How Aged Care providers are using Mint to care for our nations most vulnerable.
2020 – The fire, the flood and the virus
2020 has started off with some curveballs to Australian life. It’s been incredible to see how we rally during difficult times and help each other out. During these times, people are looking for clear communication and leadership to help navigate the unfamiliar.
Carino Care is a provider of Aged Care in New South Whales familiar with the importance of communication to stakeholders in these times.
As the staff have rallied together during everything 2020 has thrown at them, communicating with families is a priority. Time is of the essence during these natural disruptions, and every staff member is needed on deck. It’s imperative to be able to communicate effectively and timely, so staff can get back to what they do best — caring for those entrusted to them.
In 2020, Carino Care has been using Mint to help them communicate to stakeholders about the Coronavirus through the social feed and newly developed SMS broadcasting.
See the SMS broadcasting in action
For those who aren’t on our social feeds, SMS broadcasting ensures every stakeholder receives urgent communications.
The Problem is:
In the midst of Corona Virus (COVID-19), the most vulnerable, our elderly, are at highest risk from what is now being known as a Pandemic. The complexity for aged care providers during this time is the following:
- Managing stakeholder expectations and
- Managing the risk of virus spread from a family member, visitor or staff member whilst in its incubation stage or early symptoms.
To manage this risk, people must be educated and understand what steps they must follow to ensure they do not spread coronavirus.
How to educate and manage expectations?
As we at Mint know from our last 3 years of working with aged care providers and technology, the difficulty is communication with stakeholders and drilling down a little more, it’s actually how to communicate clearly and effectively and through what channel.
Email is great for formalities but has a low open rate. Often people give businesses an old email address they never check or use. Alternatively, they do not even have an email. Email also has the issue of human error when entered from either the consumer side or business side.
Phone calls are a very personal and professional touch but can feel like a giant game of tag. The business is always tagged and chasing other people but never actually talking to them. Stakeholders don’t always answer, callbacks are missed or the number is entered incorrectly at the beginning. On top of this, calling is also very time-consuming. Precious time that could be used caring for those we are entrusted with.
Paper… there’s really not too much that needs to be said here other than, 3 business days for letters to be received, and there’s absolutely no guarantee of open rates.
What’s the Solution?
The key is quick and efficient information sharing. Proactive communication can lead or provoke the receiver to take action that potentially saves lives. Proactive communication also curbs anxiety and with Mint, it relieves primary carers of the taxing burden of communicating with the whole family — one message reaches every recipient.
Last week, Mint was used to provide all resident families an update regarding the aged care provider’s coronavirus policy.
They followed these steps:
- Created a statement
- Attached the policy document
- Added images of the policy document
- Posted it to all consumer networks
This is what happened:
- Sent an SMS notification and email notification to all users on mint
- Provided them a preview of the update
- Linked them to the update to view the information
But what if everyone isn’t on Mint as a user?
We recommend using our text message broadcast combined with a link to your business website where you have your COVID19 policy and procedure public. This way, all you need is a persons mobile number and they will instantly receive a text message with key information and can be then taken to your website where the policy and procedure are accessible 24/7.