How Larchfield House integrated their care planning and operations with medication management solutions to improve care outcomes and efficiency

Time is the biggest resource in care homes

As I said earlier, it can sound like a simple thing, but anyone working in the care sector will tell you to never underestimate the enormous benefits of being able to save time, because our staff always have a lot of responsibilities that are very time-consuming even at the best of times. So, if we can take tasks away from our staff that take up their valuable time and keep from them administering person-centred care, this can have huge benefits to the emotional wellbeing of our residents and for the whole community of the home – it can be the difference between good and outstanding care.

The distinction often lies in the difference between care staff merely managing their tasks and truly fulfilling their responsibilities.   
 
“When care staff have more time, they not only meet the basic requirements of their job but also provide the high-quality care that residents deserve. With this in mind, the time savings that we have been afforded thanks to the digital care planning system have been massive.”

All the tools are there to not only save time in the process of creating person-centred care notes that are taken down at the point of care but also, because of features like the Icon-Driven Interface and the Speech to Text function, it has helped to eliminate a lot of the little errors that can sometimes happen as a result of trying to take down handwritten notes. 

Improving the quality of care outcomes

The documentation available via Person Centred Software’s system really helps to ensure the highest quality care outcomes for our residents. Everything flows in a way that makes the process simple and efficient – from the initial assessment, risk assessment, and the care plans, you can’t really miss anything, the documentation gives the team the right information which is incredibly helpful for audits and gathering information for inspections. This last point is especially important because a lot of regulatory compliance is leaning towards providing greater overall wellbeing for residents, so naturally, ensuring a higher level of personalised care makes this more achievable. 

Ensuring person-centred care

Having so much information at our fingertips also means that we are able to go the extra mile to provide care that is tailored to each individual based on their unique needs and preferences. There is no one-size-fits-all to truly outstanding person-centred care because everybody is different, and being able to tailor care to the needs of each person means understanding what they like, what they dislike, how they interact with people and what effects their mood.

So for us, one of the features that has really helped us to achieve this level of understanding, and therefore a greater degree of person-centred care, has been the Who I Am feature. This really helps us to paint a picture of each resident and adjust the way we deliver care to meet their specific needs and preferences, not to mention make it more personal by knowing their life stories and interests.  

So, it leaves virtually no room for error when it comes to mistakes in the information that you need to provide person-centred care. Not only this, but I have found that the team at Person Centred Software are always very receptive to feedback based on how we use the system. The lines of communication are always open, and I have spoken to the team on occasion to provide ideas and feedback on how things can be improved and implemented. This is a really important factor for us because it’s nice to feel like we’re in a true partnership, rather than just being handed a product and left to get on with it. 

“One of the best things you get when you partner with PCS is the access to a wide variety of solutions where it’s almost like you can just switch on the functionality as needed.”

We’ve been really happy with the digital care planning system, and we’re always getting positive feedback from the staff as well who remark that it’s really easy to use, and really helps with efficiency and effective care planning, but it’s not just the digital care planning system.

Because it’s all one connected platform, they all integrate together so you don’t have to worry about having 3 or 4 different accounts to manage, which can be a headache – it's all there in one place and this is what we’ve found by using ATLAS eMAR too.  

We’ve only had ATLAS eMAR for a little under a year but already we’ve seen the benefits it has to offer. Much like the care planning system, using ATLAS eMAR means it’s really easy to keep on top of auditing for inspections and having daily reports means that for someone in my position, I have access to data that is giving me a complete picture of how the medications are being managed in the home.  

It’s also meant that we’re avoiding a lot of medication errors because of the checks that the system has to ensure that the five rights of medication management are being observed, not to mention making sure that we’re never in a situation where we’re either understocked or overstocked – ATLAS eMAR helps the whole process run smoothly and because it integrates with the digital care planning system, it’s even more efficient and streamlined as the medication information is pulled through to the care plans. It really makes the biggest difference in the areas that matter most. 

Using PCS throughout our digital journey has huge benefits 

We implemented a digital process to manage visits and operations by adopting Person Centred Software’s Digital Reception. Using the same digital provider has reaped benefits such as links between systems; for example, visits are logged as care notes which helps us in potentially challenging situations where, for example, you have times when where residents might not want certain family members to visit but they do want other family members to visit, and Digital Reception really helps with that from an operational point of view. 

For managing the operations, the same is true with the Nursecall Messaging Service; it integrates well because the two platforms can talk to each other, and its recording data in an automated way, so it really helps with evidence gathering and it’s just another thing you don’t have to worry about. Where NMS really shines, I find, is during the night when staffing levels are a bit lower, and the system really helps us to put our staffing resources to best use because we can give people a sense of space and help them when they need it. Overall, it’s meant that we can respond to incidents quicker, and we’re reducing the chances of falls or hospital admissions in general. 

A seamless experience using the same software provider. 

Before we used the PCS Digital Reception, we were using another digital front-of-house system after switching from paper, but as soon as PCS introduced their own system, we switched for a more seamless experience between systems. 

The importance of feedback has been another growing regulatory dimension over the last few years, and having Digital Reception has meant that we have had an invaluable tool for gathering feedback for regulatory compliance as well as managing relationships with the families of our residents as well as everyone else in the home. 

There has been an occasion or two when we’ve had some negative feedback, and we’ve managed to discuss it with the person who left it and it really helped not only to diffuse the situation, but it meant that we had feedback on which we could build and improve our offering.  

A long-term software partner 

Overall, I'd thoroughly recommend partnering with Person Centred Software because the Connected Care Platform enables our complex needs nursing home to stay compliant, safe, effective and efficient.  

And, quite simply, for anybody who is looking to switch to PCS, whether it’s from another provider or making the move from paper, I’d say go for it! Go for it and get the whole package, because you won’t regret it.