Synopsis
Brookdale Senior Living, one of the largest senior living providers in the United States, sought a reliable, efficient solution to improve communication with residents, families, and staff—particularly during critical situations like the COVID-19 pandemic. By implementing Cliniconex’s Automated Care Messaging (ACM) solution, Brookdale was able to streamline communications, save staff time, and enhance resident and family satisfaction across its 700+ communities.
Challenges
1. Overwhelmed Communication Channels
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, Brookdale was immediately faced with the need to communicate rapidly and frequently with the families of its residents across more than 700 communities nationwide. However, the infrastructure for mass communication simply wasn’t in place.
- Phone lines were flooded with inbound calls from concerned family members seeking updates.
- Staff had to manually make hundreds of outbound calls, which took several hours per day.
- Many communities relied on basic tools like spreadsheets or phone trees to track who had been contacted, which were difficult to manage and prone to error.
2. Time-Intensive Manual Workflows
Each update—whether a new health protocol, visiting hour changes, or COVID outbreak notification—required staff to:
- Create and validate message content.
- Determine who needed to be contacted and by what method.
- Place individual calls or send emails, often without confirmation of delivery.
This process was labor-intensive, consuming valuable time that staff could have spent on caregiving duties or other operational priorities. Communities with limited administrative staff were especially burdened.
3. Inconsistent and Delayed Messaging
Without a centralized system:
- The same message might be delivered differently depending on who sent it.
- Updates were often delayed, especially during evenings or weekends.
- Some families missed critical information, creating frustration and fear.
This lack of standardization created a gap in trust between communities and families, who expected timely, accurate updates—particularly during a health crisis.
4. Lack of Real-Time Feedback
Brookdale had no reliable way to track:
- Who received or didn’t receive a message.
- If messages were opened or heard.
- Whether follow-ups were needed.
Without feedback or reporting tools, there was no efficient way to confirm outreach success, leading to duplication of work or, worse, missed communication entirely.
5. Unsustainable for Long-Term Use
While these issues were exacerbated by the pandemic, Brookdale recognized that the communication challenges they faced weren’t temporary:
- Families had long desired more proactive communication, even before COVID-19.
- Relying on manual processes for updates was simply not scalable as the organization continued to grow.
There was a clear need for a long-term, automated communication solution that could not only handle crisis-level messaging but also support routine updates and engagement going forward.
Solution
Brookdale adopted Cliniconex’s Automated Care Messaging (ACM) platform to streamline its outreach processes. This cloud-based, EHR-integrated solution enabled:
- Automated Phone, Email, and Text Messaging: Staff could send updates to residents, families, and employees in just a few clicks.
- Customizable Messaging Templates: Ensured consistency in tone and content while allowing for personalization at the community level.
- Real-Time Reporting: Provided visibility into delivery success, allowing staff to follow up only with those who didn’t receive messages.
- Ease of Use: Minimal training was required, and staff could begin using the system immediately.
Cliniconex’s team provided dedicated onboarding support and ensured seamless integration with Brookdale’s systems, enabling staff to launch communications directly from their existing workflows.
The Impact On Brookdale’s Skilled Nursing Facilities
Brookdale saw immediate and measurable benefits after implementing Cliniconex’s Automated Care Messaging:
Sustained Long-Term Use: The platform proved valuable beyond the pandemic, continuing to support routine and urgent communications.
Over 10 Million Messages Sent: Demonstrating the system’s scalability and reliability across hundreds of communities.
Saved 11,000+ Staff Hours: Staff redirected their time from manual calls to resident care and engagement.
Improved Family Satisfaction: Timely, consistent, and transparent communication built trust with families during uncertain times.
Crisis Readiness: Brookdale was able to deliver urgent COVID-19 updates and policy changes rapidly, ensuring resident and staff safety.
What You Want Others To Know
If you had to explain the Cliniconex solution to a colleague from another organization how would you go about it?
Cliniconex allows us to both maintain regulatory compliance by sending the necessary notifications and communications to residents and families in a super-efficient, very simple format. It allows us to send those notifications – which would normally take dozens, if not hundreds of man-hours – in seconds.
Most importantly, during emergency crisis situations where communication may be challenged, it allows us to get information into the hands of the residents and family members, to provide information as to what is going on, to lessen anxiety, and keep those channels of communication open as best as we possibly can.
I would recommend Cliniconex because it solves a sizable problem in a remarkably simple way. They took a big problem and made an easy answer.
– Charlie Anderson
Why should an organization keep Cliniconex past COVID-19?
I think anyone would want to keep Cliniconex past the COVID-19 pandemic because of this: for anyone that is moving a loved one into a skilled nursing center; whether that is for a short term rehabilitation stay, or if it’s for long-term care, it is a huge leap of faith for anyone to consider and follow through with.
Cliniconex allows us to stay in contact and allows the residents and family members to stay in contact with the facility in a very simple manner. We want to make that connection stronger and will do anything we can to bridge the gaps a family member has when deciding to trust a skilled nursing facility. I am hopeful Cliniconex will ease the burden that family members feel when they are making that decision.
