The aged care industry is constantly evolving and growing, with new technology paving the way for premium care and service. Especially in recent years, health outbreaks bring concern to everyone’s mind. What technology do you need to help navigate these unfamiliar challenges? An essential piece of this is a visitor management system.
Managing your visitors, their paperwork, and the safety of your facility can be tough if you do not have the necessary resources. This is why a visitor management system in aged care is absolutely crucial to your organisation.
Let us now delve deeper into what a visitor management system is, and why it is an important investment for your aged care facility.
What is a Visitor Management System
Visitor management is the process of welcoming, identifying and tracking visitors at their location. A visitor management system can be a simple logbook, a visitor digital sign-in or a software system integrated with local laws and regulations.
You or your employees probably cannot remember how many people visited your facility in the past year. To find the answer to this question, you may have to go through countless pieces of paperwork or comb through never-ending Excel spreadsheets.
With a visitor management system, you can track whoever enters your premises — including your employees, visitors, contractors, or even couriers. This system replaces conventional manual records with real-time software which is easy to use and accessible. More importantly, a visitor management system helps you manage the legal obligations you have to face in a post-COVID world.
Importance of a Visitor Management System in Aged Care
In an aged care facility, it is even more crucial to ensure your establishment is safe for all its residents. A small slip-up can lead to huge monetary fines and a loss of trust in your organisation. Most significantly, it can lead to your residents facing health threats.
By making sure everyone who enters is safe and healthy, you can truly guarantee the safety of your residents. Below, we have outlined six reasons why investing in a visitor management system for your aged care facility is important.
Compliance
In Australia, there is not much flexibility and slack when it comes to safety and compliance. With a manual visitor management system or logbook, it is easy to lose track of your guests. Should the government require visitor details from your organisation, having to comb through piles of paperwork is neither efficient nor accurate as well.
So how do you ensure you are staying compliant with government restrictions and rules? With a visitor management system, you will be able to procure all details of visitors after a few clicks and provide it in a systematic and organised manner to the authorities.
Not to mention, visitor management systems are completely customisable — meaning that should government regulations change, you will be able to apply the necessary updates to the system in order to remain compliant.
If your license is lost, you will be unable to continue operations, which will result in serious revenue loss. Remaining compliant is necessary to stay in business. Hence, a visitor management system in aged care is absolutely essential.
Reduced costs
Manual bookkeeping may seem to save your facility money in the short-term, but it eats away at your revenue in the long run. Having to employ staff to man the reception and ensure complete sign-ins to your facility not only drains your money but is also not a comprehensive and accurate method to ensure strict compliance.
Without an effective and reliable visitor management system, your organisation is vulnerable to compliance and financial risks. All these risks can lead to exorbitant costs stemming from shutting down your business or government fines.
A visitor management system in aged care will greatly help reduce the risk of any legal and financial repercussions. By investing in a visitor management system, the frequency of compliance incidents will be reduced, greatly boosting your revenue.
Improve site safety
A visitor management system can work hand in hand with your site’s surveillance to improve overall safety and security.
Most visitor management systems issue a personalised and dated visitor or staff pass. This pass can help staff members ensure everyone within the premises is permitted to do so and are safe. This also makes it much easier to identify an intruder and guarantee site safety by challenging anyone without a pass.
Resident and visitor safety is paramount to an aged care facility. A visitor management system in aged care will allow you to monitor anyone who enters, including their name, contact details, reason of visit, and whether they have completed the required paperwork and screening.
This can help you ensure that your residents are safe. You can also be assured that everyone in your facility has undergone the necessary sign-in and screening procedure.
Streamlined and smooth service
No one enjoys long queues that never seem to end and long sign-in processes. The first point of contact with your facility should be simple and seamless. Gone are the days of face-to-face sign-ins with the receptionist, or even manually writing down personal details in a notebook and passing the pen around.
A visitor management system can help solve this pain point effortlessly. When operated properly alongside staff members, it will cut down the sign-in time visitors have to go through.
A visitor management system will be able to assist your organisation in having smoother and shorter sign-ins, by decreasing the administrative work needed when done manually. A visitor management system in aged care will reinforce the feeling that your residents are in safe hands.
As the aged care industry progresses, you need to show your visitors that your residents are receiving the first-class care they deserve. By integrating new technology, you are showing that your organisation is committed to ensuring that your residents are given the best care possible.
Data collection
One of the key benefits of visitor management systems is that they are able to help you analyse data. With a digital system tracking visitors’ movement in your facility, you will be able to observe valuable insights into your facility’s operations.
Being able to visualise visiting trends and peak periods can help you optimise the operations of your facility. This data cannot be generated and collected from manual visitor management in such detail and specificity.
These trends and observations can help you run your organisation better and optimise functions such as:
- When to schedule more nursing and support staff
- Which sections of the facility are most visited
- When to schedule upkeep services
- What target market to focus on
With these capabilities, a visitor management system in aged care is no longer a luxury, but a necessity.
Brand image
When visitors first enter your facility, the reception area will be the first thing they will see. This sets the tone and gives the first impression of your organisation to them. The visitor could be anyone — a customer, parent, or investor. You only have one chance to make a good first impression, and a professional visitor management system is integral to a positive visitor experience.
Having a quality and well-known image is something your organisation needs. A visitor management system in aged care is especially important as it enhances your brand image with residents, staff, and visitors. Showing that your aged care facility is taking safety, security, and compliance seriously by utilising a top-notch visitor management system is an excellent way to attract new clients.
A visitor management system in aged care is thus an indispensable asset to your organisation.
In a nutshell
A visitor management system in aged care is imperative to your organisation’s continued operation and success. It will prove to your residents and visitors that you are committed to providing dedicated and top-notch service and that your organisation is constantly progressing into the future.
About the author
Besides school and work, Venus spends her free time dancing (she has been a dancer for more than 10 years). She also enjoys spending time just chilling at home and hanging out with her friends.
