The Role of Software in Enhancing Adult Day Care Operations
The Importance of Operational Efficiency in Adult Day Care Operations:
Adult day care usually takes place in adult day care centres or within a care home, where people can attend independently or with the support of a carer, and provides a range of social and rehabilitation services for older people or people with disabilities such as:
- Rehabilitation training,
- Personal care,
- Health monitoring,
- Chiropody,
- Laundry,
- Social skills for individuals with learning disabilities,
- And transport to and from the day care centres.
Due to the large number of services provided by adult day care centres, the administrative requirements for staff can be quite high, resulting in operational efficiency becoming one of the most critical aspects of their day-to-day care provision.
Furthermore, as care staff are providing a range of different services, it’s crucial the care they provide is fully compliant with national regulatory standards, which can further increase the administrative burden faced by staff.
That’s where adult day care management software comes in!
To increase operational efficiency, it is fundamental that adult day care providers implement an adult day care management software to reduce the administrative burden they face by streamlining the creation and distribution of carer schedules and client care plans, all whilst remaining fully compliant with national regulatory standards.
Streamlining Your Scheduling Efforts with Advanced Care Planning Solutions:
Effective staff scheduling is one of the most critical aspects of care delivery, however, it is also one of the biggest obstacles faced by adult day care providers.
Recognising the challenge this brings; many providers have implemented a management software to enable them to better allocate their resources.
Adult day care management software enables providers to create templated schedules which can then be automated to create efficient and error-free schedules for all staff, significantly reducing the administrative overheads faced by staff.
To facilitate this process, adult day care software comes with drag-and-drop wallchart functionality which provides an overview of each carer’s schedule, enabling providers to make real-time changes with all key stakeholders being notified in real-time as a change is made.
Affected carers can see their updated schedules through their Carer app, or by checking their email for an automated email notifying them of the change, eliminating the time investment required from care coordinators as they no longer have to manually rewrite, print, and distribute carers schedules if any changes to the weekly schedule occur. Instead, they can simply make the changes in the system knowing the affected staff members will be notified.
Furthermore, the care management software enables providers to consistently schedule the same client with the same team of carers which can help to encourage service users to interact with their care in a more meaningful way as it builds trust and rapport between service users and their care team.
The emergence of AI in the care industry has also proved to be beneficial for day care providers as it has introduced functionality such as time-route optimisation which allows day care drivers to upload the list of service users who are required to be collected to use the service and AI will analyse the list and provide the driver with the most efficient and time-optimal route to take to collect the required service users.
This can help providers offering transportation to and from the day care centre as they are able to map out the most cost and time-efficient route to pick-up and drop-off service users.
Enhancing Safety and Security in Care Centres:
Adult day care software comes packed with functionality designed to enhance safety and security whilst simultaneously increasing operational efficiency within an adult day care centre.
One feature to note is their centralised document repository that can be remotely accessed at any time by any relevant keyholder.
By centralising this knowledge, providers no longer have to memorise large volumes of data which significantly reduces the likelihood of forgetting vital information and making mistakes when providing care.
Moreover, as the client’s data is stored centrally, adult day care management software has the ability to prompt care providers to perform key care tasks that are time-sensitive and will require the provider to leave a comment after completing the task before it can be marked as complete.
If the provider does not perform the task in the allotted timeframe, the software will notify all the relevant stakeholders via email and will also notify them through a push notification on their respective app.
This visibility increases the level of accountability care providers are held to and can enhance and promote trust between all stakeholders in the care delivery circle.
Furthermore, as the service user’s data is stored centrally, it can be accessed directly at the point of care which enables providers to quickly and easily share client information should they require emergency care.
It also records and stores incident data which enables providers to identify trends, enhance current safety measures, and put actionable plans in place to minimise the likelihood of future incidents from occurring and put supportive measures in place if the accident is unavoidable.
Modern adult day care management software is also linked to national health providers databases, such as the NHS in the UK, enabling carers instant access to information regarding the medications they have in stock.
This further eliminates the requirement for care providers to memorise large volumes of data, significantly reducing the likelihood of errors occurring from administering the wrong medications whilst also informing the provider of the potential side effects the dosage may have when administered with other medications.
Moreover, these systems also keep count of the total number of medications that is in stock at the facility. When a carer is administering a dosage of a medication, they have to sign off that they administered the dosage, and the total count in stock is automatically updated to reflect the new count.
As a result, providers no longer have to manually count and track all medications, rather they can simply log in to their system and review the total count on a simple and easy to read dashboard. This significantly reduces the time investment required from care providers and frees them up to do what they do best, providing excellent care and support to their service users.
“Medication has been a massive improvement. And the record keeping. It’s there, it’s live. It’s real-time recording. But the most important efficiency gain for me is having more time with service users. The system allows you to get more value from your time rather than cutting and saving money”. – Julie, Registered Manager, County Durham Care & Support.
Using Software Solutions to Maintain Regulatory Compliance:
Like other streams of care provision, adult day care providers are required to provide a consistent standard of care that is established by national regulatory bodies such as the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in England, the Care Inspectorate in Scotland and Wales, the Regulation Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) in Northern Ireland, and the Health Information and Quality Authroity (HIQA) in Ireland.
Adult day care providers who are still utilising traditional methods, such as pen and paper, to support their care provision may find it challenging to provide this consistent standard of care due to the significant time and resource investment required to consistently said standards.
However, adult day care software comes packed with functionality designed to enable providers to consistently provide a fully compliant service to their service users, such as robust reporting capabilities, an extensive highly configurable template repository, and an internal audit checklist which enables the provider to internally audit themselves prior to being audited by their national regulatory body.
By implementing an adult day care management software, providers can streamline the provision of fully compliant care, which ultimately increases staff satisfaction and enhances service users’ care outcomes.
One key regulatory requirement that is supported by these systems is the provision of fully personalised care that is tailored to the individual service user.
These care plans are required to be regularly reviewed and updated which can be a significant time investment for providers, however, thanks to the highly configurable template repository within adult day care software, providers can now update service user’s care plans on the go with just a few taps, freeing them up to do what they do best, providing excellent care!
Like all social care providers, adult day care providers are periodically audited to ensure that they are providing care that is in line with their national regulatory requirements.
This can be taxing for providers as they have to manually store records of all actions performed by staff and service users and invest a significant amount of time into compiling the data into a report for auditing purposes.
This is where adult day care management software comes in!
Adult day care management software eliminates the need for physical documentation by recording all actions digitally in the cloud. These records are time, date, and author stamped to ensure full transparency between staff.
As a result, providers can easily compile reports for audits, significantly reducing the administrative burden faced by staff and the minimising the financial investment required for storing large volumes of data and documentation.
Fail-Proofing Your Adult Day Care Operations with Advanced Software Solutions:
To achieve a satisfactory level of operational efficiency, many providers are implementing an adult day care management software to enable them to better allocate their resources, reduce their administrative burden, and increase care outcomes for their service users.
It comes packed with functionality that is designed to streamline the provision of fully complaint, personalised care and back-office operations, such as a centralised document repository, a drag-and-drop wallchart, and an internal audit checklist.
By implementing an adult day care software, providers can free up a significant amount of their time that would have previously been spent on admin work, and instead they can solely focus on providing a high standard of service, ultimately reducing the overall operational cost for the provider, increasing staff satisfaction and enhancing care outcomes for service users.
Ready to streamline operations in your Day Care organisation? Book a demo with OneTouch Health to see how you can increase your operational efficiency, reduce the financial burden your organisation face, and improve service users’ care outcomes.
