Care Plans, don’t you just love them?

The truth is that as Care Home owners we can’t do without them, but with the ever increasing pressures of legislation and governance, what used to be a document kept for the benefit of our residents and service users has become something else; an examination paper waiting to be marked whenever the dark shadow of the inspectorate turns up to darken our doorway.

It doesn’t have to be like this, but there’s a problem. It’s this - and be prepared for one of those painfully simple truths that can sometimes be deeply unattractive if you’re not in a position to accept them:
Paper based reporting systems have had their day.

Oh, they’ll be with us for a few years yet, and many Care Homes will struggle on with files and folders, bookends, binders and an office full of paper to the bitter end, but the long and short of it is that the systems many Care Homes set up to manage their Homes and look after their residents were never really designed for the amount and degree of reporting now necessary, and most are woefully inadequate for what is now expected of them.

For a start a priority for managers and owners might be to have a system that they could access from wherever in the world they happen to be, a system that would give them an overview of everything going on in their Care Home, pro-actively reporting on the care residents are receiving, staffing issues and every aspect of the day to day running and maintenance of the fabric and building of the home itself. That would be useful…

Perhaps of more interest to Care Home Groups might be the ability to have this level of management overview right across their group, with the addition of tools to allow the statistical analysis of whatever they want to look for, from occupancy to falls reports, doctor visits, baths taken or users of walking aids. Without moving from Head Office. That would save time and travel…

And within the Home? How about Care Plans that write themselves? That reminds you when updates are due? That will hold thousands of resident records both active and not, for as long as you need without printing a page? And that keeps a copy of every previous record made, so nothing is lost? A system that constantly monitors all records, alerting you to anything out of the ordinary, or when equipment needs to be serviced, or kitchen temperatures haven’t been taken, or are wrong?

Or a system that makes rushed staff shift changes a thing of the past, that’s so easy to use, that Daily Occurences can be entered in seconds as they happen? That makes it unnecessary to enter any piece of information more than once?

A system that is so accessible that residents and service users can participate in their own care planning, that relatives can have internet access to, allowing them to keep track on their loved one’s care, activities and happiness.

A system that ensures that full details follow residents and service users wherever they go, be it back to their own home, to hospital or another Care Home, whilst maintaining strict confidentiality.

Sounds good? Like something that might happen one day Well, it is all possible and 95% of everything I’ve described is available right now. It’s the future too, computer based systems are going to make the business of caring much easier, giving us more information, making us more efficient, and most important of all, freeing up time to do what we all want to do, look after our residents.

Jonathan Ann grew up at Penhill, his parents’ Care Home, which he managed until recently. His interest in computers has lead him to develop a program to make the job of running Penhill easier. This program, CareDocs, was launched onto the UK Care Home market in 2008 and is presently in use in over 150 Care Homes.

www.caredocs.co.uk
0845 500 5115