Providing person-centred care is fundamental in aged care, and fast and reliable access to resident data is critical in the delivery of that care. But when Debbie Jolley stepped into the role of Quality and Care Manager for Queensland aged care provider Pyramid Residential in 2018, she inherited a paper-based records system – which wasn’t providing the timely data that they needed.
At the time, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (ACQSC) had just implemented the Aged Care Quality Standards, and access to real-time resident data had arguably never been more important.
Pyramid Residential swiftly introduced a new electronic system to manage resident records, care plans, and facility quality and compliance. Unfortunately, the first electronic system they used failed to meet the Quality Standards and the Queensland-based residential care centre needed to find a tailor-made solution, which they found in Leecare.
Ms Jolley explains the organisation needed a system that would help manage its staff, provide adequate care to residents, and reduce the time needed to look at records – allowing Pyramid Residential staff to spend more time caring for residents.
“Leecare was clearly across all the Standards and requirements from the Commission and that was incredibly important because it’s pointless using a system that doesn’t have the features you need.
“Your compliancy starts to suffer. But being able to provide information to the Commission right away was incredibly helpful.”
Leecare’s streamlined system – of which the latest offering is Platinum6 – quickly increased administrative and operational efficiency for Pyramid Residential.
As an all-in-one solution, staff could produce electronic resident reports, assessments and care plans with alerts for care staff to follow up tasks through the Leecare platform.
Other programs include P6Med, a medication management system providing additional support for real-time administration and delivery of medication to residents.
For Ms Jolley, she found there was no complex paper trail to follow throughout COVID-19 either, as information could be managed and sourced instantly. All critical information was available to clinical staff and medical practitioners.
An industry-specific design has proved to be one of the greatest benefits for Ms Jolley and her team.
“I do know the program developed by Leecare is designed by a nurse to ensure it is
applicable to the Standards and I think that’s a big value addition,” Ms Jolley explains.
“You also have the ability to work with Leecare to tailor the system to your organisation’s needs and to meet the relevant Commission Standards.”
As the requirements from ACQSC auditors have changed over the past four years, the ability to keep up with new requests was paramount to Pyramid Residential’s compliance.
“The [Commission] caught us on the hop for a Serious Incident Response Scheme (SIRS) register. We could give them all the SIRS on record but they wanted an actual register.
“Straight away I called our Leecare consultant and trainer, Teresa, and we created a register together over the phone that I could set up and manage on my end.
“That flexibility and responsiveness to the needs of aged care was really important. Leecare always took that on board and worked with us.”
Resident information is readily available for all Leecare users and personalised permissions for users also simplifies day-to-day tasks for management, staff and auditors.
Organisations can provide the appropriate level of accessibility for each person who uses the system, and permissions can be updated as responsibilities change.
Leecare provided Ms Jolley with endless opportunities to improve her organisation’s success as a standalone residential aged care facility.
“You can personalise Leecare to what your organisation wishes to focus on,” she said, “There is quite a high level of independence.”
“You have a system that provides great foundations but you’re not restricted to use what they provide.
“We were a standalone aged care home. Your big corporates would have a different clinical data set need or different focus.
“The features are there to allow us to design Leecare in a way that works with specific reporting systems, it’s not a limiting program. Those specific benefits ensured there was never any waiting for information on our residents.”
Leecare’s EHR system is used by over 1,000 organisations globally with more than 120,000 active users.
To find out more information, head to the Leecare website.
A great pity all residential aged care facilities don’t have your insight about improvements starting with electronic records management through to practical implementation at the bedside and beyond.