This article written by Laurie M. Orlov for Gilbert Guide assesses the level and amount of technology that is currently being used by health care providers and seniors.

With my ombudsman hat on recently, I spent a morning doing an assessment of an assisted living facility. As is usually the case, the nurses showed us a thick patient chart book with handwritten status observations, penciled-in Xs tracking medication dosages and a yellow-highlighted list of discontinued drugs. The 24-hour log used by the aides showed their observations in longhand: “resident is complaining of pain…resident is combative today…resident ate 50% of lunch.” The nurse in charge expressed extreme distaste for the few computer records they must enter-when a resident falls, for example, policy requires that it be reported to the parent company.

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