With so many senior living options out there, choosing the right one can be challenging. Families and caregivers struggle with many questions, from basics like what is an assisted living facility, to more complicated issues, such as what facility to choose after a hospitalization.
To choose the right next step for their loved ones, caregivers need to understand what assisted living facilities offer and the types of services a resident can receive.
What Is the Meaning of an Assisted Living Facility?
First things first: What does "assisted living facility" mean?
In a healthcare context, assisted living facilities are long-term care communities that provide basic support for daily life activities. Unlike nursing homes and care homes, they don't directly provide medical services, though they may assist with care coordination.
An assisted living facility is suitable for individuals who are relatively independent but can't live alone safely. The goal is to provide a balance between independence and support, while also providing opportunities for socialization and engagement.
Core Services and Daily Support in Assisted Living
So how do assisted living facilities work? Assisted living, as the name suggests, involves helping people with activities of daily living (ADLs).
Typically, assisted living facilities offer:
-
Personal care services: Assistance with basic self-care tasks, such as bathing, dressing, toileting, and grooming
-
Medication management: Help with scheduling and taking medications
-
Meal preparation: Complete meals with residents' nutrition needs in mind
-
Social activities: Recreational and educational programming designed to engage residents and build community
-
Safety and security: Fall prevention, older-adult-friendly building design, and building monitoring
-
24-hour support: Staff available on call in case of an emergency
Residents in assisted living communities typically have private rooms or apartments, but common areas are available for social engagement. Residents who are able and willing can eat their meals in a group dining room.
Assisted Living vs Nursing Homes
Assisted living is one of many LTPAC care types, all of which provide different levels of healthcare support. Families often mistake assisted living for nursing home care. Both are residential care facilities with onsite staff, but assisted living typically costs less and emphasizes independence.
Assisted living communities don't offer skilled nursing, which is a more medically intensive level of care. Nursing home residents often need medical monitoring, so these facilities have skilled nursing staff to perform wound care, intravenous feeding, and other routine procedures.
Some LTPAC patients go from the hospital to skilled nursing and later transition to assisted living. Others go into assisted living and ultimately need nursing home care. All patients benefit from being in the right place at the right time, with staff members who understand and can accommodate their unique situations.
Who Thrives in Assisted Living Settings?
When advising families on next steps, it's important to know who qualifies for assisted living facilities. For instance, they're not appropriate for people who have feeding tubes or are bed-bound. This level of care is also not suitable for patients who require 24/7 monitoring for medical or cognitive reasons.
For example, a person with moderate cognitive decline may thrive in assisted living. They may need help buttoning their shirt or finding their way to the dining room, but they don't pose a safety risk to themselves or others. Someone with more advanced dementia, who wanders and is prone to aggression, would be safer in a secure memory care unit.
Likewise, with physical impairments, someone who needs two people's help for transfers, such as moving from a wheelchair to bed and back, isn't a good candidate. Assisted living facilities may lack the necessary staff to ensure the safety of their residents.
However, if a person is predominantly mobile, only needing assistance to get out of bed in the morning or to sit on the toilet, assisted living might be the perfect option.
Examples of people who may thrive in assisted living include:
-
Frank, who had surgery after a fall and can't climb his stairs anymore, but still loves Wii Bowling
-
Barbara, who can't walk well enough to get to the senior center and has started to call her daughter every hour and a half because she's lonely
-
Sam, who is living on beef jerky and Cheez-Its because he can't get around well enough to cook
Every case is different, especially in a post-acute situation. If you're unsure whether a patient is a candidate for assisted living, it's time for the care team to chat.
The right fit is essential in senior care placement. The first step is for the care team to coordinate and, if possible, speak with the patient and their family.
Assisted Living's Role in Modern LTPAC Care
Modern healthcare has brought countless innovations to senior care. Thanks to tools like patient monitoring wearables and telemedicine, many older adults and post-acute care patients can spend less time in the hospital. But what happens when they're ready to leave?
If Susan, after a stroke, doesn't need a nursing home but can't return to independent living, an assisted living community offers an intermediate option. She can continue to recover and possibly return to her house someday. Or she might stay at the facility, because she loves having dinner with her friends and always goes to chair yoga on Mondays.
That's why transitional care management is so important. It gives clinicians a better picture of a resident's needs and helps to avoid dangerous errors — like letting Ed go to the bathroom alone, when he's not supposed to do that until next Thursday.
A high-quality electronic health records (EHR) system is critical. An assisted living EHR should communicate seamlessly with other facilities' systems, so clinicians don't have to wait for crucial patient data. As a system explicitly geared to LTPAC, ChartPath makes care coordination simple.
How ChartPath Helps Assisted Living Teams Deliver Better Care
The right assisted living facility software can make the difference between an easy transition to assisted living and one that has you tearing your hair out in the break room. ChartPath's EHR system features prescription drug monitoring, point-of-care integration, and chronic care management, designed for LTPAC teams.
These features enable assisted living teams to improve patient care with less administrative time and fewer headaches. Schedule your free demo today to see how ChartPath can help you care for your residents, wherever they come to you from.
