How a Digital Hospital Pack Supports Alma McFadyen House

Alma McFadyen House in Scotland uses Person Centred Software's digital hospital pack to strengthen its relationship with external agencies

Through using Person Centred Software’s hospital pack, Alma McFadyen House has strengthened its working relationship with its local hospital and improved person-centred care for its residents.

Care Manager, Leanna Mitchell says, “We started using Person Centred Software’s system, Mobile Care Monitoring in 2017. It’s changed our working day at Alma House.”

Exemplar hospital pack in Mobile Care Monitoring

As part of the Mobile Care Monitoring digital care system, resident records are automatically compiled into a hospital pack. This document can be sent electronically or printed out to be sent with the resident when they go to hospital.

Leanna says, “Early in 2020, we received an email from an Improvement Advisor for Anticipatory Care Planning at the Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary that a doctor wanted to pass onto us after a resident had been admitted to hospital.

“He praised the system, saying that our hospital pack was really good, very up-to-date and had a detailed care plan that included wishes, copies of power of attorney, medical needs and life story.

Benefits of using a digital hospital pack

“The doctor said that the information in the hospital pack had made it incredibly easy for him to advocate for the patient to medical staff, who with all the information present, agreed Alma House was a far better environment for the resident to spend her last days.

“He said that our hospital pack is a really good example of how providing key information helps get patient-centred care. He said that Mobile Care Monitoring should be held up as an exemplar system.”

Training in a new digital care system

Alma House in Dalbeattie is one St Philips Care’s 30 residential care homes across the UK. Members of staff can be understandably anxious about moving from using paper records to a new digital care system. Leanna explains how training and support was rolled out by the care home group.

“I was trained in-house, along with the senior carers from Alma House. We then trained the care staff ourselves on the app to record evidence of care. Initially, like with all new technology being introduced, staff felt anxious, but the new Mobile Care Monitoring system was so easy to navigate.

“More time is spent with residents due to less paperwork. This means that there is more time for activities and staff can get to know residents much better than before.”

“Staff actually enjoyed the training and found that digitally entering their evidence of care in real-time was so much easier than completing paper records. They found that the new system took away their stress and they no longer wasted time looking through folders and paper records.”

Benefits of digital care recording

“Staff all give positive feedback about the system,” continues Leanna. “The icons on the app are easy to navigate and they save time on handovers.” Handover information is available at any time on the handheld devices used by care staff.

“We have improved the quality of care we provide to residents. Carers are able to easily record and communicate tissue viability, hydration and much more.

“More time is spent with residents due to less paperwork. This means that there is more time for activities and staff can get to know residents much better than before.”

From her perspective, as the care manager, Leanna says, “Records are more detailed and Mobile Care Monitoring automatically alerts us to things that we may have missed. We are protecting our residents as care is recorded in real-time. We now have great quality care plans that match our evidence of care recorded.”

Sharing information with relatives

Digital care planning has supported Alma House’s openness and transparency with external agencies and they now want to extend that to relatives.

Leanna says, “We’ve seen how the hospital pack has helped us to work closely with Dumfries and Galloway NHS Trust to improve resident outcomes. Going forward, we will be implementing the Relatives Gateway. This will mean that families will have access to care updates, and we can share photographs and messages with the relatives to keep them closely involved with care of their loved ones.”

Find out how a digital hospital pack can support your residents