Case study

Dovehaven is a family-owned care group supporting more than 1,000 residents across 23 care homes in the North West. The group provides residential, nursing, dementia and specialist care, with a strong focus on helping residents live well while giving teams the information they need to deliver safe, consistent and personal care.

Dovehaven wanted its digital transformation to do more than replace old processes with new software. The group needed better visibility across its homes, stronger evidence for quality and compliance, richer support for resident wellbeing and simpler ways to listen to feedback from residents, families and visitors.

PCS helped Dovehaven bring more of that information together across care records, activities, pain assessment and front desk operations.

The challenge

Dovehaven needed clearer oversight across a large group of homes. Before working with PCS, the group had limited visibility unless leaders were physically in the home, and key care information was harder to review, analyse and act on across multiple sites. That created pressure for quality, compliance and operational teams who needed to understand what was happening in each home without relying on manual processes or site-by-site checks.

The challenge was not just about care records. Dovehaven wanted a more connected way to support resident outcomes, staff efficiency, activities, feedback and pain management. The group needed digital tools that worked in daily care, but also gave leaders the data and insight to spot patterns, support teams and keep improving standards.

Turning digital tools into better care insight

PCS Care: clearer records and stronger oversight across homes

PCS Care (formerly mCare) gives Dovehaven’s care, quality and compliance teams faster access to the information they need across 23 homes. Managers can review care records, carry out audits, analyse information and monitor homes without always being on site, which helps when they are reviewing care quality, preparing for inspections or supporting a home through a concern.

Jo Hadfield, Head of Clinical Governance at Dovehaven, explained that carers and nurses found PCS Care easy to use, supported by training and written guides. The system also reduced the time spent gathering charts, care plans and records, giving quality and compliance teams information they could review and triangulate more quickly.

Dovehaven also uses PCS Care to evidence more detailed clinical information, including Mental Capacity Assessment reports and wound documentation. That helps teams record decisions, track treatment progress and communicate more clearly with professionals and families.

PCS Wellbeing: supporting physical and emotional wellbeing

PCS Wellbeing (formerly Oomph!) helps Dovehaven support residents’ physical and emotional wellbeing with a wider range of activities that can be used by more staff, not just activity coordinators.

The platform gives teams access to exercise sessions, strength and balance activities, reminiscence newspapers, themed calendars, quizzes and virtual tours. Dovehaven found this especially useful for residents living with dementia, as staff can filter activity recommendations and choose content around individual needs.

PCS Wellbeing reporting also helps teams track participation, engagement and activity outcomes, giving Dovehaven a clearer view of what residents enjoy and where activities can be improved.

Digital Reception: easier sign-in and clearer feedback

Digital Reception helps Dovehaven manage visitor sign-in while giving the group a clearer way to collect and review feedback.

Visitors can share feedback or raise concerns through the system, which helps teams identify issues earlier and respond before they become bigger problems. For a large provider, this matters because small pieces of feedback can easily get lost when they rely only on informal conversations or manual follow-up.

PainChek integration: clearer pain assessment at the point of care

PainChek helps Dovehaven identify and record pain more clearly, particularly for residents with cognitive impairment or difficulty communicating. When a pain assessment is completed in PainChek, the result automatically creates a care note in PCS Care. That reduces manual handling and gives teams a clearer record of pain assessment data within the resident’s care record.

Dovehaven said PainChek has helped staff better understand pain levels and the reasons behind distress, supporting more effective pain management plans. The original case study also notes strong results in reducing the use of PRN benzodiazepines, including Lorazepam and Diazepam, which can be used in distressed behaviour management.

Supporting Dovehaven’s connected care journey

PCS helped Dovehaven connect several parts of care and operations that can easily sit in separate systems. The combination has helped Dovehaven improve operational efficiency, support compliance, strengthen resident outcomes and give teams better information across the group.