✨ Resident Life

It's quite possible that some of you may think my "issue" and related questions here are trivial, but your input may assist me in creating some attitude adjustments.

We have a new Portal via the vendor CareMerge, after booting the previous vendor. We also have a new Resident Services Director who is new to the field -- supervising the Life Enrichment (Activities) staff, the Transportation Department, the contracted Salon staff and the chaplain. There's a lot on the plate.

One BIG CHANGE is that with the new Portal (one of the first big projects of the new Resident Services Director) event registration is no longer done via a 3-ring binder in the Mail Room where one used to write in their desire to participate, with the Wait List behind the "go" sheet. Registration is now ONLY via the Portal. Life Enrichment publicizes a day at the end of each month when, at 9:00 a.m., registration for the next month's events is open. Popular events go VERY fast. We've added 42 new IL residents to our campus in the past year, due to the construction of cottages. The number of bus drivers and buses haven't increased.

Life Enrichment will help those who don't have computers and who can't use the kiosk to sign up -- they're told to just phone the staff. People are wising up that leaving a voice mail message ahead of the 9:00 a.m. green light will mean that staff will handle that list of messages when their Portal access begins, also at the same 9:00 a.m. hour that the residents have.

Here's my question: some residents want to be able to sign up directly on the Wait List, even though there is room on the "to go" list. Why? Maybe they're on the fence about going and don't want to take a spot for someone who really wants to attend. Or, they don't want to take a spot because family might be visiting at that time and they don't want to have to remember to cancel. If they start out on the Wait List from the get-go, they know they'll be contacted if space becomes available or remains available. Problem: Life Enrichment won't permit direct sign-ups to the Wait List as long as there's space available on the "go" list.

Also, another related "bone of contention": residents cannot see who is on the Wait List. If they need to cancel at the last minute and it's an evening or weekend event, no Life Enrichment staff is at work to assist by accessing the Wait List. In an environment where people are saying that they are "hovering at their computer at 9:00 a.m. to pounce and sign up," often to see that the event is already full, having an empty seat on the bus because a sub couldn't be contacted wouldn't go over too well if it was a popular event.

My questions for this forum's audience: 1) if your community's event registrations are via the Portal, are YOU able to sign up directly on the Wait List even though there's space on the "go" list? 2) How can registrants find their own replacement to prevent a ticket from going to waste, if no one can see the Wait List except staff and the event is after hours or on weekends?

Apologies for the "triviality" of this inquiry, but many here can't understand the intransigence of our Life Enrichment' staff on all this. Maybe if what they're doing is the norm, I can put some oil on the turbulent waters. Thanks.

Jennifer, your concerns are important to all of us because they relate to quality of life. The last thing we need is frustrations in getting our basic needs met. Sounds like your facility is in the throes of growing pains and many are these days. The traditional way of managing business with pen and paper, forms, etc. is being replaced with computer driven systems. This has to be most frustrating to those who are comfortable with the older system.

Our community went through several stressful periods when we started using an app, and later when we renovated our internet/television provider services. Our community mobilized residents who helped other residents through the process. and before it started they took time to educate everyone as to what was going on. This will get resolved over time but that doesn't help now.

Questions: Do you have a group of residents who can advocate for the residents, perhaps a resident's council? Perhaps residents can help other residents during the transition? Are there residents working with management to make the process easier for both residents and management?

What helps most is writing down on paper exactly what is working and not working so you can approach management with clear information about the problem.

We have a Residents Council, but often the Council officers are those who don't want to make waves.

Speaking for my own "style" of approaching management about an issue, I try to find out what is prevalent in other communities first, before taking a particular issue to management. I'm realizing now that my preliminary post in this Forum on November 14 should NOT have given the "back story" first, before the two questions I was specifically interested in. Those were at the end. Specifically:

1) with electronic (Portal) registrations for events, at your community can a resident sign directly onto the Wait List, even though there is room on the "go" list? Here, we cannot. I had provided reasons in the back story as to why this should continue to be an option (one could do that when it was a 3-ring paper binder in the Mail Room). Our Life Enrichment staff will not permit this anymore. The event has to fill up before any name can go on the Wait List.

2) How do registrants find a replacement if they need to cancel close to the last minute for an evening or weekend excursion when Life Enrichment staff is not at work to access the Wait List? We used to be able to look at the Wait List sheet in the 3-ring binder and call the next person, but that sheet doesn't exist anymore. Only staff can see the Wait List, hidden on the Portal from residents.

Jennifer,

I can’t answer your two questions because, as far as I can tell, my community doesn’t offer events necessitating a sign-up process.  (I haven’t moved in there yet.)

But I wonder if it would be possible for a group of concerned residents to figure out how they would run the sign-up process themselves in a way that would work for all concerned (including management), and then take a detailed proposal for that to management. That might involve their having some “management” access to the app.

Hi Jenifer, Here at Medford Leas, a CCRC in New Jersey, residents do.the trips. Not easy but high quality. It sounds like your management company does not put residents first. This is probably not your biggest concern.