Investing in Senior Living Technology for Optimal Dining Experiences
The senior living industry is rapidly growing and embracing new technology solutions. While many often associate senior care technology primarily with medical advancements, dining services are also seeing a digital revolution. With the integration of cutting-edge technology, dining operations in senior living communities can transform, ensuring a seamless experience for both residents and staff. See how adding the latest senior living technology to your kitchen and dining operations can bring benefits to both your residents and staff.
How Technology Can Improve the Dining Experience for Residents
Embracing digital solutions in senior living isn’t just about streamlining operations for staff; it's about enriching the lives of your residents. From plugging any revenue leakage gaps like missed delivery charges or guest meals to just making the dining process a more personalized, seamless experience. The right software can ensure personalized food choices for residents, better communication between staff and residents, seamless meal deliveries, and a system that prevents any mishaps due to dietary restrictions.
Read on to learn how powerful tools improve your residents' daily lives.
Increased Choice and Flexibility
Dining management software allows teams to transition from paper order tickets to seamless digital menus. Adjust personalized food orders with a press of a button, and update menu options as regularly as you need or as ingredient supplies demand. Residents can also use a digital ordering system to request special instructions, substitutions or add items to their order. It’s all about offering a more personalized, and simplified dining experience for both staff and residents
Residents have special food needs, like allergies or health considerations that a dining operator must take into consideration. By utilizing personal accounts per resident, a dining team can know quickly what a resident can and can’t eat. The software can show safe choices and tells the kitchen about these needs, reducing any food mix-ups. Residents can even order ahead and decide if they want to eat in the main dining room or have food sent to their own room. This means less wait time and a smoother dining experience for everyone.
Decreased Communication Barriers
When a resident orders their food directly from the kitchen or wait staff, there’s always room for error. Residents may not speak clearly, loud noises from the kitchen may drown out part of an order, or wait staff may simply forget an item or write the order down wrong. With digital menu boards and ordering tablets, senior residents can place their orders themselves, ensuring that any dietary needs or preferences are accounted for. When they place the final order, they can review all their selections to ensure nothing is missing or entered incorrectly.
Increased Satisfaction and Peace of Mind
The right dining technology helps both kitchen staff and residents to know that every order is placed exactly when and how the resident wants it. Cooks can rest assured no substitution or dietary restriction was missed, and residents can be sure the meal they get is just what they ordered.
Residents will also appreciate the flexibility and freedom they have to order and pick up their food at their convenience while working around their daily activities. This increases the flexibility of mealtime, and improves your residents’ overall satsifaction.
How Technology Can Save Senior Living Communities Money
You might worry that diving into the latest tech is costly. However, refreshing your assisted living technology might actually save you more in the long run. Digital ordering takes some weight off your staff's shoulders, letting them focus on other duties. This is especially crucial when faced with the challenge of hiring trained workers in an industry that often sees shortages. Moreover, with fewer order mistakes, you waste less food, which means you spend less on remaking meals.
Modern senior living software also can improve your billing processes. Residents (and their families) can track their dining expenses, topping up their accounts without any fuss. You'll encounter fewer cases of negative balances or surprise costs.
How Senior Living Technology Solutions Can Help the Dining Staff
Tech upgrades aren't just for residents, your dining staff can see benefits to their day-to-day work. Fewer order mix-ups mean chefs can focus better and avoid missing key dietary requirements or restrictions.
Reduced Order Errors
When a mistake is made in an order, it can set the whole kitchen back. The meal may need to be remade entirely, especially if the issue includes an allergen or sensitivity. With digital ordering technology for elderly residents, the margin for error is significantly reduced. Each user can see exactly what they’re ordering and how and can verify that the order is correct before submitting it. Dietary restrictions are also displayed prominently for both the resident and staff, as an extra measure to avoid such errors in either the ordering or preparation process.
Remote monitoring capabilities also allow authorized staff or medical personnel to see residents’ meal choices and update a patient’s file on the spot. This way, if new dietary requirements or limitations are added, they’re immediately visible. There’s no delay in the paperwork that could potentially lead to a change being temporarily missed.
Increased Productivity
With digital technology taking over most of the ordering process, the staff workload is lessened, freeing them up to tackle other tasks. They’ll have more time to dedicate to ensuring orders are placed correctly, maintaining the cleanliness of the dining room, and even spending one-on-one time with residents.
Integrated senior living systems also streamline billing. Funds and expenses are clearly displayed. So, your and your staff can spend less time worrying about residents’ dining balances and more time improving the quality of life for your entire community — even the staff.
Choose the Right Technology for Your Senior Living Community
When it comes to choosing a senior dining solution for your community, look no further than eMenuChoice. We are a senior living technology company that seeks to make senior dining services as simple and efficient as possible for both residents and staff. As your kitchen’s technology partners, we’ll help you reap the benefits of digital dining technology. So, you can spend less time on paperwork and more time on your individual residents. Contact us for a demonstration to learn more about how to integrate senior living technology into your community.
