Navigating Compliance in Healthcare: Solutions for Care Providers
Understanding the Regulatory Landscape in Care:
Ensuring all aspects of your care planning and provision are compliant with national regulatory standards is essential in health and social care.
As a result, care compliance software is at the forefront of all aspects of care, from ensuring compliance with regulatory standards to streamlining operations.
In April 2024, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the regulatory body for care providers in the UK, launched a single assessment framework across all health and social care providers that assesses providers on 5 main areas to ensure the care provided is safe, responsible, well-led, capable, and effective.
Upon inspection by the CQC, any providers who receive an inadequate rating have 6 months to improve their service before being re-audited.
This is to ensure that all issues are effectively dealt with in a timely manner, which provides protection to service users and their families.
In Ireland, care providers are also assessed by a regulatory body, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), which evaluates care providers on 8 main criteria:
- person-centred care and support,
- effective care and support,
- safe care and support, better health and wellbeing,
- leadership, governance and management,
- workforce,
- use of resources, and
- use of information.
As of April 2022, HIQA implemented a new inspection and monitoring programme which will require all care providers to be audited every 2-3 years.
If a care provider fails to meet the established regulatory standards, they will be provided recommendations to improve their service to assist them in meeting the required standards, and in extreme cases, they may be unable to operate until they are re-audited and meet the established standards.
The Importance of Compliance in Care:
In recent years, there has been significant increase in the number of individuals in receipt of care, with the Department of Health & Social Care UK projecting that the number of individuals aged 65 and over that will require care in 2038 will increase by 57% when compared to 2018.
According to the Nursing Homes Ireland (NHI), there are currently over 27,00 individuals in receipt of care in care homes, and whilst there has been no official projection for the future, the Central Statistics Office Ireland (CSO) has reported that the number of individuals aged 65 and over in 2031 will increase by 24% when compared to 2023, whilst PWC projected the population of individuals aged 85 and over will more than double in the next 20 years.
With this projected growth and the increased governmental focus on compliance, many providers are opting to implement care compliance software to enable them to consistently provide a fully compliant service to their service users.
Care compliance software comes packed with functionality designed to assist providers in providing a fully compliant service to their clients, such as robust reporting capabilities, a centralised reportable document repository, and an internal audit checklist to enable care providers to pre-audit their service prior to a HIQA/CQC inspection.
Moreover, in order to legally operate care providers must first register with their national regulatory body and are then independently audited to ensure they meet the required standards to operate.
Here’s where care compliance software comes in, as many care providers utilise the internal audit checklist and reporting functionality to ensure they meet the regulatory standards prior to inspections.
Ensuring their care service remains fully compliant promotes trust and safety within their organisation for both the care staff and their service users and guarantees a high standard of ethical behaviour is maintained by staff. Compliance also ensures a certain standard of safeguarding for both carers and service users.
Furthermore, by remaining fully compliant, care providers ensure that there is a consistent standard of care being provided to service users, which increases the levels of trust between the care providers, the service user and the service users’ families as they know they will receive the same standard of care, regardless of which carer is providing the care.
When there is a high level of trust between the service user and their carers, service users are more likely to actively engage with their care which significantly improves their care outcomes, whilst also allowing them to have more input on the care they are receiving.
Key Compliance Challenges Faced by Care Providers:
As the number of individuals in receipt of care continues to increase, care providers are also seeing a significant increase in their workload, resulting in many carers having to work long hours, often in difficult conditions, leading to many becoming burnt out and leaving the industry.
Moreover, unless the care providers have implemented care management software, carers are expected to memorise large volumes of data which significantly increases the likelihood of them making a mistake when providing care and increases the chances of key information being lost with one carer.
Service users with complex care requirements can also pose a significant compliance challenge to a care provider if their requirements require highly specialised training. If a carer with the required training is unavailable or calls in sick, the service user may not receive the correct care, which could be potentially life-threatening in some cases.
Care providers must also regularly undergo re-training in key areas of care provision along with any other specialised training they have previously completed, or they will be ineligible to continue providing care.
Whilst many care providers have implemented compliance software that notifies them when a carer’s training certifications are due to be renewed, care providers using traditional paper-based methods of providing care have to monitor this manually, which increases the administrative burden on both the carer and the care provider.
As the number of service users continues to grow, so does the associated amount of required paperwork. As a result, care providers that haven’t implemented care compliance software may struggle to maintain accurate records of care provided, medications administered, and other critical care information, resulting in them failing to comply with national regulations.
Furthermore, service users must have their own personalised care plans that are reviewed and updated regularly based on their present care requirements and their desired care outcomes.
When done manually, this process can be very time-consuming for care staff and ultimately increases their administrative burden, increasing the likelihood that will become burnt out and subsequently leave the industry, and in many cases can result in providers increasing their spend on hiring and training additional care staff in an attempt to reduce the administrative burden their current staff may be facing.
How Care Compliance Software Streamlines Healthcare Compliance:
Implementing care compliance software can help streamline care provision whilst also ensuring that the care being provided is fully compliant with national regulations.
Care compliance software comes packed with functionality such as a centralised document repository, pre-audit checklists, and centralised storage for client and carer data, all designed to streamline care provision and reduce the administrative burden faced by care providers.
All client records are stored centrally, meaning that all key stakeholders can access the data at any time and are informed of any changes to the care being provided to a client in real-time.
Furthermore, as client records are stored centrally, carers are notified periodically when a client’s care plan needs to be updated to better reflect their desired care outcomes.
Traditionally this process required a significant time investment from care providers as they would have to manually plan, write, and print each client’s care plan.
However, care compliance software has robust care planning functionality that includes highly configurable care plan templates that allow carers to create and update a client’s care plan with just a few taps, and as a result can spend more time doing what they do best, providing high-quality care.
As this information is stored centrally, it allows for swift and remote access and sharing of service user data in case of an emergency whilst also reducing the possibility of important client information being lost in one carer’s mind, ultimately reducing the pressure faced by care staff to memorise large volumes of data which greatly increases levels of staff satisfaction.
Care compliance software also comes with a centralised document repository, storing key documents such as policies and procedures, prescriptions, and highly configurable document templates, allowing care staff to easily create and update documents as needed whilst also ensuring they remain fully compliant with national regulations.
One of the key regulatory requirements for care provision is ensuring staff are fully qualified and up to date with their training. As a result, many care compliance software provide care coordinators with a dashboard that displays an overview of all their staff and their qualifications.
This enables care coordinators to identify when a staff member’s qualification is about to expire allowing them to notify the affected carer and schedule a refresher training course. As a result, care coordinators can ensure their staff are always up to date on their specialised training, meeting the national regulatory requirements.
The Future of Care and Embracing Compliance to Provide Effective Care:
As the number of individuals receiving care continues to increase, ensuring that all aspects of care planning and provision are compliant with national regulatory standards is more important now than it ever has been before.
This increase has seen many care providers pivoting away from traditional paper-based methods of care planning and provision towards more advanced methods, with many implementing care compliance software, such as ours.
Care compliance software comes packed with functionality designed to assist care providers meet their respective national regulatory requirements whilst also increasing their operational efficiency and reducing the administrative burden they face, allowing them to do what they do best, providing high-quality care.
Ready to streamline compliance in your Care business? Book a demo with OneTouch Health to see how you can revolutionise your care offering and ensure compliance with regulatory standards.
