Digital services and the Care Home sector

With Winter not far away Care Home providers are preparing for the season’s impact upon care provision with many utilising digital services alongside getting ready to adopt the Single Assessment Framework.

Digital Social Care Records Platform 

The digital platform developed by Ownacarehome partner, Nourish, is “trusted by care groups and independent care homes across a wide variety of care settings, including nursing to elderly care and learning disability, integrating with eMAR, pain management apps, fall prevention apps, and GP Connect being examples of what the platform can provide to enhance the care service of providers with true person centred care.” 

Expanding Digital Services 

The digital care service offered by Nourish evidences effective care planning and continuous improvement adapted by the care home service, being “customisable and easy to use.” 

Digital services enable care providers to manage every aspect of a person’s care enabling up to date sharing of real time information, making the days of transfers between care services and hospital as an example far more streamlined and effective in the safe delivery of care, as opposed to the paramedic assessing their patient on route to a hospital in the ambulance. 

Evolving Innovation and AI a place for everything 

Innovation has seen an acceleration in the use of AI and data analytics with digital platforms continuously evolving from complete home care management systems to care home administrative systems, helping to streamline fees management, occupancy management, workforce management, estate management and digitizing care planning, improving efficiency, capacity and compliance with person centred care at the centre. 

With the Government’s timeline of March 24 for the majority of care services to move to digital care planning, March 24 is also the time when all providers will be assessed under the Single Assessment Framework.  AI will continue to evolve to enhance a care provision so that our skilled carers do what they do best and care for the people they look after to the best of their ability. 

The gradual uptake of the Single Assessment Framework will align with the move towards greater evidence based care and continuous improvement underlying the 34 Quality Statements, with AI and digitisation supporting the care provision with predictive data, analytics, monitoring and falls prevention to name a few areas.  As with all procedural changes a care provider benefits by implementing them with inhouse champions, able to work within a team piloting the changes and working closely with the platform providers. 

This Winter social care will continue to work with the NHS to take the pressure off hospital care and longer hospital stays than needed.  Care home providers engaging with digital innovators like Autumna and Prosperwell can increase their care home occupancy as well as increasing capacity in the NHS.  The Government’s £40 million allocation from the social care winter workforce budget will hopefully assist with hospital discharges this Winter with the impact of the virtual wards impact to be assessed over time. 

Digital innovation will continue to focus on what matters being the five key questions of safe, effective, responsive, caring and well-led providing evidence to support the Quality Statements in the CQC Single Assessment Framework.