Role of Technology in Care Homes

We are delighted to be featured in Business Cloud about the Role of Technology in Care Homes: Over 30,000 care home workers across the UK are using cloud-based technology to save time and improve patient care. Person Centred Software has just reached its 1000th care home milestone and says its mobile application is changing the way front-line care is delivered.

More time to care with technology

Care homes of all sizes, from single homes through to large national groups are using the mobile software. Every member of staff saves at least one hour per shift on administration, compared to paper systems. Carers evidence care in real-time, ensuring the quality of information is both accurate and detailed and most importantly, freeing up time to do the actual caring. Managers also save time on care plan reviews and safeguarding with dashboards that deliver all the information they need to their fingertips. Care homes report that 20 minutes is even saved on admissions to hospital since up-to-date information can be automatically collated into a hospital pack.

Improve efficiency and support care workers

Health and social care have been notoriously slow to move away from paper-based documentation. Even care providers that adopted desktop computers, care staff would still write up everything using words at the end of their shift; words which were subject to interpretation, were inconsistent and unmeasurable. The use of desktop computers also delivered minimal time savings since staff had to walk back and forth to a device throughout the day to record care. According to Jonathan Papworth, co-founder and director of Person Centred Software, “It became apparent to us that whilst administration software helps care providers’ efficiency, it doesn’t actually help those delivering care. Social care really only exists because of these people, so we decided to focus on improving the lives of the care staff users.” Care home staff use an icon-based application on a handheld device throughout their shift. It is easy to use, fast, and icon driven with limited need for typing – ideal for non-native speakers of English, those with dyslexia and non-IT literate people. The system drives carer to nurse communication when important interventions are needed; it enables nurse to carer communication with detailed care plans, care routines and shift handover notes; and it also ensures carer to carer communication with details of a resident’s preferences, and alerts for overdue care as well as happiness indicators.

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