Background
Elizabeth Court Rest Home (ECRH) is a small independent residential care home in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex. Set in a modernised 16th century building, the facility caters for the care needs of up to 24 service users.
ECRH cares for the elderly with or without dementia and is animal friendly. It is part of the Cinnamon Trust, the national charity which helps to address the sensitive issues that are thrown up in circumstances where the elderly that own pets are terminally ill.
ECRH is run by experienced health and social care professionals and is staffed by a small committed team. There is an emphasis on participation and high degree of interaction between staff and residents.
It is important to maintain staff continuity and the business takes pride in the fact that it does not have to use agency staff. Both managers and staff have a flexible attitude, enabling any gaps in staffing to be covered with existing personnel.
To ensure high standards of care ECRH has a need to manage its CQC compliance obligations in many different areas and for the wide range of situations and eventualities that may arise during day-to-day operations.
The Challenge
The regulatory framework has undergone significant changes over the last decade. This has increased the compliance burden for health and social care providers. Elizabeth Court Rest Home was no stranger to a systems based approach to compliance management. Prior to switching to QCS compliance management it had adopted something of a ‘belt and braces approach’ to the issue of meeting compliance standards.
Deputy Manager Reece Welch supports the Registered Manager and is closely involved with the day-to-day running of the home. “We used two systems to manage compliance. We used one specifically for the purposes of care planning and the other to manage the rest of our compliance obligations. Although this approach allowed us to achieve high standards of compliance, there were cost issues because it required two subscriptions.”
Reece Welch continues: “We also found the care planning system inconsistent. There was a requirement to adapt the system content, a lot of which was unnecessary because it was too specific. There were also some areas where it was not specific enough.”
“The other system lacked consistency too. Parts of it clearly came from different sources so you didn’t always feel confident or comfortable with it. When I was appointed one of the areas I looked at was finding a better way of creating care plans and managing compliance in general,” Reece Welch says.
The Solution
ECRH replaced the two systems it was using with the QCS compliance management system.
The system is maintained by the same team of compliance experts that originate the content. As required by the CQC the system automatically personalises the content to your organisation.
The online system provides access to the system content from computers, tablets and smartphones. This puts the entire system content at the fingertips. It is straight forward to navigate directly to a topic area and for greater convenience the entire system can be searched for keywords. Online policies and procedures can be printed or edited as required.
The Results
“With QCS, managing compliance is now easier than it has ever been,” says Reece Welch. “We find the QCS system has made a massive difference. Essentially, with QCS, we have overcome the situation where we needed subscriptions to different compliance systems to meet all of our management and care needs. With QCS we need just the one.”
“The previous system for care planning could be inconsistent, time consuming and repetitive. The reactions to care plans from stakeholders such as the Local Authority could also be mixed. With QCS care planning is consistent and the reaction from stakeholders is consistent in that no one is able to find fault with it,” says Reece Welch.
At any time there are 24 care plans and these are reviewed every month unless there is a need to review a plan immediately due to a change or an event. Reece Welch says: “The previous system required at least 90 minutes to complete each review. In some cases this could be up to two hours. With QCS the review process averages between 20-30 minutes each and this means that at least 24 hours are saved in care plan reviewing every month.”
“We can stay on top of things like training and supervision. It is very strong on employment and we also find it very useful for supporting Health and Safety. The ongoing support from QCS is exemplary. QCS provides a dedicated Compliance Advisor and she is brilliant. This is in marked contrast to my experience with another compliance system provider which failed to deliver support and updates as promised,” Reece Welch says.