How one health and social care trust increased home care service's capacity without additional recruitment (Guest blog from CareLineLive)
Author: Josh Hough, Managing Director, CareLineLive
The South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland partnered with CareLineLive, a cloud-based provider of home care management software, to maximise resources and improve workplace efficiency for their domiciliary care service.
The South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust (SEHSCT) provides health and social care for a resident population of over 354,000. It employs approximately 10,000 staff and has an annual budget of around £600,000,000.
On an average day, SEHSCT Domiciliary Care Service provides over 4,350 visits to service users in their own home via its +600 carers, the majority of care is provided to older people. This equates to the service delivering in excess of 30,000 visits per week.
Census data from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) shows that the number of people aged over 65 has risen by almost 25% in the 10 years to 2021. Those aged over 85 years old will grow by 46% between 2015 and 2025. This will undoubtedly greatly impact on the future provision of domiciliary care services, and is something that the SEHSCT team is focused on.
Before CareLineLive
Prior to partnering with CareLineLive, SEHSCT’s home care service was managed with traditional tools like spreadsheets and printed paper-based rotas delivered by post.
The slowness and untimeliness of information flows resulted in patients being discharged from hospital but no carer attending a visit due to the rota not arriving in time. Rounds allocating carers to service users were inefficient and care staff were frequently interrupted outside work hours to agree rosters and pass on vital client care information.
When SEHSCT set out to find a home care solution, the team had three aims for the project, which were led by its strategic direction that ‘care professionals should have access to the information and information services necessary to provide the best possible care’.
The aims were:
- To strengthen governance and communication
- To streamline processes and increase responsiveness
- To improve experience and engagement for service user and carers
More specifically, SEHSCT needed a real time electronic central database where information relating to capacity was available, a family and friends portal facilitating 24/7 access to service user care records, increased safety for lone workers, managers able to determine location of current and last visit, and functionality that would help their quality and standards reporting.
After a considerable search, SEHSCT identified CareLineLive as having the closest functional alignment with Trust service requirements.
About the partnership
CareLineLive’s vision is to provide the first truly all-in-one home care management software that enables domiciliary care providers to digitise all their care operations, so that they and their staff can provide a high quality, person-centred service. It aims to make care businesses, both in the public and private sectors, efficient and financially sustainable giving care staff more time to care. It also enables these businesses to share relevant information easily in a timely way with all stakeholders invested in a care recipient.
CareLineLive software and iPads were introduced into the Trust’s Domiciliary Care Service as part of a pilot study before a full roll out of 367 iPads to care workers and full implementation of CareLineLive’s software.
After the initial pilot study 100% of office staff voted for CareLineLive to be implemented as the permanent solution across the Trust. One staff member said “I was completely against it at the start and was unwilling to embrace it. Now I feel silly because it has all worked out for the best”.
By using the cloud based software, staff can electronically record completed tasks and escalate concerns quickly. CareLineLive also enables the service to be able to generate reports and analyse the operational running of the service, ensuring transparency, accountability and value for money.
As a direct result of working with CareLineLive, in the initial six month period, 201 calls – which equates to 530 hours of social care provision – were created from within existing SEHSCT Domiciliary Care resources in North Down & Ards. If SEHSCT had purchased these hours from the independent sector – it would have cost £9,540. In fact, the introduction of software and technology has seen a reduction of 96% in missed calls within North Down & Ards down from 284 to 11.
Over a period of eight months, an additional 3,919 hours of capacity were created (equivalent to £73k) with no additional recruitment or agency staff hires. Care delivery enjoyed a capacity gain of 30%, and 87% of service users reported better service delivery.
On top of this, the introduction of software and technology had a positive impact across all aspects of the service, including staff communication and engagement, streamlining processes, and improved service user experience. Compared to SEHSCT’s previous postage costs, CareLineLive equates to an annual saving of £35,112.
Alistair Fitzsimons, Senior Manager Community Social Care, said:
“Not only have we seen phenomenal improvements to our capacity and efficiency but the standard of care has increased. We are now better able to tailor the care services people need and deliver it at a suitable time for them. If someone needs more time we can easily flex the system to deliver that without the need to make cascading changes in what was a complex paper based system.”
“We’ve found the CareLineLive reporting functionality invaluable. We have total confidence in the data that is provided. We can see when each carer has arrived at the service user’s home and when they have left and ensure that each service user is given the time that they need. The reports enable us to look quite forensically at our work which has resulted in even more efficiencies and improvements to service provision better matching supply and demand.”
Learn more: Video interview with Alistair Fitzsimons, Senior Manager Community Social Care, about the partnership with CareLineLive.