Technology in care homes

Available technology in our care homes

We use a variety of digital systems at Kirby Grange Care Home, which we’ve detailed below. 

Needless to say, our team will always help our residents and their families with the use of technology in our care homes as we take care of the technical side of things behind the scenes.

Our systems include:

Used by residents and families:

• High bandwidth internet
• Wifi thoughout the home
• Voice over Internet phones, which means residents can make and receive calls anywhere within the home
• Zoom, Teams and virtually any online meeting including residents and relatives meetings and calls with GP/ third parties
• Family portal, which gives minute by minute updates on loved ones (see Nourish)
• Online visit booking application

Used to support our operations:

• Nourish digital care management system
• Omnicell – electronic medications administration
• Nexus nurse call – enables real time monitoring of nurse calls and response times
• Sophisticated monitoring, governance and quality control processes
• Proxy access – online medications ordering / admin
• GP connect – enables us to view resident’s health records
• Trusted Care enquiry management – used to support enquiries for admissions
• Asana – online purchasing and contractor management system
• Microsoft Dynamics Finance system and online payroll
• Judgement Index – ‘values’ based recruitment and staff development product
• Remote video meetings
• Online staff training

High bandwidth internet

Our care homes are fully equipped with high bandwidth internet, using fibre to ensure speedy connections of more than 50mbps both upstream and downstream. This boost in speed is integral for our digital systems, connectivity services and entertainment offerings for our residents.

Wifi

Our care home provides Wifi access throughout the home, including all communal areas and individual rooms, to support our residents’ digital experience. By utilising this technology, our residents can access:

• Amazon Alexa
• On-demand TV and movies
• Voice over Internet Telephone (VoIP)
• Video communication with their loved ones
• Internet browsing on their personal devices

Furthermore, our residents’ relatives have the same level of access to Wifi in our care homes when they visit. 

Additionally, our staff can utilise the phone access, IT systems, care monitoring, and advanced nurse call applications available throughout the care home.

VoIP phones

By embracing VoIP technology, we are taking steps to future-proof our communication system for the BT ISDN switch off in 2025. Our residents and staff benefit from reliable voice calls made over the internet.

GP/ third party online meetings

Our care home uses virtual meetings with GPs and social workers to provide efficient and effective healthcare to our residents. This approach reduces travel time and allows healthcare professionals to work more efficiently.

Family Portal

Our care home’s Family Portal provides a direct and transparent way for families to stay informed about their loved ones’ care. With real-time updates and access to individual care plans, families can be confident that their loved ones are receiving the best possible care. Alongside Nourish, Family Portal is an incredibly valuable tool. 

Online visit booking application

To improve the experience of arranging visits for family members, we have implemented an online booking system. This user-friendly system allows families to easily schedule and manage visits with their loved ones, ultimately reducing stress and saving time.

Nourish Digital Care Management System

The Nourish Digital Care Management System is an industry-leading cloud-based software solution that empowers us to manage and coordinate resident care. Serving as the central platform for our suite of digital care applications, Nourish enables us to create highly personalised care plans, detailed activity timelines, comprehensive assessments, and instant access to detailed care notes.

Nourish allows us to document various types of information with great detail, such as weight, nutrition, hydration, medications, falls, accidents, incidents, skin condition, vital signs, and mood. Our staff accesses and updates Nourish through their smartphones, streamlining care delivery and communication.

With Nourish’s dashboard, managers have real-time access to critical information, ensuring that all necessary tasks are completed, and making informed proactive decisions to provide optimal care. Nourish and its dashboard are equipped with alarms and alerts that notify specified users, including managers and the CEO, of incomplete tasks and serious incidents.

Omnicell

Omnicell is a sophisticated electronic medication administration and recording system designed to support the safe administration and documentation of medication orders. Through its automated processes and advanced stock control functionality, Omnicell enhances medication safety and staff efficiency.

Omnicell records and documents every single medication prescribed and administered, reducing the risk of medication errors and improving resident outcomes. Its detailed stock control functionality provides accurate and up-to-date medication inventory, ensuring that we always have enough stock.

Overall, Omnicell is an indispensable tool for our care providers, allowing them to focus on providing quality care to our residents while ensuring the safe and efficient administration and documentation of medications.

