exploration: Encourage virtual museum visits, share live webcams of zoo animals and “tour” favorite destinations through photos. Connections: Organize...

Senior living providers have a lot to manage in their communities, including engaging residents, dispensing medical care, interacting with families and meeting compliance obligations. Also, like other businesses, they process a constant stream of invoices for material and service purchases. Executing all the various accounts payable tasks manually is time-consuming. Could this burdensome aspect of senior living management be easier, faster and less prone to error? Yes, says Carmin Tomassi, vice president/controller for Silverado, and in a free Sept. 17 webinar he’ll share tips for better AP execution from the Irvine, Calif.-based provider of memory care assisted living and hospice services. Hosted by Senior Living Foresight and moderated by its publisher, Steve Moran, the 35-minute session will also feature Kim Hensley, manager of procure to pay for Yardi. As a Changemakers participant and Yardi client success story subject, Silverado has already offered insight into the cost, time, accuracy and scalability advantages of automated AP. At one point, for example, Tomassi’s staff wrestled with stacks of invoices in various stages of action, endured lengthy approval and reconciliation processes, and juggled no fewer than 12 different systems. Yardi PayScan scans Silverado’s invoices into electronic transactions and automates approval workflows through vendor payment in a single connected system. The solution helped Silverado cut costs with paperless processing, and it enforces consistent standards, minimizes errors and ensures timely vendor payments. Today, Tomassi says, Silverado has “a level of information that we didn’t have before. Now we can act on that data and do something about it. [PayScan] helped our accounting department improve their processes, like really getting people to pay attention to how they’re coding invoices.” Ready to banish your biggest accounts payable headaches, just like Silverado and many others did? Register for the Sept. 17 webinar. It...

Implementing a new EHR system is not a job for one person alone. Especially when you include a medication management solution, complete with pharmacy interfaces. You need a well-coordinated team with the right partners to make sure the rollout is a success. Case in point: Silverado of Irvine, California. The organization specializes in senior care with an emphasis on memory care assisted living, as well as hospice. Silverado’s philosophy of care pursues “a symbiosis of top-notch clinical care and compassion that recognizes each client, resident or patient’s uniqueness.” After years of growth on ALMSA eMAR, Silverado was interested in upgrading to further support their nurses. Since they were already a Yardi client, leadership sought a solution that would not only integrate with Yardi Voyager but also provide advanced clinical capabilities for residents across the continuum of care. The Solution: Yardi EHR and Yardi eMAR Yardi EHR is an electronic health record solution designed for assisted living, independent living, memory care and skilled nursing. The single-vendor solution combines clinical intake processing, resident assessments, care planning, wound treatment, behavior management and more in a browser-based platform optimized for mobile devices. Yardi eMAR simplifies medication administration through an online solution that interfaces seamlessly with pharmacy partners. Advanced drug database and clinical support functionality also helps expedite order entry and promote compliance. The Story: Collaborating for Improved Clinical Outcomes Silverado leadership understood the importance of allocating resources to ensure successful continuity of care, resident safety and compliance. They knew from the start to accomplish these goals would take a collaborative effort. Based on their experience working together, Yardi was selected as the right partner, and a pilot began in early 2018. “Our pilot went extremely well,” said Beth McCurdy, senior director of clinical informatics at Silverado. Nursing staff...

Over the past half year, senior living teams have been working tirelessly to keep residents safe, engaged and happy. Although the pandemic has created many new challenges for the industry, it’s been incredible to see how many people have stepped up to help. In honor of these courageous, masked caregivers, the Oregon Health Care Association are “Celebrating Health Care Heroes” as the theme for their biggest event of the year: the OHCA Annual Convention and Trade Show. Of course, the event, always well attended, is making changes to protect the health of members and their residents. It’s now a live virtual experience, scheduled for September 15 and 16 with pre- and post-event activities as well as on-demand education available afterwards. The event may be different than what you’re used to, but there’s a lot to be excited about: Live-streamed keynotes and sessions, including tracks on leadership, clinical, nursing facilities, quality improvement, COVID-19 and more Networking opportunities to connect with other attendees and presenters through interactive live discussions and Q&A chats The OHCA Awards ceremony where deserving staff are recognized for their dedication to the care profession Yardi is proud to sponsor the awards ceremony this year. Now more than ever, it’s important to honor those who go above and beyond for others. As this year’s theme makes clear, these hard-working individuals are true heroes. Visit Yardi on the virtual trade show floor During the event, you’ll also be able to stop by our booth to see what’s new with the Yardi Senior Living Suite. We’ll have plenty of resources to download, products to showcase, plus a giveaway for a lucky few! And if you want to talk with us face to face, there’s even a video chat option. We’re grateful to each and every...

The past decade has been one of extensive change for the senior living industry. In the wake of the Great Recession, many organizations reorganized and consolidated to adapt. The following years saw steady growth and new construction. Now, in the present day, the pandemic is driving transformation and action at a never-before-seen pace. John Cochrane, president and CEO of non-profit HumanGood, has led his company through all of it, adjusting course when needed to better serve their communities. In his Changemaker interview with Senior Housing News, he opens up on his experience. “In a curious way, I think that the economic crisis was a turning point for the industry, and certainly for our company, in creating urgency and creating the need for clarity and accountability,” Cochrane said “That’s where a lot of what we’re doing today started, more than 10 years ago.” With its impact on the industry, COVID-19 has made it clear that speed, transparency and accountability are necessities. Keep reading to discover how HumanGood responded and what Cochrane and his team are doing to successfully adapt to disruption. First, this year has brought unprecedented change. How has HumanGood responded? The pandemic has changed the world, bringing new challenges on how to protect our communities, team members and residents. Operationally, we have sharpened our focus on infection control protocols, communications and technology solutions. The pandemic has shined a big spotlight on our ability to operate safely while continuing to provide an on-brand experience in this dynamic environment. One of the biggest changes we have made, and continue to refine, is to tracking and testing for COVID-19. The ability to trace and test will impact our industry’s ability to provide the services, and care, that can help our residents and team members live their...

