Customizing Your Portal for Real Impact: Meeting the Unique Needs of Long-Term Care

September 15, 2025 | Varsha Chaugai

Every long-term care (LTC) home is different. Whether it's how progress notes are shared, who gives consent, or how families prefer to communicate, a one-size-fits-all approach to technology often fails to meet the nuanced needs of each organization.

A family communication portal should not only deliver standardized updates. It should reflect your home's policies, culture, and comfort level with what gets shared and how. Without this level of customization, platforms risk becoming underused—or worse, burdensome.

This article explores how thoughtful customization of your family portal results in greater impact across compliance, transparency, and staff workload.

From our conversations with leading LTC homes across Ontario, here are the most valuable customization options:

• Note Sharing Preferences
  Homes can decide what types of notes are visible to families. Whether it's progress notes, care summaries, or specific types of clinical updates, staff maintain full control over what is shared. Some homes choose to exclude sensitive entries such as nursing notes or assessments, while others focus on daily care summaries or select progress note types.
• Consent Workflows
  Consent management can be customized to reflect how your home collects and documents approvals. Whether you want forms signed digitally, add fact sheets, or allow families to schedule care around visits, the portal can accommodate different preferences. Responses can be tracked and routed directly into the EHR, supporting audit readiness.
• Contact Types and Permissions
  Some homes prefer to only invite Substitute Decision Makers (SDMs) or POAs, while others offer access to multiple approved family members. Defining who receives what information helps reduce risk and ensures communication flows only to those with the proper authorization.
• Feature Visibility
  You choose which modules (e.g., invoices, recreation calendars, mass messaging, surveys) are turned on for your families. If certain modules are not relevant or too resource-intensive at go-live, they can be hidden or phased in later. This simplifies onboarding and focuses your team on the features that matter most.
• Language and Tone
  The platform’s communication tone, default messages, and even visual branding can be aligned to your home’s style. For multicultural or multilingual communities, having the ability to translate content or provide culturally appropriate language can significantly improve engagement.

Customizing your portal is more than a preference—it is a strategy that improves outcomes.

It improves staff adoption and reduces friction. When the portal is aligned with your workflows, staff are more likely to use it consistently. By only enabling what they need, you prevent tool fatigue and build confidence in the system.

It strengthens family trust and reduces complaints. Families who receive timely, relevant, and appropriately detailed updates are more likely to trust your team and less likely to escalate concerns. Clear communication reduces the chance of misunderstandings or assumptions of neglect.

It supports compliance with documentation requirements. By customizing consent tracking and communication logs, you make it easier to prove due diligence during inspections or audits. Forms are stored securely, messages are time-stamped, and progress notes can be updated automatically.

It allows you to scale thoughtfully. Not every home needs every feature on day one. A customized launch allows you to scale features based on readiness, staff capacity, or resident needs—without disrupting daily operations.

Homes that skip customization often encounter these challenges:

• Staff become overwhelmed by features they do not need or understand, leading to underuse or rejection of the platform.
• Families receive updates that are either too vague or too clinical, which creates confusion rather than clarity.
• Consent workflows remain manual or paper-based, causing delays, missed follow-ups, or gaps in compliance.
• Homes cannot easily prove that families were informed, which increases the risk during inspections.
• Features remain unused despite their potential to reduce workload or improve engagement, simply because they weren't aligned with staff readiness or home policies.

By not tailoring the portal to your home's specific needs, you lose the chance to maximize value and risk reinforcing the perception that “tech doesn't work for us.”

Customizing your family communication portal is not just about preference; it's about performance. Homes that take the time to align features with real-world workflows see greater adoption, stronger compliance, and more meaningful family engagement.

The right technology should flex to fit your home, not the other way around. A tailored portal helps your team do more with less, while giving families the transparency and connection they deserve. To see the most customizable family portal available, book a demo with us by emailing contact@evokehealth.ca.