Adopting digital social care records by 2024: Everything you need to know

Are you ready to digitise your care records? 

What digital care system should your care organisation use for digital social care records?

If you're looking for a digital care system that displays digital social care records, you may be feeling a little overwhelmed. There are many out there with varying features and levels of service, so how do you choose the right digital care system for your organisation?

Firstly, speaking to several other care providers who have already made the digital transition is a good idea. They will be able to give you some advice on which digital care system to use.

You are buying a digital care system to meet the target of having digital social care records by 2024, but you also need to ask yourself, why else would you need a digital care system?

  • Are you looking for a system that integrates with eMAR to effectively manage and monitor residents' medication?

  • Do you need a system that helps to improve your CQC ratings?

  • Perhaps you're looking for a system to help prevent dehydration and monitor nutrition amongst your residents, etc.

Once you have the answers to your 'Why' for wanting a digital care system, you can start searching for the right system for your organisation.

Jonathan Papworth - Person Centred Software Founder

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People need to go into the process with their eyes open and talk to people who have made that digital transition already. That's the most important thing they can do.

Jonathan Papworth
Founder of Person Centred Software

Digital Maturity in the social care sector

Each care home is at varying levels of digital maturity, which means there will be many challenges ahead to achieving integrated care with digital. Health and adult social care providers who already use a digital care system must reach a minimum level of digital maturity, and these providers should be connected to a shared care record (digital social care record).

Where do you stand in your digital transformation journey? How digitally mature is your care home? Look at the categories below; which do you fall in?   

  • Digitally Immature – care providers who are still on paper and have a fear of using digital social care records
  • 1st Gen – care providers who are starting to go digital but are just choosing products to help with admin
  • Digital Friendly – care providers who welcome new digital products in their home
  • Digital Innovators - care providers who are pioneers in their digital transformation journey, always looking to find innovative products / predictive analytics / AI, etc.
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Common features of a digital care system

A good digital care system should be able to fulfil the processes required to manage a care service effectively - improving the quality of care provided. Furthermore, a good digital care system should be capable of replacing your existing paper-based care records, allowing you to create digital social care records and digital care plans and document care-related activities.

Interoperability

At its basic level, interoperability is about getting systems to talk to one another. Interoperability in healthcare enables various healthcare information technology (HIT) to communicate and exchange information. 

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For example, GP Connect, an NHS Digital managed service, uses standards that enable interoperability between different clinical systems, enabling the secure sharing of patient records across primary care. Person Centred Software has a GP Connect integration, which allows care providers to review the GP records and medical notes of those being supported in real-time. 

Below are a few examples of the type of information made available through GP Connect:

  • Encounters – e.g. hospital visits
  • Active problems and issues – e.g. diagnosis
  • Allergies and adverse reactions
  • Acute and repeat medication
  • Referrals
  • Observations – e.g. pulse, oxygen saturation
  • Immunisations


Person Centred Software launched its integration with GP Connect in February 2021. It became the first care home software provider to electronically transfer hospital packages directly to hospitals and advanced care plans to ambulance services via its digital care system, mCare.

Read our customer testimonials about GP Connect

 

 

Andrew Coles, CEO at Person Centred Software

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"Finding a digital system that can integrate health and care services across multiple settings is important."

Andrew Coles
Chief Product Officer at Person Centred Software

 

ATLAS Graphic V3

Another good example of interoperability is eMAR, an electronic medication administration and recording tool that care providers can use to record medication administration in care settings.

Person Centred Software's electronic medication management system (ATLAS eMAR) has been integrated to give care homes greater flexibility and the freedom to work with their preferred pharmacies.

ATLAS eMAR improves the medication process's safety, accountability, and efficiency. Care homes using the digital care system will have complete visibility of the eMAR within their daily records and care plans. Combining the platforms ensures critical information is available when needed and empowers care workers to understand prescribing and issuing patterns, ultimately minimising errors.

The shared platform also strengthens the partnerships between care homes, GPs and pharmacies, allowing for better integration and collaboration.

