11.15.2024 Juanita
Aligning with CQC's new single assessment framework and enabling carers to capture information easily at the point of care
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has designed a pyramid-shaped framework for its new single assessment framework. At the top of the pyramid sits the 5 Key Questions, used to ask whether your service has been safe, effective, caring, responsive, and well-led - this is followed by quality statements and evidence.
The CQC's new single assessment framework is designed to be more dynamic and data-led, with an aim to put people's experiences at the forefront of regulation and assessment.
The CQC also expect care providers to ensure that people receiving care are at the centre of their care and treatment choices and decide, in partnership with them, how to respond to any relevant changes in their needs.
Processes
To make the CQC's judgements more structured and consistent, they have developed six categories for the evidence they collect:
- People's experiences
- Feedback from staff and leaders
- Observations of care
- Feedback from partners
- Processes
- Outcomes of care
Processes are any series of steps, arrangements or activities that are carried out to enable a care provider to deliver its objectives.
The CQC's assessments focus on how effective policies and procedures are.
In order to do this, the CQC will look at information and data sources that measure the outcomes from processes. For example, the CQC may consider processes to:
- Measure and respond to information from audits
- Look at learning from incidents or notifications
- Review people's care and clinical records
Reviewing people's care and clinical records involves examining the care notes that document the delivery and evidence of care.
Person-centred icon-driven care notes
Working in a person-centred way involves working in partnership with the person receiving care to plan for their care and support. Person Centred Software's Digital Social Care Record System, mCare, was developed to meet this requirement.
mCare not only reduces the time it takes to physically transcribe care notes, enabling the care team to record information at the point of care but it also:
- Reduces the risk of errors
- Improves accuracy
- Increases the number of care notes recorded
mCare's icon-driven care notes feature was designed with care workers in mind.
Carers of any digital skill level can quickly and easily use the software. The icons are central to the Care Delivery App's design and are:
- Recognisable by users from all backgrounds and languages. For example, if English is not the carers' first language, or they have dyslexia, they can click on the icons which write the care notes for them, meaning evidencing care notes becomes much faster.
- Easy to learn and quick to use
- Saves time writing care notes at the point of care
So, how does the 'icon-driven care notes' feature work?
When a carer bathes a resident, for example, they can use the bath icon on the Care Delivery App's dashboard - this automatically generates a care note with basic details, which the carer can add to if they wish.
The carer can then input the duration of the bath (by selecting the up or down arrows below), the type of bath, the level of assistance required, and the resident's satisfaction level using the icons on the left.
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If the carer wishes, they can add as much detail as they want to the care note without any limit.
If the carer needs to report an accident, incident or h/o, a dropdown will appear for them to fill in manually, or the carer can use the speech-to-text feature to record their notes. With the speech-to-text feature, carers can accurately convert their voice to text without having to type on the handset.
Designed to give carers more time to spend with residents
Icon-driven care notes are more person-centred because they are designed to give carers more time. With pre-populated care notes and an intuitive icon-driven interface, medical records and care notes are kept up to date efficiently and accurately and can be presented easily to the CQC.
This streamlined process enables care providers to perform better, which, in turn, allows carers to devote more time to residents and create the best care environment for everyone. Additionally, the risk of losing information is eliminated because data is recorded in a central portal that can be viewed anytime by anyone with access.
See what our customers have to say about our icon-driven care notes:
"I love mCare; it's quicker and easier, and you can't lose paperwork. You can click the icons, and it writes the care note for you."
Toni Hanchant, Senior Support worker, The Arbory Residential Home
"mCare is straightforward to use, and our staff love it, especially because the handheld device allows carers to record the care using icons and voice recognition as they go through the day.
They're so pleased they no longer have to sit behind a computer for a long time at the end of the day, trying to remember what exactly they've done - this has been a huge change for our care staff, and we've seen an uplift in documentation as a result. Our carers now acquire about 50 care notes per day per resident, whereas they used to acquire only about 5."
Ernie Graham, Owner, Graham Care
"As it is icon-based and easy to use, staff save time on documentation, so they have more time to care. Using paperwork, we struggled to ensure that all fluid and turning charts were completed accurately and on time, but using mCare has greatly improved the accuracy of our records. Now we have detailed records and can prove what we are doing for residents."
Adrian Hendry, Director, Avondale Care Scotland
"mCare has massively improved the safety of new admissions and alerted care workers of our residents' care needs. In addition, the system's icon-based interface is amazing and helps staff document care much faster."
Jo-Ann Liptrott, Care Home Manager, Haslingden Hall (Amicura)
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