When you own a senior care franchise, you have the opportunity to help improve care recipients’ lives in several ways. One of the most obvious ways is through compassionate at-home support customized to seniors’ unique needs. However, this isn’t the only avenue your senior care agency can take to help promote the quality of life of older adults.

By assisting with care coordination, you can make sure care recipients are maintaining their overall well-being and avoiding complications that could potentially hinder their independence. Furthermore, you’ll reduce the burden on their family caregivers, making aging in place a more positive experience for everyone involved.

Understanding Care Coordination in the Context of Senior Care

According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, care coordination is “any activity that helps ensure the patient’s needs and preferences for health services and information sharing across people, functions, and sites are met over time.” In other words, a care coordinator can work to bridge any gaps that could hinder a care recipient’s well-being, whether these gaps are related to communication or logistics.

By promoting access to care and providing advocacy, care coordinators have a significant influence on seniors’ quality of life as well as their long-term health. Through tasks as simple as acting as a point of contact, building personalized care plans, and ensuring seniors have the resources they need to follow physicians’ directives, care coordinators can help seniors remain engaged with the process of maintaining their health over time.

Care coordination is important because it can have a positive impact on a number of parties: patients and their families, healthcare providers and payer organizations, and community health efforts. The process of coordinating care provides a proactive approach to managing health care concerns and ensures care recipients are actively involved in their own health. It also improves communication surrounding the concept of health, especially during periods of transition when a care recipient is moving between different environments of care.

How Your Senior Care Franchise Can Engage in Care Coordination

Senior care franchises have a unique opportunity to provide the level of care coordination families often lack as their loved ones grow older. Including these types of services in your spectrum of home care programs enables you to expand the positive influence of the senior care you offer. While not a level of support available through every home care agency, care coordination and senior home care go hand-in-hand and can increase the likelihood of positive outcomes for care recipients. This is because care coordination helps families navigate new life chapters and important transitions, while enabling seniors to reach their goals and have a more comfortable experience of aging in place.

Here are some of the ways your senior care franchise can take part in care coordination:

Taking a Comprehensive Approach to Care

Delivering well-rounded care requires the creation of a comprehensive care plan as well as frequently updating that plan to reflect changing circumstances and new needs. It is important to review care recipients’ needs on a regular basis in addition to their personal goals and track record of engaging with their own health. Care coordinators can then offer support and guidance to continuously tailor the care plan in the right direction.

Promoting the Health of Seniors

Care coordinators can focus on arranging any additional services or resources seniors require to follow their treatment plan or implement their doctor’s directives. The simple task of coordinating logistics, acquiring the appropriate tools, and helping care recipients understand important information can play a huge role in preventing serious complications.

Delivering Transitional Care Services

Care coordinators can help families prepare for important life changes. In many cases, this involves moving seniors from hospital to home following a discharge, but can also include supporting seniors in a move from their home to a new living environment. Care coordinators can also equip families with information about local health facilities, residential settings, and practitioners to facilitate a smooth transition.

Learn more about the types of supportive services you could provide for local families when you own a senior care franchise. Reach out to Visiting Angels^® today at 800-365-4189 for details about our franchise opportunities or request additional information online.