Electronic Care Planning - is it for you?

What is electronic care planning?

Electronic care planning is the term we use for when carers and care homes move from a paper-based recording system and start using care home software instead. It can all sound a bit scary when those sorts of techy terms are thrown about, but essentially it's just an electronic way of doing all the paperwork for care plans that you already do. You will still record care notes, set tasks for the care team, see charts for things like MUST and Waterlow, but you'll be able to search and manage the information that's collected in a far more effective way than when you use paper.

How is it different from paper?

As we've spoken about already the main difference is that instead of coordinating your care via paper timetables, shift patterns and folders, you will end up doing everything via a computer, tablet or another device like a smartphone. This means your speed in, which you can record and coordinate everything in your care home, will be far quicker. Apart from when it comes to inputting information, the rest is fairly similar. You'll still get all of the same information out of your electronic care planning system, it'll just be easier to access.

What are the benefits of electronic care planning?

At the moment, paper-based care planning can be really time-consuming. Time is spent away from residents writing up notes or searching through filing cabinets for relevant paperwork, rather than used for giving care. Electronic care planning means these notes can be easily found and searched, meaning that more time can be spent giving top quality care. The other great news about electronic care management is that everything is recorded and backed up on the cloud - in other words, it can't be lost like a paper file.

Not only can switching to electronic care planning save a lot of time, but it makes lives easier. You can easily access and store data (don't worry we're GDPR compliant) and because it's been designed to be used on the go, it can be used pretty much anywhere at any time! It's got a lot of nifty little features like being able to snooze tasks for later, so they aren't forgotten, or the iconised interface which makes it easy to record data in just a few taps.

What are the requirements a home needs to consider before switching to electronic care planning?

Well, to be honest, there aren't many! You will need access to a computer, with access to the internet and a web browser for most of the management activities (this is so the managers can add resident details, care team rotas and start dishing out tasks). Then all your carers will need is a smart device such as a phone or tablet. This will allow them to record everything they do at point-of-care (super important for the accuracy of care notes).

How can we help to keep costs low?

We know that the care industry is under a lot of financial pressure at the moment, so although you can pick up some fairly inexpensive smartphones if your budget allows, carers can also use their own devices if they want. And don't forget - our electronic care planning software is free so you don't even need to fork out on a minimum contract or monthly payments. We believe in this part so strongly that it's actually in our Log my Care promise.

What's the easiest way to get started?

The easiest way you can get started is by heading over to our Get Started page and signing up for an account. Once the system has checked you're a registered care provider, it will send across all the information you need to begin. It takes most care providers a matter of minutes to work their way through the basics, so you'll be up and running in no time at all.