How Orchard Care Homes achieved a new standard of excellence in care planning with PCS

21 August 2024 | Juanita Woodward
Updated 2 July 2026 | Suzanne Worthington

Delivering exceptional care thanks to digital care planning

About Orchard Care Homes

With 23 care homes operating across the North of England and the Midlands, Orchard Care Homes have been running and managing care homes for over a decade. They provide nursing, dementia and residential care as well as respite stays to over 1,100 older adults.

We spoke to Chris Green, Health and Safety Officer at Orchard Care Homes, who explained how mCare, the PCS digital care planning system, transformed the way care is provided at their care homes.

Chris Green Health and Safety Officer

From paper to PCS

'Before we originally trialled mCare back in 2017, we were still using paper-based care plans, which are a nightmare.

'We found it was difficult to maintain complete oversight using paper-based care plans because apart from anything else, you had to physically be in the location to review the care plan - it wasn't possible to support care staff or check care plans or risk assessments from afar. This meant that valuable time was being spent unnecessarily.

'Using a paper-based system also affected the quality and quantity of care notes. In most cases, carers could only update the care notes two or three times a day due to the requirement of having to leave the residents to sit at a desk to log the care they had provided. After long and strenuous shifts, the carers understandably forgot details and despite their best efforts, this resulted in incomplete care notes.

'By making the switch to mCare, the PCS digital care planning system, in 2018 we've able to capture much more information than when we were using the paper-based system. We used to record maybe two or three care notes per resident per day but with mCare, the number of notes recorded is phenomenal.

'Now with mCare we can do so much more than was possible before by making the most of features such as the care delivery app. Our staff use the app to evidence the care provided to residents in real-time during their shift. The great thing about this is the icon-based interface, which has a Speech to Text function and pre-populated care notes that can be selected for each resident, who all have profiles on the system. By using these features on the portable handset that our staff can carry around with them, they drastically reduce the time it takes to compile accurate care notes by logging them whenever they need to.'

Oversight with Care Monitoring for better person-centred care

'Another great feature of the digital care planning system is Care Monitoring, which streamlines critical information about care plans, risk assessments, daily records and charts, making it all available in one place at the press of a button.

'Using Care Monitor not only means that we're now able to record far more care notes, but also that we now have the oversight and visibility we need to make sure we're delivering the highest standard of person-centred care.

'Gone are the days of having to search through box after box of paperwork to find a particular piece of data, or to compile the relevant information for audits and inspections. Everything we need to see is all in one place.'

Immediate benefits of the digital care planning system

'There was some apprehension to begin with when we started implementing mCare because some of the staff in our homes had been in place for a very long time. Although they liked the idea of a new, more streamlined system, they were worried about making that change. But as soon as they started using mCare, they could immediately see the benefits. It wasn’t long before they took to it and started using it like experts.

'As a Health and Safety Officer, having access to any information I need at the press of a button has made things so much easier, not just for me but for Orchard Care Homes generally. With mCare, if I need a piece of information from one home but I'm at another home, I have all the information I need right there in the system. This helps me provide support or advice, for example if a resident has complex needs.

'If I want to check a particular resident’s care plan, all I need to do is type their name into the search bar and their care records are available. That level of insight and visibility combined with ease-of-use and efficiency is just not possible with a paper-based system, where you'd need to go to the home and find the paper documents.'

Using GP Connect to access medical records in minutes

'Another crucial feature of mCare is GP Connect, which has helped us to run our operations across all our care homes so much more efficiently. GP Connect allows us to quickly and efficiently get access to the GP records and medical notes of residents we care for in real-time - this eliminates the need to go back and forth trying to find information.

'Now we have all the information we need readily available thanks to GP Connect. This has freed up valuable time that would otherwise we'd have spent ringing surgeries and waiting to get through to speak to someone. The time spent doing this soon adds up!

'The amount of time that we've got back from not having to chase GP records means our staff can spend longer with residents, making sure that they provide the best person-centred care possible.'

Automating pain assessment with Painchek

'Another way we've been able to improve care is with Painchek which integrates with mCare. Painchek uses face recognition software and AI to capture the slightest indicators in a resident’s expression to judge whether they'e in pain. It automates the process of pain assessment at the point of care, even if the resident seems fine to the carer, and they don’t complain of being in pain. This means we can provide a level of support for residents that wasn't possible before.

'We've found that Painchek integrates seamlessly with mCare. All you need to do is pull up the care notes, which takes less than a second, and evidence of the use of Painchek will be there.'

In conclusion

'Overall, it's an understand to say that implementing the digital care planning system from PCS has helped to streamline and improve the way our staff provide care for residents. mCare is a far better system than the one we used before, and we certainly don’t have any complaints.'