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Technology will play a crucial role in shaping proactive care in the UK. And honestly, we wouldn’t have the resources to switch to this model of care without it. In this chapter, we’ll look at some technologies enabling proactive care.
Care management platforms and predictive analytics
At its simplest, a care management platform is a way of recording and storing care data digitally, rather than on paper. If we use Log my Care as an example, it has two sections - a care office and a carer app.
The care office is an online dashboard that gives care managers an overview of what’s happening in your service. Here you can see key information, upload and organise care plans and distribute tasks to carers digitally.
The carer app allows you to record the care delivered on the go, saving each carer around one hour per shift. Carers can easily access client documents and details, keep on top of medications, and enhance care logs with photos and videos.
That’s just Log my Care’s basic features. The platform also supports incident management, positive behaviour support, risk assessments, goal setting, handovers, eMAR and rostering.
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Combined with predictive analytics, care management platforms are shifting care in the UK from reactive to proactive. Modern digital tools can analyse large sets of data, identifying trends and patterns to help care providers predict risks, prevent deterioration, and allocate resources more efficiently.
How it supports proactive care
- Early risk detection - by tracking changes in behaviour, mobility or missed medications, care providers can intervene before hospital admission is necessary.
- Better oversight - instant access to up-to-date care records, risk assessments or medication schedules means carers can focus on delivering proactive care instead of trawling through paperwork.
- Smarter care planning through data collection - platforms that use data to identify health trends can flag service users who may need additional support in the future to help care providers efficiently allocate resources.
Shared care record
A shared care record allows information to flow between health and social care. Allowing GP practices and authorised staff to view clinical information and health data quickly and efficiently in real-time, improving continuity of care.
CQC registered care providers can use a shared care record if they have:
- A digital social care record (DSCR) solution is in place from NHS England’s assured solutions list which integrates with GP Connect.
- Reached “standards met” on the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT).
A shared care record enables GPs, hospitals, care providers and community services to share essential information safely and securely, improving continuity of care.
How it supports proactive care
- Enables early prevention - care providers can identify early warning signs raised in recent GP visits or hospital admissions.
- Reduces delays in care - faster access to medical history and care plans reduces the need for repeated assessments.
- Supports coordinated care - enables care providers, GPs and community teams to work together more efficiently ensuring continuity of care across services.
Remote monitoring and AI assistants
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Technology-enabled remote monitoring uses smart devices, wearable sensors, and IoT (Internet of Things) to track a person’s health, mobility and daily activity in real time. It can give people relying on social care greater independence and autonomy in their care, reduce the workload for care providers and give families peace of mind, knowing that if an incident does occur, rapid response options are in place.
AI assistants are still new to social care. Until recently AI wasn’t mature enough to assist meaningfully in the sector but that’s started to shift. While AI will never replace human-delivered care, it can help assist it. AI-powered tools, like Alexa or Google Assistant, can send medication and activity reminders, assist communication between service users and family members or carers and integrate with third-party devices for fall detection. AI assistants, like Quik AI’s Carey, can plug into existing care planning software to conduct trend analyses, daily checks and monthly care plan audits, telling you what’s happening in your service, catching trends early and even suggesting proactive improvements.
How it supports proactive care
- Early detection of health changes - wearable sensors tracking heart rate, movement or sleep patterns can alert care providers to changes before they become serious.
- Fall prevention and detection - remote monitoring helps care providers respond quickly to incidences, reducing the likelihood of serious injuries and saving time on manual checks.
- Reduced health utilisation - tracking vital signs and daily activity, means care providers can intervene before health deterioration leads to emergency care.
How to integrate technology for proactive care
Care providers know that integrating new technologies into a care service takes time, from deciding what goals to achieve to getting staff buy-in. We’ve put together an eight-step guide to get you started.
