What’s Wrong with Assisted Living Culture

A couple of days ago I attended an annual assisted living conference. We have an association for assisted living homeowners around Arizona. We all get together once a year for networking and education.

By attending you receive 6 continuing education units (CEUs). The Department of Health requires assisted living managers to obtain 24 CEUs in a 2-year period to maintain their license.

So you can guess this is probably why most people attend this conference. It’s mostly why I do. Indeed, they would not let you receive the CEU’s unless you stayed until the bitter end.

Here’s a rundown of the topics speakers gave for our education:

• How to reduce taxes, protect assets, and build wealth in your assisted living business

• An Overview of the Fair Labor Standards Act for Care Workers by the Department of Labor

• Department of Health Services: New Rules and Regulations

• Medical Provider’s Role in Department of Health Compliance

• Effective Communication for Your Business

The word ‘compliance’ to me is like fingernails on a chalkboard. It’s the opposite of innovation. It says ‘we know best. Now do as your told’.

Don’t get me wrong. In this day and age, it’s important to stay in compliance with all the government regulations to avoid having your business shut down. We spend a significant amount of time in our business doing so.

The trouble is, do any of the topics discussed make you react with something like:

“Wow I feel so much better with how they will care for my mother”.

I wouldn’t if it was my mother.

All through the conference vendors were lined up to sell their products to assisted living homeowners. I actually loved that because many of the products could potentially help us care for our residents better. I talked to several of them enthusiastically.

Yet almost all of the vendors had sugary treats to lure us to their tables. There were Hershey chocolate kisses and other candy bars sprinkled all over the tables in the main conference rooms. Lunch had all kinds of ‘tasty’ desserts.

Apparently ‘compliance’ doesn’t include nutritious food.

There was no talk of exercise or other therapies we can do in our homes to improve the health of our residents. Apparently that’s for the doctors who meet with our residents to worry about.

It felt like we were another government department. Here’s our set of rules and procedures on how to run your business. If you don’t follow them, you will be shut down. Spoken from on high.

No talk of results. Did these rules lead to better health outcomes for residents? We don’t track that. Doesn’t matter. What we do track is whether you comply to our rules. In fact in the ‘New Rules and Regulations’ lecture, the speaker put up the ten most common deficiencies that they write up when they do inspections of care homes.

Almost all of them were paperwork issues. Things like a caregiver’s CPR training card had gone overdue.

Unfortunately all the emphasis on compliance means that’s what care homes will focus on the most. Does that make you feel much better about your Mom?