Electronic care plans for care homes

What is an electronic care plan

An electronic care plan is a digital version of a conventional paper care plan. This can be one that is created through simple software like Microsoft Word or more complex systems designed to create the plans themselves. Log my Care takes your digital care plans and acts as a storage facility. We help to identify the care plan's evolution, by giving you records of when the documentation has been updated and keeping back-ups of previous versions.

What are the benefits of electronic care plans in comparison to a paper?

There are several main reasons electronic care plans are superior to paper care plans. These are just some of the benefits our community have mentioned:

1. Security - they are secured behind password-protected devices meaning they are less likely to be accessed by an unauthorised third-party.
2. They take a lot less room in your care home to store
3. You can keep a more accurate version control
4. They can be quickly searched to find specific information, rather than leafing through tonnes of paper in lever-arch files.

How do they implement into your home?

Depending on your choice of electronic care planning software it will be different. For Log my Care, you'll need to upload a digital copy of the care plan and then upload new additions as the care plan gets updated. This means you can adopt electronic care planning in parallel to your old paper processes. As time progresses and you feel more comfortable you can slowly phase your old system out in favour of the new electronic care plans.

How do you fill them in and keep track of changes?

Again, this is dependent on the electronic care plans that you opt for. In terms of Log my Care, you'll fill out your care plans as usual and then save the newest version to the resident's profile. This will then automatically keep a version history (although we always recommend you name the files with an easily understandable title like "John Smith - Hydration & Nutrition Care Plan - May 2019".

How do you present an electronic care plan to CQC when you're inspected?

This can be a more of a complex task as we've heard from some homes that their inspectors refused to look at electronic versions and required a printout. We've made this really simple and you can select the document version you require and print them out as the inspector requires, straight from the 'Care Office'.

What are some of the features should you look out for in electronic care plans

These are the top features of electronic care plans we think you should be looking out for:

• Traceability - make sure the document storage is simple and easy to access
• Presentation - the best systems will make sure the electronic care plans look like you need
• Version control - you definitely need to make sure that they don't overwrite older care plans but keep a version history.
• Cost - unsurprising but don't opt for an electronic care planning system that costs the earth.

To sum things up

Electronic care plans are the future, with around 80% of care providers still yet to adopt electronic care planning into their care provision, there's still a lot of work left to do. But the systems and software on the market are evolving and are always bringing great new features to help Care Managers with their products. If you're interested in electronic care plans then feel free to check us out - it's free to get started and you'll be up and running in no time.