Care home planning is the backbone to the high-quality care Sanctuary Care provides to residents across the country, with every detail documented being personal and unique to them. It enables our caring team to truly enrich the lives of residents as they provide person-centred care – but how has care home technology enriched this even further?
The introduction of electronic care plans enables staff to access everything they need to at the point of care, in an instant, at the touch of a button. This eases daily pressures and enables our kind staff to do what they do best – deliver outstanding care.
Sanctuary Care’s bespoke system of electronic care plans, known as kradle, is an assistive technology programme that was developed by and for our staff, but what do our staff really think? Meet Deputy Manager at Regent Residential Care Home in Worcester, Jill Pearce, who shares her personal insight.
How care home technology helps to deliver better care
Jill has 25 years’ experience working in the care sector and will be the first to admit that initially, the thought of using electronic care plans and a care home app to document care records was not for her. She explains:
“I have delivered care or managed a team of carers for over two decades now and I knew what worked and I thought that was paper-based care plans! Even though they were very long-winded and often slightly disorganised, they were the way of life for me and still enabled me and my team to deliver quality care, so when the rollout of kradle – Sanctuary Care’s care home app for care plans, was first introduced I was 100% a cynic and thought in two months we would back to our trusty paper-based plans, but I couldn’t have been more wrong!”
Nursing Times also highlights how record keeping is an essential part of care practices and is often undervalued and can let down the care that is being provided. Electronic care plans and care home apps on the other hand, help to reduce the burden of form filling and provide accurate, timely and accessible record systems – Jill (and Sanctuary Care) agrees.
With kradle, all of the information staff need about their residents is kept in one central place. It is easy to read, unlike hand written paper-based care plans, and there are alerts to prompt staff when things like reviews need to be carried out. Also, any risks are highlighted which leads to even greater person-centred care.
Since the rollout of kradle, which initially started in 2017, Jill is fully converted to electronic care plans and says she “would definitely never go back to paper based-care plans”. She continues:
“At first I was terrified of failing; I am not the most tech-savvy person so I wasn’t confident in the system whatsoever. After the training and using kradle, I finally understood the need to change and would definitely never go back to paper based-care plans.
“kradle enables care professionals to be the best they can be. There is so much to document in care sector roles and it is so important that you record everything. With paper-based care plans you have to remove yourself from the point of care to document the care given which takes you away from your residents.
“Whereas, electronic care plans like kradle reduce that entirely. You can document almost anything at two clicks of a button, right there at the point of care. Not only does this save you an abundance of time but also means you don’t have to rush away from residents, allowing you to care for them the way you should be. You wouldn’t rush out on a loved one to fill out some paperwork so it’s amazing we now don’t have to do that with our residents.”
Other benefits to care home apps
“Along with spending more time with residents, kradle enables you to update and access data immediately and includes useful alerts and reminders. This provides you with the ‘full story’ of each resident so that you know all the facts and information needed to deliver truly individualised care. Moving away from, ‘I’ll just check and come back ten minutes later’, to having the source of information right in front of you in two clicks – what more could you possibly need?”
Why not read up on further details about the benefits of our innovative electronic care planning system kradle here.
