Digital care planning

A resident's care plan is the foundation on which the care Westcliffe provides is built. It specifies what care and support is required, how it will be provided and importantly what outcomes the resident would like to achieve. A care plan is done in consultation with the resident, their loved ones and senior managers of the home; a complete plan will cover every aspect of our care provision, from the initial pre-assessment through to end of life planning.  

At Westcliffe we operate a fully digital, person-centred care platform (CMS), on which information about each resident and their individual care plans are held (replacing traditional paper-based methods). Some of the vital personal information/records we hold scarcely change but the beauty of the CMS system is that it is totally dynamic, with all care, medical and social interactions being recorded in real time.   

All staff have hand held devices that allow them to record the care we provide to each resident at the point of care and any changes senior management make to the plans are notified to all staff with the appropriate clearance levels with immediate effect. 

The benefits are obvious. For staff it is immediate access to personal information that is current and relevant plus the ability to document the residents’ daily care in real detail and with speed. 

For our senior team it is having oversight of all the critical information in one place. CMS allows them to monitor the care being provided across all areas of Westcliffe life and make immediate changes to the care plans based on real time evidence. Additionally, it makes reporting to our inspectors (CQC and NCC) far easier than it has ever been.  

Put simply, for the residents and their families digitisation improves everything; the relevance/person-centred nature of the care, the accuracy of the care, the safety of the care, the documenting of the care, the reporting of the care, the oversight of the care, the communication between home and family and the immediate accessibility to current/historical care records.   

Holders of the Dementia Quality Mark - awarded by Nottinghamshire County Council for excellence in dementia care.