We live in a different world, and senior housing operators can agree that safety and security are top priorities when managing communities filled with elderly people. According to the National Center for Assisted Living, there are over 811,000 people nationwide, living in senior living communities. One risk factor that sometimes goes unaddressed relates to the visitors and vendors that stream in and out of communities daily and in many cases are hands-on with residents behind closed doors. The most recent example of this visitor risk happened in Dallas TX, where a man dressed in scrubs impersonated a Home Health worker to gain access to residents in senior living communities. This person went unnoticed in the senior living communities and has been indicted in the killing of 12 residents.
Question: How are you managing and validating the visitors that enter and leave your community? Does everyone sign-in at the front desk, and can you ensure that vendors have clear criminal backgrounds and other necessary requirements?
Accushield specializes in visitor management for senior living. How do you currently manage the family members, 3rd-party healthcare providers, walk-in tours, and guests that frequent your community? Do you use a paper-log book? Do you have a name-badge system? Are you able to differentiate between a family member and 3rd-party healthcare provider? Accushield is a digital visitor management system that can easily capture information from visitors who are coming and going from your senior living community. When you sign-in with Accushield, it will instantly print out a customized name-badge so that residents and staff can easily spot a family member guest or 3rd-party healthcare provider. This name badge system adds a layer of security because if you see someone in your community without a badge, you know they did not sign-in. This situation would prompt a call to security to investigate.
Another solution that Accushield provides is decluttering your front desk. First impressions are a big deal, and in many cases, the first thing a visitor sees when he/she walks through the doors of a senior living community is the front desk. Having a clean and sleek front desk shows visitors and residents how much your community values tidiness and cleanliness.
How does your community ensure resident privacy? When you have people signing in on a paper-log book, people whom sign-in can see who came before them, thereby giving the residents zero visitor privacy. In some cases, visitors will take pictures of the sign-in logbook with their phone to capture info on residents and their visitor activity. With Accushield, the information collected at the kiosk is kept private and is only accessible to management.
If you use a paper sign-in book and there is an evacuation, you may not be able to read everyone’s name, nor be certain if visitors signed-in/out. With Accushield, Assisted Living operators can see who is in the building at all times via the Accushield community dashboard, available on a computer or smartphone.
With the rising number of older adults residing in senior living communities and the increasing number of guests and vendors, it is imperative that senior housing operators have a reliable visitor management process.
