PCS helps Ashfields evidence outstanding care
Ashfields captures more detailed care records with PCS Care. Managers gain clearer oversight while staff spend more time with residents.
Great care deserved better evidence
Ashfields Care Home is a 76-bed care home in Heanor, Derbyshire, providing residential, nursing, dementia and respite care across three suites.
When Registered Care Home Manager Josie Greveson joined Ashfields, one of the challenges she needed to address was care recording. The quality of care was not the issue. Staff were delivering the care residents needed, but busy shifts meant important details were not always being written down.
Ashfields introduced PCS Care to make recording care easier at the point it happens, while giving managers clearer evidence of the care being delivered. The change supported stronger oversight, simpler audits and more detailed records that Ashfields could use to demonstrate the quality of its care during inspections. The home went on to receive an overall ‘Outstanding’ rating from CQC.
Care recording integrated throughout the day
With PCS Care, carers could record information on handheld devices while supporting residents, rather than relying on handwritten notes completed later.
The system's icon-led design, pre-populated notes and speech-to-text tools made documentation quicker and easier. Information could be captured while it was fresh, helping records reflect what had actually happened throughout the day.
The result was better information for the wider team and more time for carers to spend with residents.
Josie found that reducing time spent on documentation gave staff greater opportunities to build relationships, understand residents' preferences and provide more personalised support.
Managers gained a clearer view of care
Managing three suites meant Josie needed visibility across the home, without relying on updates from different people and different systems.
PCS Care brought key information together in one place, including care plans, assessments, observations and nutrition and hydration records. This gave managers a clearer picture of each resident's needs and made information easier to access when required.
The home also used the 'Who I Am' feature to capture personal details about residents, helping staff understand the person behind the care record as well as their clinical and care needs.
The move from paper to digital records was easier than many staff expected. Even carers with limited experience of mobile technology became confident using the system within a short period of time, helping ensure consistent adoption across the home.
We've had Person Centred Software's electronic care planning system for over six years, and I'm delighted with it; I wouldn't change it for the world.
Outstanding care backed by strong evidence
Ashfields wanted its records to reflect the standard of care residents were receiving every day.
With PCS Care, staff can document care more easily, managers have greater visibility and the evidence needed for audits and inspections is readily available.
The home went on to achieve an overall Outstanding CQC rating, supported by records that helped demonstrate the quality of care being delivered across the service.
For Ashfields, better record-keeping was never about paperwork. It was about making sure outstanding care could be clearly evidenced, reviewed and continuously improved.