You have probably heard about the ways that technology can improve the way you run your care business. So what are the things you need to consider when choosing Care Management Software?
It might be best to start by asking yourself what you want the software investment to achieve? Many factors will affect your decision, from inspection ratings, GDPR readiness to staff retention and morale. The desire to improve quality of care within the organisation must drive everything.
What Do You Need from the Software?
Understanding the drivers is probably the best place to start. In other words, what parts of your business do you need to improve? For example:
Operational efficiency
Better care environment
Regulatory compliance
Inspection performance
Information management
Staff turnover
Get Creative!
Start by reviewing the basics – scheduling, rosters, staff & client management, invoicing or payroll. It might be worth getting creative and asking – Wouldn’t it be great if we could…? This gives you the opportunity to start a relationship with the software provider. They should want to work with you and develop their products to suit you. It is also good to engage your staff and get a picture of where software could help improve things for everyone. This will give you buy in from the organisation, which will help with implementation. Change is easier to implement when driven by the whole organisation not just the management.
Juggling the Benefits
Moving from a paper based system to a digital care management system, gives significant business improvements. But how broad can the range of improvements be? Some will have clear financial benefits while others improve quality of care. A key advantage is the possibility to measure improvement. Every action can be recorded in a single digital record. Tasks can be marked as done and reports filed instantly. Every driver can be measured. By measuring, it can be improved. This goes for CQC inspections, financial performance and efficiency. It all adds to a better care environment.
A comprehensive system should give you benefits across the whole business, so it is important to understand where you are and what needs improving. Less functional software may need to be replaced early while many vendors may not have the experience when bringing new products to the market. Do your homework, ask questions and above all, understand what you need.
Jim Ward, UK Director, Fastroi UK
