Published on: Friday 6th February, 2015

Gardiner's Nursing & Homecare (Gardiner's) required a comprehensive homecare solution to manage extensive service users and easily share care worker information across its organisation. Advanced Health & Care's (Advanced's) suite of homecare products including Staffplan Roster, Monitor and Care Portal met Gardiner's requirements due to their ease of use, functionality and flexibility.

Advanced's solutions have improved care efficiency by eliminating time-consuming administrative tasks. Staffplan Care Portal, a web-based system which provides real-time access to information, is also helping to build stronger communication between the organisation and its care workers, service users and their loved ones.

Background

Gardiner's was established in 1968 by Dorothy Gardiner who was subsequently awarded an MBE in recognition of her services to nursing, in particular her outstanding contribution to fostering good standards of care in the independent nursing sector.

Gardiner's specialises in the provision of nurses and experienced care workers to help support clients to live in the comfort and familiarity of their own homes in and around the Oxfordshire and Reading areas.

Reducing paper drives efficiency savings

As Gardiner's grew, it felt restricted by inefficient paper-based processes which made it difficult to accurately record service user contact time and monitor care worker attendance in real-time. It became clear that the organisation required a modern electronic solution to eliminate the need to manually reconcile timesheets, streamline invoicing and payroll processing so that more time could be devoted to service user care.

After reviewing several systems on the market, Gardiner's went live with Staffplan Roster in 2010 and Staffplan Monitor in 2012 to cover all staff scheduling and time and attendance requirements.

John-Joe Cottam, Owner of Gardiner's Nursing & Homecare, explains, "We required a modern solution that was also very user-friendly as many of our staff had limited experience of using computers at that time. We evaluated five software providers but Staffplan came highly recommended to us for reasons which soon became clear.

"Visually the solution is very appealing, it's easy and intuitive for staff to use which was fundamental. It was also reassuring that Staffplan is a fully integrated solution with a clearly defined product roadmap supported by ongoing investment from Advanced Health & Care."

By storing detailed records for service users, care workers and suppliers within a single, unified solution, Staffplan Roster has enabled faster and more informed decision making as all information is now immediately accessible. Interactive wallcharts provide powerful graphical displays of visit schedules with a simple 'drag and drop' facility for rostering single or multiple bookings. Mileage expenses are also calculated automatically with Bing Maps functionality, reducing administration and ensuring accurate payments.

Cottam says, "Staffplan Roster has transformed us into a modern and highly efficient organisation. We have been able to move from employing lots of part-time staff to having a smaller but more productive team of full-time employees, which has made a significant difference to our bottom line through a reduction in recruitment and training fees.

"We were also able to initially downsize the amount of office space we required as we no longer needed to have filing cabinets crammed full of paper records, resulting in further cost savings."

Making every second count

The introduction of Staffplan Monitor has provided Gardiner's with an effective, low cost electronic call monitoring solution. Upon arrival, the care worker dials a free-phone telephone number from the service user's phone and enters their unique PIN following a prompt and then replaces the handset. The same process is performed when leaving to confirm the finish time of the booking.

Calls are processed in real-time by Staffplan Monitor which matches them to service users via the Caller Line Identification (CLI) and reconciles them with visits in Staffplan Roster.

Cottam says, "The integration between Staffplan Monitor and Staffplan Roster ensures all planned visits are automatically confirmed, eliminating the need to manually reconcile timesheets which has been another major benefit. With the invoicing and payroll processing now automated through the system, administration time has been notably cut.

"The solution also helps us to prevent missed calls by automatically sending a late text alert to care workers if they are behind schedule. Similarly, we receive an additional alert if the assigned employee has failed to turn up after 30 minutes so we can quickly arrange for another care worker to visit. It helps to protect the client's safety and maintain our reputation which is paramount."

‎With 69% of organisations failing to use technology to make processes more efficient¹, Gardiner's is safeguarding its success by utilising the best software solution available to them to increase productivity and significantly improve the efficiency of its processes.

Improving communication and transparency

In October 2014, Gardiner's participated in the trial of Advanced's Staffplan Care Portal solution with the intention to reduce email communication as this can now be shared across the Care Portal.

Staffplan Care Portal has been designed to give care providers a competitive edge by offering transparency to service users. The web-based system allows service users to view details of their care delivery with ease and care workers can view detailed rosters showing who they are going to visit and what tasks need to be completed remotely via a secure connection.

With 70% of patients agreeing that a secure web portal is a convenient way to communicate with medical professionals, it is a clear sign that access to two way communication via portals is the way forward.²

Cottam says, "We want to increase communication between service users, relatives and care workers. Staffplan Care Portal is a logical next step to reduce the volume of email queries we receive while improving information governance to enhance our service offering. The challenge now is to get more care workers to take advantage of the solution."

"The initial feedback from care workers and clients' relatives however has been very positive. Care workers can check their scheduled visits whenever they like which will free-up our office-based staff to perform more value-added tasks instead of answering queries. The Portal also reassures clients, and their relatives, that visits are planned along with the identity of the care worker with full documentation detailing the care they are receiving.

A long term relationship built on trust

Advanced Health & Care regularly involve their customers in trialling new software and their feedback helps to shape the future of the product.

Cottam concludes, "We have enjoyed a long-term relationship with Advanced Health & Care. The Advanced teams are quick to respond and resolve any issues and we have added peace of mind that an experienced supplier is securely hosting our software.

"The organisation is also good at listening to its clients' needs and is committed to developing systems to meet demand. As a longstanding customer it is satisfying to know that Advanced will continue to innovate."

Advanced Health & Care provides a range of software solutions to suit all sizes of homecare providers and are designed specifically to be flexible enough to grow with your organisation.

¹ Care Sector Report, Can't compare on size Consider technology by Source Information Services Ltd, 2013

² www.dicomgrid.com/patient-portal-adoption

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