July 27th 2020
Respect Care Services, a home care provider, talk about why they started to use a care management system to support their work, improve assessments and give staff more time to care.
Background
Respect Care Services is a family run home care provider working with local authorities in London to help people remain in their own homes.
The team were already using a data management system to help them track the care given to their service users. But six months ago, the team decided to try a new system, called cAIr:ID from Axela Innovations.
The system is a web-based platform where providers can monitor the progress and care of a service user all in one place. This can include events like when medication is changed, the frequency of symptoms and any allergies.
Cleo Taboada, Health Care Manager at Respect Care Services, says:
“It’s really useful to just open the dashboard and see everything. I can see how many service users I have, any recent updates, and the work staff have been doing to support them. I can also receive alerts, such as when a care assessment is due, or a medication needs to be reviewed.”
It provides real time information and updates, which allow for risk reduction and ongoing monitoring. The data and artificial intelligence within the system can make predictions on an individual’s health and help support workers to carry out care more efficiently.
The system can also integrate with everyday wearable devices, such as smart watches like Fitbit, plus medical devices such as blood pressure machines. The system has the ability to pull in GP data, hospital record systems and social care systems to put all the data in one place.
Care on the go
With the team at Respect Care Services working across London visiting service users’ homes, it was important that they had a system that they could all use on the go.
Cleo explains:
“Because it’s web-based I can open it on my iPad, computer or even my phone. So, it’s really easy to access on the move.”
Cleo says that staff find the system much quicker than the traditional paper method of tracking care and assessment. This means that staff can spend more time caring for service users. Managers can also quickly build an accurate picture of a person’s care needs.
Respect Care Services is moving towards the goal of going paper-less, being mindful of the environmental impact. Having a remote system that they can log onto online is helping them cut down on using paper and also react to new ways of working including working from home.
The team can still print what they need to from the system, such as when a service user and their family needs to read and sign a care assessment, but printing is now kept to a minimum especially with the ability to securely use an electronic signature.
Lessons learnt
- It’s important to provide adequate training for any new system to give staff confidence to use it
- Different providers have different ways of doing things, so work with the software company to get your requirements right.
Costs
Costs start from £2 a month. However, the system is currently free until the end of August.
Further information
For more information about Respect Care Services visit www.respectcare.co.uk
To find out more about cAIr:ID go to www.axelainnovations.co.uk
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