Yardi Senior IQ has been out for a few months now, and it’s already seen a huge amount of interest from the industry. As clients have gotten into the swing of things, their feedback is helping make the business intelligence solution even more useful for senior living. The latest release, Senior IQ 1.6, is now live. To make the upgrade process easier for our clients, Yardi is switching away from manual installs for new Senior IQ plugins. Yardi can now take care of things automatically, so you get the latest features as soon as they’re ready. Check out these highlights of what’s new in Senior IQ: Home page redesign The home page has a new look to ensure the first data you see after signing in is clear, relevant and actionable. The portfolio statistics at the top have been replaced with three customizable tiles. You can sort KPIs for all your communities by different attributes like property owner, care level or region, and your occupancy percentage and census are also available at a glance. Below the tiles, the community section now sports a tabbed format. You can easily switch between the table grid and map, depending on what you’re most interested in seeing. We’ve added display settings as well that let you customize the density and layout of your data. To top it off, you can now export the community grid to an Excel spreadsheet. Tool tips With the abundance of KPIs, tiles and widgets available in Senior IQ, it’s important to know what each does when you’re reviewing or building out your dashboards. That’s where the new tool tips come in. Hover your mouse over the familiar blue information icon on a widget or measure to see a quick explanation of what it’s...

Growth may be a good problem to have, but you still need a way scale efficiently and effectively. Especially when it comes to accounts payable. As the number of communities in your portfolio grows, so too does the number of vendors to manage and invoices to process. Based out of the Pacific Northwest, Cascadia Senior Living and Development creates and operates innovative independent, assisted living and memory care communities. They started in 2014 with one community, and their commitment to providing excellent care has since helped them expand to 13 communities across Washington and Oregon. For Cascadia’s AP team, things eventually hit a point where their original workflows weren’t sufficing. “Basically, some of the processes that we had in place when we had one community didn’t scale for when we had 13,” said Michael Shefter, CFO of Cascadia. “We had an employee here, our accounts payable manager, who would stuff envelopes for all the checks that we had to cut for our communities.” Cascadia receives roughly 1500 invoices a month, so the time it took to process them all was significant. Already a Yardi client, Cascadia turned to Yardi Bill Pay for the solution. Keeping check cutting in check Part of the Yardi Senior Living Suite, Bill Pay outsources the process of paying vendors to Yardi. The Bill Pay team takes a client’s invoices, routes them through the approval workflow and pays the vendor by ACH, credit card or check. In Cascadia’s case, they decided to have Yardi physically print and mail the checks. The process for getting started with Bill Pay was painless, since it integrates with Yardi Voyager Senior Housing and any already established workflows. Cascadia began with one test community in early spring. “We rolled Bill Pay out with a check...

Testing kits, sanitization materials and personal protective equipment are essential tools in the battle against COVID-19 for senior living providers. Unfortunately, these resources are ballooning budgets for organizations already operating on thin margins. So as talks of further coronavirus relief packages continue in Congress, a coalition of senior living associations are pushing for direct aid to help cover these costs and ensure resident safety. AHCA/NCAL, Argentum and LeadingAge have taken a clear position: Billions of dollars in relief have already been given to health care providers, including skilled nursing facilities, but private-pay assisted living has so far seen no financial support. Their call for aid is being echoed by lawmakers too. Rep. Kay Granger recently wrote an editorial on The Hill requesting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to provide help and resources to senior living facilities. “The administration did a good job of prioritizing nursing homes early on in the pandemic so that they could get the personal protective equipment (PPE) supplies they needed. But many of our elderly don’t live in nursing homes; they live in senior living facilities, like Sagora Senior Living in my congressional district,” Granger writes. “We need to focus on getting resources to help these vulnerable Americans. And we need to do it now before it’s too late.” To facilitate a potential distribution, the senior living group built an online portal where providers could enter their information. The data is now being packaged for the HHS, which has been allocated COVID-19 relief funding from the CARES Act passed in March. The associations want to stress that there is no guarantee the funds will be received, but the effort does bring the private-pay industry one step closer to seeing it happen. And although the current deadline...

For EHR systems, workplace training is essential. The software helps nurses deliver quality care, so it’s important that they become proficient in electronic charting and medication order management. Once they’ve learned the ropes, they get to spend more time with residents and less on technology. But when things change rapidly, as the case has been with COVID-19, it can be difficult to conduct enough hands-on training to bring staff up to speed, so it’s smart to provide extra learning resources to ensure they have the information they need, right when they need it. As a recent example, one senior living client of ours had the idea to create handouts for agency nurses who are supporting staff during the pandemic. Some of these new nurses were unfamiliar with Yardi EHR, so they were resorting to charting on paper. To get the nurses on track, the client created a two-page handout, featuring screenshots and instructions, that outlines what to do at the start, during and after a shift. It effectively guides the nurses through the essentials of a shift in Yardi EHR, and it even offers some troubleshooting in case they get stuck. The handouts have proven successful as a support tool across their communities. In that same spirit, we’ve created over a dozen job aids for Yardi EHR and Yardi eMAR to facilitate learning and help your staff be more productive. Each document covers one task (like adding new orders or updating a physician’s contact information) in clear, easy-to-follow language that caregivers can reference if they’re new to the process or just not quite sure about the steps. Here’s a quick rundown of what our new Yardi EHR and Yardi eMAR job aids explain: Adding, verifying and linking orders (both medical and non-medical) Navigating a...