Erskine Nursing Homes - Case Study
Erskine Care Homes are the largest care givers to Veterans and their spouses in Scotland, providing care for over 100 years, currently accommodating 339 residents across 4 facilities. Over the past couple of years, Erskine has been on a mission to digitise their processes in order to improve compliance, increase time with residents and maximise the safety across their organisation.
Using Access' integrated electronic care planning and medication management software has allowed Erskine to provide nursing care more proactively and provide an overall higher quality service to the people they care for.
Aims
- Meet the specific needs of the business and employee profile
- Quick and easy implementation
- Ensure engagement and confidence in the new process
- Fully integrated care and medication management system, updated in real time
- Enable staff to spend quality time with patients while creating detailed, person-focused care plans
- Streamline communication between multi-disciplinary teams, with access to consistent and complete records at all times
- Give a comprehensive view of care across multiple sites, enabling proactive risk assessment and care management
Access Care Home Software has helped Erskine to manage medication and keep care records electronically giving them the freedom to deliver efficient and high-quality nursing care to residents with complex care needs. The improved consistency and detail of their records is helping them to tailor their care to residents’ needs, whilst ensuring regulation and compliance across their care homes and allowing them to demonstrate to visitors and governing bodies the high-quality of care they provide.
Greater visibility and consistency of information across multiple sites
Access’ suite of care software has enabled Erskine to improve the consistency and quality of their records across all their sites. They have built bespoke prompts for their nursing care residents, which allow the staff to capture information that is consistent, accessible and relevant at any time.
The software has also helped Erskine’s management with the governance of their care facilities. The software has given the management team a comprehensive overview of all the care that is being delivered across the homes.
Caroline Shotter says: The first thing I do every morning is check the software, it enables me to have a look to ensure all care plans are up to date. It also makes me aware of any accidents or incidents that have occurred over the course of the period, so if we need to notify Care Inspectorate or social work, then the information is there at hand.
Using the software, managers are able to respond swiftly and effectively to any accidents and incidences with access to the full detail of the care that has been delivered.
It’s been absolutely life-changing for me from a governance point of view. If there’s a query or a complaint, which we don’t get many, but if there’s a question I’m not crossing over the M8 to get to another home to look at records, I’m looking at a resident’s care plan from my office, I can see the care that’s been planned has been delivered and that it is right for that resident - adds Pauline McIntyre.
Erskine are also able to use the data the software captures to proactively identify areas for improvement or future training, as well as managing risk across multiple sites.
When looking at Erskine’s record with the Scottish Care Inspectorate, having the system in place has allowed them to easily document and demonstrate the high-level of care delivered by their teams.
The Care Inspectorate has praised them on their use of the system and their ability to present all required information to the necessary bodies in a simple, comprehensive and appropriate manner stating in their recent inspection report: Erskine home use an electronic system to record the care and support of people living in the home.
The information contained in personal plans provided guidance for staff regarding the plan of care for individuals. This takes into account agreed approaches and the management of risks. This resulted in comprehensive plans, which guide staff to provide care and support based on individual choices and preferences.
There were systems in place to ensure staff had up-to-date information about the current care and support of the individual. This included a rigorous audit process to ensure that the quality of the information was in line with Health and Social Care Standards and best practice guidance.
Nurses and care teams regularly evaluated and updated the content of personal plans. This helped guide staff to deliver a high standard of consistent and effective care to people.