Nexus nurse call

Nexus nurse call is a communication system that interfaces with the existing nurse call system to provide an innovative solution to care homes. This state-of-the-art system sends a ‘silent’ nurse call/alert to the smartphones of every staff member, thereby creating a quiet and peaceful environment in the home that minimises disruptions to residents.

At the same time, Nexus nurse call provides an additional layer of support to the management by immediately alerting them to missed calls and enabling them to monitor and analyse response times even when they are off duty. This allows for a more efficient and effective response to residents’ needs, ensuring that they receive the care and attention they deserve.

Sophisticated governance and quality control processes

Our digital management systems enable us to employ the most sophisticated governance and quality control processes. We have built a very sophisticated Microsoft PowerBI system that extracts data from all of our systems to create regular reports and alerts. This system ensures that management and directors can be alerted in near real-time if an incident occurs and have access to a real-time dashboard providing critical live information on every aspect of each resident’s health and wellbeing.

We produce a wide range of daily, weekly and monthly reports which are automatically disseminated to managers, deputies, and Group management and directors. These reports are reviewed in great detail, not only to ensure that we are doing everything necessary but also to see what we can do proactively to improve the quality of life of our residents.

Proxy access

Proxy access is a system that enables the online raising of prescriptions from the GP, along with online ordering and tracking of medication orders and deliveries. This digital system offers a significant safety improvement as it ensures that everything is completed and delivered on time. By taking away the manual process, this system frees up our staff at the care home and saves time for the GP practice, enabling them to focus on providing the best possible care for our residents.

GP Connect

At our care homes, we use GP Connect to enhance the care of our residents. GP Connect allows care home staff to access a resident’s clinical records on their GP’s system and enables GPs to access Nourish data. By doing so, this allows for better collaboration between healthcare professionals, leading to more efficient and higher quality care.

Trusted Care enquiry management

To keep track of new enquiries, we utilise Trusted Care’s enquiry management system which is integrated into our Trusted Care CRM. With this system, we are also able to monitor the occupancy levels in our homes. This helps us to stay organised and efficiently manage our enquiries and admissions.

Asana

Asana is an online purchasing and task management platform that we use to improve safety and efficiency in our care homes. This centralises communication, allowing our teams to collaborate more effectively, share ideas and resources, and track progress on key projects. With Asana, we can easily place orders for supplies and track deliveries and contractors’ jobs completed.

Microsoft Dynamics Finance system and online payroll

The Microsoft Dynamics Finance system helps us to manage our care homes’ finances and online payroll. It is designed to help businesses keep track of their income and expenditure, as well as provide a way of managing budgets. By streamlining our finances, we can focus on providing the best possible care to our residents.

Judgement Index

At our care homes, we use the Judgement Index as a values-based recruitment and appraisal tool. The Index measures an individual’s values in relation to those required by the care industry and our organisation. This tool helps us identify how well-suited someone is to being a carer and to our company culture. It is an effective tool in ensuring that everyone who works with us shares our core values, creating a positive and cohesive working environment.

Remote video meetings

We use Teams and Zoom meetings to stay connected across our care homes. Our directors and managers can provide support and guidance, share learning experiences, best practices and conduct governance remotely when appropriate. We also facilitate meetings with relatives and other stakeholders, allowing us to stay connected with them.

Online staff training

We provide online training to all of our employees, covering over 20 course subjects. We expect our homes to have at least 90% of all required courses completed at any one time. We also offer additional courses that we ask our staff to complete, which are monitored through an online system. By providing this training, our staff can enhance their skills and expertise, which they can then apply to their work.

Moving forward with technology

The advanced use of technology in our care homes is having a significant impact on the lives of our residents and the way our staff provide care. It leads to increased independence and empowerment, enhanced entertainment, earlier intervention of health concerns, and more effective communication between family members and carers. The benefits are immeasurable, and we are continuously exploring ways to enhance the care we provide through technology.

Technology coming soon

We are always looking for ways to improve the care we provide, and technology plays a significant role in this. We are currently exploring the implementation of systems for falls detection and monitoring, pain detection and monitoring, and NHS remote monitoring applications. We are also working with the NHS and other bodies at a national and regional level to support the introduction of other technologies, including shared care records. By continuously exploring innovative technology solutions, we can provide the best possible care to our residents.