- Decide what you want to achieve
How would you like to improve the care you deliver with proactive measures? Make a list of the outcomes you want to see so you can find technologies to enable them. Consider things like:
- Early risk detection
- Increased oversight
- Smarter care planning through data collection
- Reduced delays in care
- Fall detection and prevention
- Better coordinated care
- Less healthcare utilisation
- Incident reduction
- Research your options
Talk to other care providers about the technologies they use and how it’s increased proactive care. Meet with suppliers and demo software before you commit. Make sure the supplier has strong measures in place to protect your data and your service users.
- Make a communication plan
It’s hard to over-communicate when it comes to important updates like shifting to proactive care. Team members should be updated regularly and given opportunities to suggest measures that might benefit service users.
- Create a sense of urgency
Sometimes new measures need a sense of urgency to catch one. Proactive care saves money, time and lives. There is nothing your team cares more about than the people they support, make sure they know how much switching to a proactive care model matters.
- Appoint proactive care champions
This is an opportunity for the bright stars on your care team to shine. These should be people who are interested, positive and already suggesting ways to increase proactive care. They can help you spread the word about the benefits of switching to a proactive care model and answer any questions that staff might be hesitant to raise with management.
- Provide appropriate training
If you’re implementing new technologies, you need to provide training. Even if the technology is user-friendly and easy to use, have a team session to explain why you’re implementing it, and how it will benefit service users. This is also an opportunity to put your team’s mind at ease. Technology is a tool to help them do their job and not something that will replace them.
- Measure your success
This is the most important part of the process. Defining performance indicators and measuring your success means you’ll be able to:
- Identify if you are on track to meet goals.
- Identify areas that need improvement.
- Make decisions based on evidence.
- Increase accountability.
Track performance indicators like:
- Positive Behaviour Support (PSB) success – are interventions reducing service user stress and increasing wellbeing?
- Independence levels - is goal setting helping service users develop life skills?
- Incident reporting - has the number of falls, injuries, safeguarding concerns or behaviours that challenge decreased?
- Emergency care utilisation – have hospital admissions and emergency care requirements reduced due to proactive care?
- Involvement in decision-making - are service users consistently involved in their care planning?
- Continuity of care - are service users receiving care from the same staff regularly and is there consistency of care between health and social care services?
- Staff retention and turnover - is proactive care improving staff retention and decreasing turnover?
- CQC ratings and compliance - is your service meeting 'Good' or 'Outstanding' standards?
- Share your wins
Once you’ve started to see results from your proactive care measures, let your team know! This is an opportunity for teams to come together and achieve something wonderful. Celebrate the successes. Plan quick-win practice sessions for your team, show them how easy the change to proactive care could be and celebrate those wins as they become a reality.
Epilepsy Society: a case study in overcoming barriers to tech-enabled care
Epilepsy Society is a 130-year-old charity based in the UK, which provides care and support for individuals with epilepsy. Like many organisations of its age, the Society relied on traditional paper-based systems for managing care. However, to modernise and improve its efficiency, they turned to Log my Care’s digital care management platform.
Epilepsy Society wanted a platform to streamline its operations, by:
- Supporting their staff.
- Improving care quality.
Before deciding on a care management platform there were some barriers to overcome. Other systems the Society evaluated required lengthy training sessions or months of setup. They also didn’t offer a trial so there was no way of knowing how less tech-savvy carers would take to the technology - a key requirement as one staff member had only sent her first email six months ago!
The deciding factor for the Society was usability. Log my Care's intuitive design made it easy for even the least tech-savvy staff to use right away. A trial was crucial in securing buy-in from the team, allowing the Society to "test drive" the software before committing.
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With rapid onboarding, the transition to digital was smooth and fast. Epilepsy Society was fully onboarded in just two weeks. Made possible by Log my Care’s simplicity and the Society’s focused communication efforts.
Since adopting Log my Care, the Epilepsy Society has seen a transformation in how they deliver care. The staff can now document and access important information in real-time, improving the quality and accuracy of the data collected.
Support workers have more time to spend delivering proactive care to service users rather than being bogged down with paperwork or having to recall details from hours earlier. Managers too, can easily access records and insights without having to sift through stacks of paper files. Giving them the oversight and peace of mind that their service users are receiving the best care possible.
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