CARE HOME PRODUCTS OF THE YEAR

There is an ever growing array of technology appearing on the market designed to improve outcomes for care home residents. In a new annual feature, CHP looks at the most exciting devices to appear on the market in 2019.

This year’s top picks represent a truly comprehensive array of digital technology and innovation products and services designed to support care home operators. Innovations range from care support products such as digital care planning and nurse call systems to interactive Touch Tables, a stand-aid and seat transfer device, and invisible coatings designed to reduce cleaning costs. Service innovations include an air source heat pump designed to meet carbon targets and minimise operational costs and a brand new insurance product. Further online innovations enable residents and their families to find the right care home.

Never an end in itself the best technology and innovation is designed to enable better care outcomes for the individual. With access to the Internet and social media increasingly a given for people of all generations, state of the art tech is now a must-have for market leading care home providers. The launch of our first Products of the Year feature is designed to showcase the best and latest innovations and, hopefully, provide care home providers with some ideas for their Christmas stockings!

MOBILE CARE MONITORING

SUPPLIER: Person Centred Software

Mobile Care Monitoring is an app-based, icon-driven system that allows care staff to digitally record the care of residents as it’s given, saving every care worker an hour a day of paperwork, increasing staff-morale and improving staff retention by 40% for care staff and 33% for nurses.

The system helps a care home demonstrate its quality of care to regulators. 94% of CQC inspected homes using Mobile Care Monitoring are rated CQC Good or Outstanding and over 100 care homes have improved their CQC rating. Every day, 1,500 care homes use Mobile Care Monitoring to evidence more than 2.4m care notes and over 2,000 family members use the Relatives Gateway to stay in touch with their loved ones.

Visit: https://personcentredsoftware.com/

SPOTLESS COATINGS

SUPPLIER: Traffik UK Ltd

Traffik have launched a range of invisible coatings and treatments that can be applied to virtually any surface to offer long-lasting protection and an easier on-going clean.

Spotless Coatings will help you reduce core cleaning costs, maximise labour efficiencies and keep your care home looking brighter and cleaner.

The coatings can be applied to glass, ceramics, stone, textiles, wood, metal and plastic surfaces.

The coatings are useful on fabric chairs to protect against liquid spills and toilet and sink basins for easy to wipe surfaces.

Visit: www.traffik.uk.com

MEET-UP TOUCH TABLE & REME

SUPPLIER: Sharp, Health-Connected & resellers

The Interactive Touch Screen Meet UP table provides access to online Playstore apps, games and sensory activities, and is specifically designed to assist care providers deliver outstanding care.

Enabled with ReMe software, the Meet UP offers almost unlimited entertainment and therapy that’s suitable for anyone, supporting elderly to advanced dementia care. ReMe builds a personal profile of users to enhance person centred care, enables large screen Skype connectivity and evidences activity delivery for reporting. Together, the Meet UP and ReMe provide an incomparable and comprehensive system that not only enhances care but generates an ROI for adopting tech.

The formal care ReMe app can be found on the business page of remelife.com at https://remelife.com/

OXFORD UP

SUPPLIER: Joerns Healthcare

The Up is a manual stand-aid and seated transfer device, designed to support safe and efficient patient transfers and rehabilitation. Suitable for clients who require some assistance when standing, the Up can play a supportive role in patient rehabilitation and independence.

Manufactured from aluminium and weighing just 22.5kg, the Up is among the lightest and most nimble products in its category, however, a maximum safe working load of 200kg (31st) also places it among the elite. High-grade castors offer outstanding manoeuvrability across a range of floor surfaces and ensure minimal effort on the part of the care-giver.

As with all Oxford products, injury reduction, fall prevention and ergonomic principles were fundamental considerations during the Up’s development. Perfect positioning of both the swing-away seat pads and knee support help ensure optimum patient positioning. Adjustable legs and a contoured base allow improved access for the patient and promote better posture and ease of use.

Contact Joerns Healthcare for more information on 0844 811 1156, send an email to [email protected] or visit our website at www.joerns.co.uk

FPi RANGE OF COMMERCIAL AIR SOURCE HEAT PUMPS

Supplier: Adveco Ltd

FPi is a range of commercial grade Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP) perfected for combining with traditional gas water heaters and controls to create a hybrid system. Compatible with existing domestic hot water (DHW) systems and supporting higher thermal requirements, this approach provides the versatility to reduce operational costs while maintaining the higher water temperatures demanded by care homes.

