Research from the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) has found that 99% of respondents agreed that increased pressures on the NHS will result in added pressures for the social care sector in 2023/24. As a care home provider, you may well have already been experiencing some difficulty accommodating those waiting to be discharged from other services.
But you can only do so if you have the capacity to. Whether you’re lacking visibility of accommodation readiness, you struggle with unclear move-in and move-outs or penalties for empty rooms are creating financial pressures, you have likely faced some challenges when it comes to managing your occupancy.
We’re looking at the sort of struggles care home providers may face with occupancy management, and how software solutions can help you through these challenges.
What is occupancy management?
In social care, occupancy management is the process in which you monitor the number of residents coming in and out your care home, making sure you are allocating the right resources at the right time so you can operate to your full potential.
Challenges with occupancy management in residential care
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Resource allocation
It takes careful planning to adapt to your fluctuating resident numbers, and making sure you’re correctly organising your resources around high or low occupancy levels can be a challenge. Plus, some of your residents may have more complex needs and therefore require a higher level of support, some may only be with you temporarily and others may be in the processes of transitioning to another service.
You not only need to be able to allocate the right care worker for your resident’s needs, but you also need to be aware of when you have a room available so you can make a start on any necessary arrangements. And dealing with these complexities manually can often make it feel like an even bigger challenge.
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Communication struggles
Keeping on top of all your different local authority and privately funded referrals can be difficult. You may well have experienced times when you’ve lost contact with your local authority or private funder because you’ve not been able to keep tabs on that first point of contact.
And communication struggles may not end there; you may have some spaces dedicated to your local authority, so you need to be able to ensure those rooms are not misallocated to privately funded clients and that you communicate regularly about your availability and the level of care you are able to offer. Not always an easy task when your occupancy or staffing levels change frequently.
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Lack of visibility
If you haven’t got full visibility of things like your occupancy levels or who your prospective service users are, how can you be sure that you are meeting your full potential? According to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) Access to Care Report, there has been a 3% increase in the number of people living in care homes between March 2022 – February 2023. But as you likely know, unfilled beds can mean you are missing out on possible income and may even lead to fines.
Almost half (47%) of care home providers say the penalties they face due to empty property puts pressure on their finances. But if you could see your first points of contact and had your real-time occupancy levels at hand, you may be better able to work proactively and get ahead of those complications.
How software can help you manage your occupancy levels
1. Resource optimisation
Care business management software can give you the tools you need to view your organisation holistically, helping you efficiently respond to changing needs and, therefore, optimise your resources. That way, when your occupancy levels fluctuate, you can more accurately plan your resources around that demand.
For instance, when you can see exactly how many residents you have coming in versus how many are moving out, you may want to scale-up your recruitment efforts early to ensure you have the right employee coverage when you need it. Or if your occupancy levels are lower, you can reallocate your team to other priority areas.
2. Accommodation readiness
52% of respondents to our Care Trends Report 2023 told us that a lack of visibility of property readiness for move-ins cause difficulty. Care business management software can show you exactly which rooms you have available, whether they are dedicated to your local authority or available for private funders and whether they need any maintenance. That way, you are never caught off guard by unexpected room requirements.
So, when you receive that referral and before your new resident moves in, you can see the status of things like safety checks, clean furnishings and working facilities for your available rooms. This means that residents transitioning into your care is done so smoothly, with no unexpected delays.
3. Complete visibility
Advanced business intelligence and visual dashboards give you complete visibility of your organisation, helping you maximise your properties occupancy levels and ensure smooth planning of respite care and short stays. You may be able to clearly see what contact points have already been made with prospective clients, so your teams can reach out to them and get the ball rolling, keeping your rooms full.
And unclear move-in or move-outs can be a thing of the past. With real-time occupancy and void monitoring, you can see exactly what you need even before you need it, helping you work proactively, rather than reactively.
At OneAdvanced, we provide purpose built software for your industry, with Care Business Management being our complete care business management solution for the social care sector.