Evidencing care digitally leads to increase in occupancy

Published in Care Home Professional, National Care Forum and Care England

Using an electronic care planning system can help to sustain and drive occupancy, according to care owners and directors.

Electronic care evidencing was identified as a significant factor in giving care homes a competitive edge others in their area, as well as helping improve regulatory ratings, providing online care updates for family members and offering a better quality of care that drove up occupancy.

Read the news story below:

Care home owners and directors have identified that using a digital care planning system can help to sustain and drive occupancy in their care homes. In a challenging environment, care homes have found that distinguishing their care home from other homes in the area, improving the care home’s regulatory rating, providing online care updates for family members, and providing a better quality of care to professionals has helped to drive up occupancy. These factors have been achieved using Person Centred Software’s Mobile Care Monitoring system.

Rishi Sodha, Care Director at Handsale Care Homes, a group of eight care homes in England, Scotland and Wales, has seen the ratings of his homes improve and sustain high levels of occupancy. He says, “Every home in our group now has an overall rating of ‘Good’ or above with our regulations across England, Scotland and Wales. Regulatory ratings we have found have been a big selling point. This is especially true in one of our Essex homes, where we are the only home providing care for over 65’s with the rating of ‘Good’ in every KLOE with CQC. Person Centred Software’s system, and the evidence it allows us to present to regulators, has been a big part of this and so whilst other providers have seen diminishing returns, we’ve maintained a full home.”

For outside professionals, knowing that they can extract the information that they need and contribute to records much more quickly on an electronic care planning system means that they are more likely to refer people to placements at care homes.

Siobhan Mccoulough, Tissue Viability Nurse Specialist and Clinical Support Manager at OSKA, that provide pressure care products and support to care homes says, “Tissue viability nurses have a complex job in care homes that use paper documentation collating information from body maps, repositioning charts, nutrition and hydration charts and risk assessments to see signs of progress in healing wounds.

“It can sometimes take up to ten hours to gather the information needed. Whereas, it is much easier for us to gather information at care homes that use Mobile Care Monitoring. Live care is recorded digitally and is automatically collated with information from relevant charts and reports, a SSKIN assessment and body map with automatically attached photo evidence. Person Centred Software’s system is the future of care.”

It’s not just social workers and councils choosing which care homes to place people in. Families will investigate and choose the care home that they believe will provide the best quality of care for their family member. Person Centred Software provides the Relatives Gateway as part of its solution. This can be a unique selling point for care homes that are keen to differentiate themselves and offer reassurance and transparency to families.

Ernie Graham, owner of Graham Care Homes, including Cornford House in Tunbridge Wells, says, “The Relatives Gateway included in Person Centred Software’s solution gives family members access not only to care notes but a whole social network for sending photos and messages to keep in touch.

“The Relatives Gateway offers a great deal of reassurance to families, something vitally important given the great responsibility entrusted to us in caring for their family member. It’s a nice surprise for relatives to discover that the cutting-edge technology we use means they can keep in touch wherever they are in the world.”

Over 1,500 care homes in the UK are currently using Mobile Care Monitoring to evidence care electronically and drive outstanding care. 94% of CQC rated care homes using Mobile Care Monitoring are rated Good or Outstanding, and over 100 care homes have already improved their CQC rating since adopting the system.

There is a direct correlation between occupancy and industry regulatory ratings, so Person Centred Software has mapped Mobile Care Monitoring system to industry frameworks helping its care home customers confidently answer regulation questions and demonstrate their quality of care.