Why Are Long-Term Care Homes Still Running on Faxes?
The untapped opportunity in building tech for those who keep senior care facilities running
Quick terms to know
Long-Term Care (LTC): Homes or facilities where older adults receive daily support with health needs, meals, and personal care.
Care Team: The group of nurses, doctors, pharmacists, and aides who work together to care for residents.
Workflow: The step-by-step tasks staff do every day — like giving medication, recording health updates, or contacting a doctor.
Workflow Automation: Using technology to handle routine tasks automatically so staff can focus more on care.
Care Coordination: Keeping everyone on the care team connected and informed so nothing gets missed.
AI Tools: Software that uses artificial intelligence to help with things like translating languages, writing notes, or organizing information.
Walk into many long-term care homes today and you might feel like you’ve stepped back several decades. Despite the rapid digital transformation of hospitals and outpatient clinics, most long-term care facilities still rely on fax machines, handwritten notes, and manual processes to coordinate care. The consequences are significant: communication breakdowns, underreported medication errors, and a heavy administrative burden on staff who are already stretched thin.
While hospitals have embraced digital workflows and electronic health records, long-term care has been much slower to adapt. The reasons are complex — ranging from limited funding and regulatory complexity to cultural inertia and high staff turnover — but the result is the same: technology designed to support frontline workers hasn’t kept pace with the growing demands of aging care.
Why Building for Care Homes Is Different
Most innovation in AgeTech has focused on products aimed directly at older adults — from wearable devices and voice assistants to fall detection sensors and memory aids. But one of the most overlooked opportunities lies behind the scenes: building tools for the people who actually deliver care every day.
Nurses, pharmacists, physicians, and administrators in long-term care facilities spend enormous amounts of time coordinating information across fragmented systems. A prescription change might involve multiple phone calls, faxed orders, and handwritten updates scattered across different records. A fall risk assessment could be documented in one system while the follow-up care plan lives in another. None of this is efficient — and none of it reflects the reality of how these teams work.
Designing for this environment requires a different approach than consumer-focused products. The goal isn’t just sleek interfaces or cutting-edge features; it’s about deeply understanding workflows and embedding solutions into the way care teams already operate.
The Future of Care Workflow Tools
A new wave of platforms is starting to tackle this problem by focusing on core workflows and the coordination challenges that slow down care. These tools are designed to automate repetitive tasks, centralize communication, and ensure that key information is never lost in the shuffle. Some of the most promising capabilities include:
🩺 Automated prescription intake and fall risk assessments that reduce manual data entry and errors
📡 Streamlined communication channels linking physicians, pharmacists, and nursing staff
🌐 AI-powered translation and documentation to support multilingual residents and families
📋 Centralized task tracking tied directly to specific orders and events
Instead of scattering updates across sticky notes, fax machines, and siloed software, these solutions consolidate everything into a single platform — making it easier for care teams to respond quickly and provide coordinated, high-quality care.
A Market Ready for Change — and Hard to Move
The long-term care sector presents a paradox: the need for better technology is urgent, but adoption is slow. Facilities often operate under tight budgets and rely on public funding, which limits their capacity for experimentation. Change can also be intimidating in environments with high staff turnover and limited training resources.
For innovators, that means success depends on more than just building a great product. It requires designing solutions that integrate seamlessly into existing workflows, address immediate pain points, and demonstrate clear value from day one. Products that solve problems teams are willing to pay for today, not hypothetical future scenarios, are far more likely to gain traction.
Equally important is how these tools are introduced. The most successful teams walk users through real-world scenarios — like rounding on residents with recent falls or managing a new prescription order — and show exactly how their platform reduces friction and improves outcomes. Storytelling and context are critical to helping care staff see how new technology fits into their daily routines.
The Next Frontier of AgeTech
While consumer-facing innovations will continue to play a vital role in aging care, the future of the industry may depend just as much on improving the infrastructure that supports it. By equipping the people behind the scenes with better tools, we can reduce errors, improve efficiency, and ultimately deliver more consistent, compassionate care.
The shift away from faxes and handwritten notes won’t happen overnight. But as innovators focus on solving the unglamorous, behind-the-scenes challenges of senior care, they’re laying the groundwork for a system that’s more connected, coordinated, and ready for the future.
