For owners of a care home facility, there tends to be a need for software that is designed specifically for this business. It’s useful if it has enough related features to owners, administrators and staff run the facility, and take care of the residents of the facility, the people living there.
Manual Systems & Cobbled Together Software Solutions
Many older care homes have stuck with paper-based systems or a patched together software solution that they tried to muddle along with. Maybe a separate To-Do list system used by a few members of staff and some physical files – one for each person who lived in the facility – to log what had been going on. With this kind of system, it’s very difficult to keep tabs on how the operation is run.
What’s needed is a streamlined approach that provides a single software solution that helps owners, managers, and staff to operate the care home and provide the best care for the people living there.
The Owner is the One Responsible
As the owner, you’re directly responsible for ensuring the facility provides the appropriate level of care to all residents. Just like when the facilities are not appropriate or don’t have the right equipment – mostly applicable to nursing homes but less to residential homes – you can run into difficulties when the front-end and backend solutions aren’t well-managed.
To see whether the care facility is run efficiently and well, it requires more than walking through the premises, talking to staff and the people staying there. As the owner, you need key data about the performance of the facility. Not only with things like efficient ordering of necessary supplies, but also how quickly tasks related to residents of the facility are taken care of.
Are scheduled tasks being performed on-time or is the facility suffering delays in task completion? The latter could indicate a staffing shortage, inefficient procedures, poorly trained staff, or people employed who aren’t suitable for their position.
The Evolution of Care Home Software
Care home software used to be hastily put together or care homes used a custom solution that never quite did what the staff needed it to do. The software usually wasn’t designed to work through a web browser on any mobile device and only offered a limited number of tasks that could be managed.
The advent of better software in the care home industry was long overdue. In fact, it’s one of the things that’s been holding back the quality of care given to the residents of care homes.
The software is needed to keep records of each person, including their health information (such as a note of any food allergies they might have or medication they’re allergic to). Actions needed to be performed on their behalf has often been something staff wrote on little notepads or added to a personal To-Do list on their phone; these couldn’t be passed to the person working on the next shift.
What Care Home Software Can Do Now
Care home solutions for administrators, staff and the people staying there are much better now.
Taking the features of the care home software from Log My Care as an example, health information for each resident is maintained as a central record that health staff can access. A historical log lists all actions taken on behalf of a user of the facility. It can track everything from the day they first arrived, what their meal plan is, the medications that are required, and so forth.
On the Log My Care platform, task management is used like a To-Do list but relates to each user, and not just for one member of staff. This makes it much easier for people working different shifts to access information when needed. They can see what tasks need performing like making the bed or cleaning the room or simply checking up on the user.
They’re also able to spot overdue items that haven’t been attended to. Scheduled items that are coming up shortly are also accessible. This helps staff to not forget important items for the person they’re caring for and they look more efficient (and not forgetful) at the same time.
In Conclusion
For owners of a care home facility, the evolution of software directly made for their industry is making a startling difference in the level of care and professionalism with staffing. Things no longer get forgotten in the hustle and bustle of a fully occupied care home. The people staying there don’t need to ask three times for the same thing speaking to a different person on each shift and feeling like they’re being ignored.
Staff can see the request as an outstanding task in the software and know it must be taken care of. It’s a night and day difference for everyone involved. And for owners, they get a live overview of all outstanding issues waiting to be handled, which is invaluable.
