Benefits of Electronic Care Management (ECM) System and Technology in Care

Technology and care aren't necessarily two words you would put together.

Finding a good technology company for a home care agency or live in care agency is now vital to help provide safe and effective care and for providing continuity of care.

So why is technology so important?

Having an electronic care management system (ECM system) allows the management team and the care team to have real time access to a clients records and to ensure visits are not missed and all care is delivered as per the care plan.

At Carers at Home we have partnered with CarePlanner.

What are the benefits of CarePlanner for Carers at Home and the client?

There are many efficiencies and compliance benefits for a care organisation when using an ECM system but below we have listed some of the benefits to a client and their family versus a traditional paper based approach.

• It allows the management team to provide updates to a roster which will instantly appear on a care worker's phone to ensure they are always in the right place at the right time and never miss a visit

• It allows the management team to update a client's care plan which will instantly appear on a care worker's phone. For example if a client's next of kin phones the office to say the client would like lasagne for dinner that task will instantly be allocated to the client's visit and appear as a task of the care worker's phone

• Rosters can be e-mailed or texted to clients and their next of kin with the click of a button without having to wait for the post to arrive!

• With the benefits of real time monitoring, an ECM will not allow a care worker to end a visit until all tasks allocated to that visit have been completed, thereby reducing the chances of an error

• The Medication Administration Record system (MAR) like the rostering system can be updated immediately by the management team. The benefit of this is if a client's medication is updated it will be changed immediately on the MAR system thereby ensuring the client is on the correct medication at all times. What's more the MAR system records the times of all medication administration thereby ensuring the correct length of time between administering medication and reducing the chances of an overdose.

• We have set our ECM up to require all care staff to make notes on the client's mood, appetite, mental health etc at every visit. This information can be vital to not only help monitor a client's health but also to help evidence to a medical professional a change in their condition should it be required.

• We have set our ECM up to log the time a care worker signs in and out of each care visit. This ensures the client is getting the full time they are paying for. Our system has the ability (subject to certain conditions) to record where the care worker was located when they signed in and out of each visit.

• Our ECM allows us to provide instant reporting in multiple formats. The reports can show multiple things such as visit notes, medication administration times and dose and tasks completed.

• Our ECM provides real times alerts for any potential issues and these are monitored by the management team even outside of office hours. For example if a care worker is late to a visit an e-mail or text message will be sent to the management team to follow up with the care worker and ensure the visit is not missed.

• At Carers at Home we pride ourselves on never sending a care worker to a client they haven't met before. Our ECM will notify us if a care worker has been rostered to someone they haven't met before. This will allow the management team to arrange for someone familiar with the client to join them on their first visit and introduce them.
  

Are electronic care management systems secure?

A question we are often asked by clients and their next of kin is "how secure is my personal data?"

There are two sides to this question

Firstly, by not having paper files it prevents abuse of the file. Although Carers at Home follows a robust policy around protecting clients personal information, unfortunately once something has been printed and left at a clients house it is out of our control. It would allow anyone to read the file or make a copy of it.

The second part to the answer is how secure is the information on the ECM?

We take protecting client's information extremely seriously and we have made sure our ECM partner has strong security protocols as well.

• All data client is fully encrypted. This means that data is translated into a code that only those with access to the system decipher.

• Whenever a member of Carers at Home staff connects to Care Planner it is done using the same encryption standards used in online banking. This makes it almost impossible for anyone to eavesdrop on the connection whilst we are using, sending data to, or retrieving data from CarePlanner.

• CarePlanner stores their data with Amazon Webservices with all data being stored within the European union. Having the data spread across multiple data centres removes the single point of failure and reduces the chance of data loss

• Carers at Home restricts access to client's personal data. Within the management team individuals only have access to data for clients that are within their area. Care workers only have access to information of clients that they are rostered to visit and access to an individual client is instantly revoked by the system when they are not due to visit them.

• Both Carers at Home and CarePlanner hold Data Protection Registration Certificates with the Information Commissioners Office

Conclusion

Carers at Home has been employing the services of an EMC system for many years. We believe that not only does it secure a client's personal information more than a traditional paper based approach to documenting care but it also provides both the client and the care provider with an improved, safer and more effective care service.

If you would like to learn more or discuss anything you have read in this article please either e-mail info@carersathome.com or call the Godalming office on 01483 899 350 or the Odiham office on 01276 748 270.