Filestream has announced that Kingsley Healthcare, a Lowestoft-based care homes group, is using the latest version of its enterprise document management software (EDMS) to ensure GDPR compliance and support the business, which is expected to double in size over the next five years.
With revenues totalling £43 million, Kingsley Healthcare operates 29 homes throughout the UK providing a range of care services to over 1100 patients looked after by 1500 staff.
Wasantha Darshana, Kingsley Healthcare’s group IT director, says, “When the business was founded 17 years ago, we had just one home and 23 beds. Since then, we’ve achieved growth of 35 per cent year on year and our strategy moving forward is to expand through acquisition and organically buying or building new properties. The investment in IT systems like File Stream enables us to do this easily while avoiding the recruitment of additional support staff which obviously reduces our operational cost structure.”
Kingsley Healthcare has installed the latest version of File Stream to manage the vast amount of paperwork associated with running its residential, dementia, nursing and learning and disability residences, in addition to HR and other administrative functions. It is also using Filestream’s workflow module to improve workplace collaboration, document sharing and sign off.
Darshana says, “It doesn’t matter whether you are based at our Lowestoft HQ, locally at one of the care homes or our administrative centre in Sri Lanka, all employees have access to the same information – it’s a secure virtual environment without any physical boundaries.”
Further to a thorough review process, File Stream has been integrated with DocuSign which provides electronic signature technology and digital transaction management to enable electronic exchanges of contracts and signed documents.
Darshana explains, “If you take patients, you can imagine the administrative overhead of managing contracts using paper with so many people in so many homes especially as they have to be printed in triplicate – one for the individual, another kept at each residence and a copy then sent to our headquarters. It was headache to manage given the opportunity for errors.”
The new system means that a predefined DocuSign contract template has been set up and stored in File Stream. Authorised staff can then create a new contract, have a patient sign it using a handheld device such as an Android tablet or iPad with the document then stored centrally within the system, available to everyone.
As the business scales, the expectation is that the investment in centrally managed IT and improved electronic processes will mean that the hiring of a corresponding number of back office staff will be avoided. Kingsley Healthcare predict that at 20 per cent increase in homes will not require additional headcount.
Charles Hooker, Filestream’s managing director, says, “Sensible selection of IT is all about giving businesses competitive edge. One can see this very clearly with Kingsley Healthcare. They’re not the biggest provider of care services in the UK but they use our software cleverly to stay ahead of competitors and most importantly run their operations efficiently so they can focus on what really counts – and that is the care of their patients.”
