‘Electronic care plans and pre-assessments were highly detailed and paid attention to ensuring people’s choices were fully considered as well as their needs. For example, they detailed people’s preferred routines and ensured staff had the right information to deliver care as the person wished; time of care, meals and when rooms were cleaned. All staff, including the chef, were able to add and have input to ensuring people’s needs were captured and excellent communication ensured person centred delivery because information was fully up to date even including people’s small preferences.’
‘The registered provider explained, “Having such an up to date electronic system allows the plans and actions to be truly effective and ensure the right support and care is being delivered. We can also access information remotely, so we know people are being cared for as individuals, as do the families who access [the care plans].” The system allowed for on the spot and distance audits to ensure care plans were effective and meeting people’s needs to the highest standards.’
‘The electronic system included a magic moment section for each person. Each person had many events documented with an audit celebrating ‘Six months of happiness!’. For example, [person’s name] had a magical moment with Buddy the dog, stroked and admired him, [Person’s name] had lovely chats with people he knew in the town, [Person’s name saw a badger and reminisced how they had had badgers in their garden and fed them. All these moments were input onto the care system by any staff member and then shared with staff, family and friends. The registered manager said it had been lovely to share a photo of a person doing a wordsearch as their family had said they would not be able to complete one when they had first moved in.’
‘People and relatives had also been ‘trained’ in understanding the electronic care system, so they knew what they were looking at in their reviews.’
‘The registered manager told us how the new electronic system allowed (with the permission of their family member) relatives to access the daily notes to check from home what care and support their family member had received each day. They told us this has given a lot of comfort to relatives knowing they could check how their family member was if unable to visit in person. People were also very reassured with this system as they felt relaxed knowing their relatives would pick up anything they forgot to mention. The first page opened to people’s ‘happiness charts’ with emojiis on how people were doing. One relative said, “I love the relatives’ portal (an online area where people could keep in contact with each other)– it was fantastic having access to it in the early days when I was worried about leaving – I could keep an eye and see how they were getting on and more importantly, how they were feeling.” Staff shared photos all the time with families using the portal to reassure them their loved one was doing well and also shared photos with people posted by their families. This was another great example of collaborative and open service delivery.’
