The rise of technology has been inexorable this century, from widespread internet adoption to the ubiquitous presence of smartphones. The advances are clear, but with so much on offer, choosing the right solutions can feel like guesswork. It can be like heading to your local DIY store to pick up some white paint; there are at least 37 different options. Which one do you choose? The process of digitising social care and utilising digital home care software to underpin and support your care services can feel exactly the same.
It can be a challenge in identifying your own needs sometimes, too. Your current process might work for you, but you can accept that it’s inefficient versus what the rest of the market is using. You don’t want to miss out, but at the same time you don’t want to commit to spending time and money on a solution which provide the answer to a question you weren’t asking.
To help, CACI recently launched a white paper, The top seven features you need from your care management software. It’s free to download here.
In this article we’re going to look at the importance of digital home care software and the difference that technology can make to care providers, their clients and their staff.
Digital home care software to support care providers
The rise of digital has touched every area of care provision. Peter Skinner, programme director for Digitising Social Care, noted in 2024 that some 70% of care providers have a digital social care record. That number is expected to surpass 80% in 2025.
Recording and maintaining digital care records is crucial for a number of reasons:
- Record information at source in a uniform manner across your services
- Easily search for records
- Use data gathered to report on your care services
- Understand the skills and experiences of your care workers
- Share information with external agencies, such as the NHS and other care providers, easily
- Provide a friends and family portal with real-time information
- Keep your records securely in one place
- Make data gathering for inspections easy
- Comply with regulations such as GDPR
- Easily recover data in the case of a disaster event – you can’t recover paper records if an event such a fire occurs
With the right technology in place, care providers can enhance the service they provide to clients. With a digital record, it removes duplication of questions, with each care worker able to access a single source of the truth. There’s no more waiting for care records and their information to be manually logged in the office. Rather, such information can simply be captured at source on a mobile device.
Digital home care software to support care workers
With a single source of the truth, your care workers can then administer the right care at the right time. With full visibility of previous care provided and a robust and reliable record of each client’s bespoke needs, you can reduce the risk of error and duplication.
Digitisation can also support more efficient and effective care worker scheduling. With a central record of care workers as well as clients, you can match the skills and experiences of care workers to the needs of clients. Does a care worker have a good relationship with a particular client? Do they have more experience catering for certain needs?
You can further plan the route of their care visits to make the most efficient use of their time, potentially facilitating more care visits from a single shift.
As your care workers complete their care visits, they can simply record the outcomes of each visit via their mobile device. No need to write down notes, carry them with them and submit them to the office. This reduces the administrative burden on care workers, freeing them to focus on what they’re good at – delivering outstanding care to your clients.
None of this can be achieved without digitising social care and your provision of it.
Digital home care software to support your clients
In the modern day, clients, as well as their friends and family, expect an interactive service. This cannot be achieved with manual data entry, paper records and an inability to share information beyond the walls of the office.
When digitising your care services, you open up new opportunities such as friends and family portals. These can display to your clients and their loved ones the status of their care, what has been administered and planned visits.
This also makes it easier to communicate with your clients where short-term exceptions arise. If, for example, one of your care workers is unable to fulfil their shift that day, you can communicate this clearly and make clear what you are doing to reschedule or rearrange the care visit.
With digitised care records, you can also share and receive information on clients. If a client is joining your care service from somewhere else, being able to receive all of their information and history of care gives you invaluable insight whilst preparing for them. Similarly, outgoing clients can be supported in their next setting in the same way.
There is also vital information to be recorded in those instances when clients leave your care services and receive treatment in an NHS or other setting such as a hospital.
Whilst the sharing of data between the NHS and care providers is far from seamless, it can only be achieved and improved upon with the digitisation of social care and digital care records. This link can make a tangible difference to your clients, helping to return them to a residential setting as soon as possible. This minimises disruption to their lives and your care services.
Conclusion
Digitisation isn’t going away. The advances have been too rapid and too all-encompassing for there to be any scope to row back on it. It is, therefore, essential that you digitise your care services and ask the right questions in selecting care management software providers.
Our white paper looks at the top features you need:
- Care planning
- Rostering
- Mobile app
- Financial management
- Reporting
- Friends and family portal
- Support, security and compliance
Hopefully it offers some guidance as to what you can expect from care management software and how it can support you in digitising your care records.
The technology landscape is rapidly changing. So, you might have a solution in place that no longer supports all of your needs. If you’re looking to go digital for the first time or are looking at your next software solution for your care service, please visit www.caci.co.uk/certa for more information on how CACI can support you.