With its stylish hotels, golf courses, hot springs and mid-century-modern houses, Palm Springs is a great place to visit. It doesn’t hurt that the high temperatures in this southern California city rarely dip below 70°.
What brought me to this city in the Sonoran Desert this time, though, was the California Association of Health Facilities (CAHF) 2022 Annual Convention & Expo. If you’re not familiar with CAHF, here’s the lowdown: it’s the largest provider of continuing education for long-term care (LTC) providers in California, representing 900 skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) and 420 intermediate care facilities for individuals with intellectual disabilities.
This year’s event consisted of various presentations and roundtable discussions on multiple issues affecting skilled nursing providers across the United States. From an introspective look at COVID-19 recovery and outlook and methods for ensuring compliance in a digital age to the outcomes and implications of the 2022 elections for the long-term care sector and best practices for sharing electronic health information, CAHF 2022 was filled with information on pertinent issues affecting those in LTC leadership and administration.
SNF-Specific Challenges
SNFs in the U.S. face multiple challenges, not the least of which are preventing hospital readmissions, maintaining a positive cash flow, complying with rules and regulations and preparing for inspections by government entities at the state and federal levels. If they want to mitigate the risk of severe and costly penalties or losing their licenses, they must achieve these goals while providing high-quality patient care and maintaining adequate staffing levels.
The problem? Many SNFs operate on a thin profit margin, meaning they’re not always able to afford technology designed to optimize their operations and improve patient care. That means they’re charged with streamlining communication and workflows and securely handling patient data without a hefty monetary investment.
A simple but cost-effective way for SNFs to maintain HIPAA-compliant communication is by installing a next-generation cloud-based phone platform. This is especially the case for facilities stuck with outdated and hard-to-maintain systems. Many SNFs are paying for multiple lines, but they’re not integrated and don’t allow for texting — a prevalent form of communication in healthcare. They look at their phones as simply a tool — not a resource that has the potential to improve their business.
How RingRX Can Help
How can we at RingRx help? In multiple ways. I’ll cover a few primary ones.
Our healthcare-specific communications solution gives you the tools to securely communicate with your staff and the friends and family of the residents you serve. The platform also enables integrations with existing solutions for analog SNF room phones, overhead paging systems and nurse call bell systems. The benefit? It helps promote continuity with existing frameworks, maintain staff competencies and minimize deployment costs.
As I mentioned earlier in this blog, cost savings is a big issue for most SNFs. Our platform allows you to cut your telecommunications costs by up to 30 percent. All while providing you with a wide array of customizable features to optimize call allocation and work sharing, like ring groups, parking lots, shared mailboxes, conferencing and auto attendants. Plus, you can save even more time and money by implementing voice, text and fax in a single solution. No more monthly equipment maintenance costs!
If you don’t think SNFs utilize text messaging, think again. More than 95 percent of patients prefer texting for healthcare communication A lot of small and mid-size provider organizations don’t realize they’re missing out on potential new patients because they don’t respond to texts. That’s why your SNF should use a telecommunications platform that can easily and securely manage texting.
Another oft-forgotten but important feature of telecommunications systems is their capability for redundancy and business continuity in the event of a disaster. The RingRx platform is equipped with built-in redundancy, making it a seamless option for disaster recovery plans requiring remote operations. Our mobile app can be deployed in seconds and even works in temporary offsite premises through emergency Wi-Fi or cellular data.
Let us show you how we deliver the highest-quality VoIP audio and full-spectrum business-class phone system to help streamline communication in your SNF. We can even meet in sunny Palm Springs for a demo!
Also, check out our ebook, RingRx: Scalable and Streamlined Communications Technology for Skilled Nursing Facilities.