 


Security and Compliance

A common concern care providers have about their organisation using a digital care system is the risk of losing digital social care records. How secure is the data?

A good digital care system will store real-time data in multiple data sets using geo-replication. Geo-replication is a type of data storage replication in which the same data is stored on servers in multiple distant physical locations. So, in case of a large-scale outage or regional disaster, the system can recover the databases quickly.

Person Centred Software uses Microsoft Azure to store its data, where everything is geo-replicated and backed up instantly to other data sets.

With Person Centred Software's customers storing billions of care notes, increasing to over 5 million care notes per day, Person Centred Software ensures to deliver a high standard of data security to ensure personal records and sensitive information are kept secure and protected on a robust platform – data security and information governance are taken very seriously, using a number of measures to keep everything secure.

Read more about our Data Security

 

Jonathan Papworth - Person Centred Software Founder

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Person Centred Software’s data storage is fully resilient – with no single point of failure.

Jonathan Papworth
Founder of Person Centred Software


Data analysis

With the right digital care management system, the information you input into the system can transform how you care for the people in your care organisation.

You need to look for a digital care system that can analyse collected data, provide your organisation with reports, and flag concerns and risks to help make informed decisions for your residents.

Person Centred Software, through reporting tools, enables care providers to:

  • Extract and analyse incidents
  • Trace what actions led up to them
  • Prevent future incidents from occurring
  • Analyse trends and measure business critical KPIs for a single home or comparatively across a group

Implementing your digital care system

Here are a few useful pointers before you get started:

  • Communication is essential – make sure your colleagues and residents are aware of the new digital care system and the benefits it will provide
  • Form a partnership with your chosen supplier; they will have lots of advice on implementation and training
  • Thousands of care providers are already using digital social care records; it is not as difficult as it seems
  • The benefits of being digital are greater than the pain of change. You won’t look back!

Remote training and interactive webinars

PCS TrainingMost suppliers will offer training sessions on how to use their digital care management system. Person Centred Software's all-in-one digital care management system is easy to use and quick to set up.
A carefully designed, comprehensive course of 3 standard training sessions has been created; they can be delivered either by individual remote training sessions or group interactive webinars. These sessions, supported by complimentary webinars, will help guide you through each part of the digital care management system.

Onsite training – face-to-face

Person Centred Software's standard training sessions can also be delivered onsite at your location.

All you need is a designated training room to safely accommodate delegates and trainers while allowing for social distancing.

It would help if you also considered the

  • The room needs to have good Wi-Fi connectivity. If it doesn’t, this may impair or even stop training from taking place
  • There need to be enough PCs/laptops for the number of delegates. A large-screen TV with a laptop connection may be a suitable alternative
  • Can laptops be plugged in easily? Will extension cords be needed?
  • The room needs to allow for good ventilation during or between sessions
  • Handsets are required for the Care App and Monitor training sessions and can also be helpful during Care Planning training. Please ensure that you have enough handsets available for your delegates to use and that they have been fully charged and switched on before the beginning of training

 

What will the day be like, and how long will the day be?

  • The onsite training days vary, but you will be told the length of each session when it is booked in and again in the confirmation email. Typically, all onsite training will start at 10 am
  • The trainer should arrive earlier than the planned start of your training session so that they can set up their equipment
  • There will be short breaks during each session and between sessions

What will you go through?

Accounts Training
  • Importing and adding staff and service users
  • Suspending service users
  • Closing /re-opening staff and service user files.
Care App Handset training
  • Logging in and finding help
  • Recording planned and ad-hoc care on the handset
  • Taking photographs
  • Finding information about service users
  • Accessing shift handover notes
Monitor Training
  • Accessing information
  • Correcting / voiding care notes
  • Completing accident and incident reports
  • Setting up planned care
Care Planning Training
  • Completing risk assessments, the Initial/current assessments and care
  • Reviewing care plans
  • Wound care reports

Your trainer will telephone the home the day before to confirm the home is Covid-free. If required, they will take their lateral flow test on the morning of training and provide proof of a negative result on arrival. Should the trainer receive a positive test, you will be notified immediately and discuss alternative options.

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