Like night and day - the difference of digital
Our work with 18 care settings across England has found that care plans are completed and signed off in half the time with a digital social care record (DSCR) solution, compared to a paper system.
Providers now only have weeks left to apply for funding to support the adoption of digital social care records. Our funding offer will close to new applications at the end of November.
Time saving is just one of a range of advantages and improvements identified by our benefits team who visited the settings, all of which are managed by providers included in the CQCs Market Oversight Provider list.
During their visits the team interviewed a range of managers, staff and service users to build a full picture of the way a move towards digital approaches to care planning was benefitting their organisations.
Prior to the switch to digital it was taking on average up to seven days after admission for care plans to be developed and agreed. This was reduced to three days or less post implementation of a digital social care record solution. Ongoing reviews are also taking considerably less time, meaning more can be carried out. One registered manager told our team that they really struggled to review the agreed 10% of residents’ care plans in a month, but with a digital social care record they could easily achieve this in one week. These care plan reviews used to take around four hours, but are now completed in 30 to 45 minutes.
Time isn’t only saved at the top. Whilst registered managers reported time savings in their roles, care teams across a range of settings are able to spend more time with residents. Up to one hour per shift is being saved by each care worker no longer writing up notes by hand.
One registered manager told us:
I used to see my staff here sometimes up to two hours after their shift still writing up their notes. Now I'm able to get them to leave on time.
Another explained that their chief executive had come in to hear from staff about how they thought the new digital system was going. He asked what the team would say if he decided they should go back to paper, their response was unanimous:
We wouldn’t let you take it off us!’
Professionals across care roles recounted wider benefits beyond those relating to time savings. An activity coordinator in one of the settings studied told our team:
I used to get so worried and nervous and embarrassed about showing any of my paperwork because it was so bad…I just wanted to do my 121s and spend time with the residents. I would get so stressed about all the paperwork hanging over me. Sometimes it would be two or three weeks overdue which meant I had to work 12 hour days or come in on weekends to catch up.
Now, the more I use the system the better I get at it. I only ever use the voice to text function and it understands my accent! I am actually really proud of my work now and am much happier to show people what I’ve done.
The ability to spend more time with residents was the single most talked about benefit of adopting a digital social care record solution. This helped residents enormously but also helped staff reach their personal goals.
One care worker told our team:
We now have the time to sit with our residents, make sure they are ok and have quality time with them, rather than just having to run around making sure the tasks are done and then spending an hour at the end of a shift writing up our notes. We have the time to do what we really want to do which is care for our residents.
Time saved through switching to using digital social care records is also being reinvested in other ways. The team heard that more care plan reviews and audits are happening in settings with digital solutions and more activities for residents are being arranged, which staff are often able to take part in alongside the residents.
One of the registered managers interviewed told us:
We have formal activities at the weekend as well now, rather than just putting a film on for everyone.
The ability to analyse trends and spot declining health, for example amongst people with diabetes, was also widely cited as a significant benefit of digital solutions.
A registered manager added:
Our system highlights trends in declining health, for example someone who is consistently losing weight - allowing us to act faster.
One registered nurse told the research team this aspect of digital care planning has helped them become much more proactive:
I used to manually calculate weight/BMI and it used to be time consuming. I know now that there is no way I can get it wrong, and I can easily see trends and reach out to the GP if I see any change in weights. There is no way I can miss any checks as the DSCR gives me the alert. I could set alerts for anything, like weight check, food and fluids check, appointments and GP follow ups.
Many of the care professionals the DiSC team spoke to explained how the quality of data recorded for each person has improved vastly. This is largely as a result of the technology taking the strain. Voice recording and dictation tools were also singled out by many as particularly helpful in supporting detailed, contemporaneous record-keeping, removing the burden of remembering the detail until updating paper records at the end of a shift.
One registered manager explained that their staff use the dictation facility extensively to record daily notes and to update care plans:
The data being recorded is also consistently a very high level, whereas previously we had some very good updates and some I constantly had to ask to be done again. One of my staff, who used to never add enough detail and I could never read their handwriting, now returns the highest quality updates of my team.
November is the final deadline to secure funding to set up digital social care records. More information including how to contact your local Integrated Care System (ICS) team for support, can be found on our Funding for digital social care records section.
There are so many more benefits to going digital beyond time savings, so what are you waiting for?