Person Centred Software is delighted to announce its launch in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Valley Nursing Home in County Tyrone, part of MPS Care Group is the first care provider outside of England, Scotland, Wales, Australia and New Zealand to use Mobile Care Monitoring (MCM) to evidence care electronically.
Gaynor Abrams, Business Development Manager at MPS Care Group explains why Valley Nursing Home chose Mobile Care Monitoring as its electronic care planning system, “Going digital means that each of our homes have all the information they need for their residents in one place, making it easier for them to record and access care plans on a daily basis. Reports can be produced which can be drilled down to any specific area, with the ability to highlight trends and to identify potential risks.”
“The live recording means that we are transparent in the care we provide and can evidence in real time, which is a lot safer and more efficient than recording on paper. Staff at our homes love the system as it’s so simple to use and means they save time on administration and can focus on care. We believe that implementing MCM is a real benefit to our staff and a big selling point in attracting and retaining future employees and ultimately increasing retention of our staff across our group of care homes.”
So that providers in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are prepared when inspected by regulatory bodies, Person Centred Software has mapped MCM to the regulatory bodies: The Regulation and Quality Improvement Authority (RQIA) in Northern Ireland and Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) in the Republic of Ireland.
Jonathan Papworth, co-founder and director at Person Centred Software says, “Our aim is to make social care transparent and measurable, and in so doing, provide care homes with the tools to help them achieve outstanding care.”
To date, over 30,000 care workers in the UK use the electronic care planning system daily to evidence care and support, evidencing 1.2 billion care notes.
In January, the company celebrated it’s 1,000th care home implementing MCM and in May the first anniversary of launching the system in Australia and New Zealand.
Until recently, residential social care used paper-based documentation for care records. Even in services that adopted desktop computers, care staff would still write up everything using words at the end of their shift; words which were subject to interpretation, were inconsistent and unmeasurable. The use of desktop computers also delivered minimal time savings since staff had to walk back and forth to a device throughout the day to record care.
MCM is designed specifically to improve the working lives of every person providing care. The mobile interface is easy-to-use and icon-based with limited need for typing, which means it is ideal for non-native speakers of English, those with dyslexia and non-IT literate people. This means that the system can be used by 100% of people that provide care.
MCM saves every carer one hour per shift on paperwork, which equates to three days per month. Spending more time with residents increases staff morale, the very reason why care staff chose to work in care in the first place. This has led to a 40% increase in care staff retention at some care homes.
