Fairways Care enhances quality of dementia care with mobile solution

Care home provider, Fairways Care, will increase efficiencies and further enhance care standards after selecting Caresys Mobile, a care management solution from Advanced Health & Care.

Care staff will be able to provide an additional eight hours care each day through automating manual, time-consuming processes.

Fairways specialises in creating environments for people living with dementia and those who need 24-hour nursing care. It owns three care homes in North Wales and opened a fourth on 2 September.

The organisation has improved efficiencies since implementing Caresys at its three care homes two years ago and went live with Caresys Mobile at one of its homes in May. Following the success it has seen, Fairways will roll out the software to its new home, which specialises in dementia care.

Caresys Mobile gives care workers easy and secure electronic access to patient information and care schedules using tablet devices at the point of care. All updates are instantly transferred into the main Caresys system, which eliminates time-consuming duplicate administration tasks.

Mark Bailey, owner of Fairways Care, said: “We wanted to upgrade to a cutting-edge technology to maintain competitive advantage and when we implemented Caresys two years ago, it simply revolutionised the way we worked. Prior to this we were using paper-based notes and since switching to a more-modern system, staff have fed back that they love using it, partly because it has removed the headache of paper-based administration.”

With the addition of Caresys Mobile, staff no longer have to type or write detailed notes at the end of their shift. This is saving the care workers time and improving the accuracy of the detail of the notes and facilitating more consistent, measurable processes.

Bailey said: “Integrated mobile technology has been well received because ultimately it gives care workers much more flexibility. They can access accurate, up-to-date service user information anytime, anywhere, securely from their tablet throughout the day and can report as and when they want to.

“Tracking and reporting in real time means the staff can create and work with more-accurate information, which can be shared immediately with managers and family members. When a service user is admitted to hospital the notes are now more comprehensive and we are seeing a more-positive response from the hospitals as a result.”

Since implementing the system, Fairways has also been able to set up audits, making it much easier to report to the CQC.

“It’s well known that there is a real lack of funds in the care sector and it isn’t getting any easier for care home providers, making it harder for them to stay afloat,” said Bailey.

“However, I would urge those organisations who can afford to invest in technology to do so, purely to enhance care and maintain professional standards.”