Easy to install, FPi provides lower cost water heating or cooling, with sleek looks and quiet operation. Capable of providing DHW at up to 55°C, FPi helps care homes meet new carbon targets, while keeping running costs low.

Visit: https://adveco.co/

INTEGRITY CARE  

Supplier: Brents Insurance

A brand new insurance policy for the care sector has been launched by Chartered Insurance Brokers, Brents Insurance. Brents Insurance has specialised in advising and arranging insurance cover for the care sector for over 25 years using a panel of insurers and has now added an exclusive policy called Integrity Care.

Designed for independent care homes, domiciliary care providers and supported living services, Integrity Care aims to offer competitive premiums without cutting out cover, or service, and uses A rated Insurers to provide financial security.

Joint managing director Stuart Hulbert said: “By bringing this new care insurance policy to market we can offer, in particular, an advantage to the smaller care providers that are too often paying high premiums despite not having
made claims.

“Our service and approach to arranging insurance is based on integrity, from the culture within the care provider in the way they look after their service users, our approach to providing advice and recommendations and the insurer in their policy cover and claims service.”

Visit: www.brentsinsurance.co.uk

ONLINE REGISTER OF CARE PROVIDERS

SUPPLIER: Autumna

Launched in August, Autumna has made a superfast start and is already hosting over 1,000 enhanced listings. Aimed specifically at helping self-funders make informed care choices, the online platform provides a level playing field for all care providers to market their unique services.

“What gets you to the top of a search,” says Autumna’s founder, Debbie Harris, “is not determined by how much you spend, but by how relevant the information you’ve uploaded is.

“With over 200 search criteria per listing, the more you enter, the easier it is for the right people to find you.”

Visit: www.autumna.co.uk

NEXUS CARE

SUPPLIER: GHM Care

The Nexus Care smart messaging platform allows staff to receive alarm notifications from any nurse call system directly to their smartphone. Nexus will connect to any existing nurse call system regardless of its age. Nexus also provides management teams with useful information, such as response and clear times, broken down by each carer, zone or building.

Nexus care is changing the way homes receive nurse call alerts, improving their response times and creating a quieter environment for everybody.

Visit: https://www.nexuscare.co.uk/

ALTRA-GO APP  

Supplier: Courtney Thorne

Courtney Thorne’s Altra-Go App enables a Smart mobile or tablet to present alarm/call information as displayed on a Nursecall touchscreen. It’s like having a nurse call system in your pocket.

More care homes record and keep personal data about their residents in software-based solutions for care planning and medication. The same smart Android devices used by staff for recording and accessing care and medication data can now be used to download the Altra-Go App.

The App is downloaded from Google Play and uses the home’s Wi-Fi network to communicate from the Nursecall server. For more information call 0800 068 7419 or visit: https://www.nursecallsystems.co.uk/

CARE SOURCER

SUPPLIER: Care Sourcer Ltd

Significant investment has enabled Care Sourcer, a free online service for finding care, to evolve its unique product at a fast pace. This year the site launched a searchable online directory, resulting in more exposure and more enquiries for care providers with less effort required.

To complement this, Care Sourcer offers an urgent response service where a team of experienced care experts will guide clients with an immediate need to find a provider with capacity, quickly and easily. The online product also aims to boost occupancy rates for care homes by allowing them to show real-time availability.

Find out more and register your business for free at: www.caresourcer.com/chp-provider

COOLCARE4

SUPPLIER: CoolCare

CoolCare’s intuitive care home management software is designed to help you manage your care home easily and efficiently from anywhere in the world. Whether a single home or a multi-site group, CoolCare4 enables easy management of your business.

Its real-time dashboards mean that you can keep track of your care homes’ KPIs on any device at any time. The comprehensive range of user-friendly features now include an exceptionally user-friendly staff portal and SMS messaging capability.  Staff can manage their hours, seeing what shifts they’ve got coming up, offer to take extra shifts and accept or decline requests from the home.

Visit: https://coolcare4.co.uk/

ATLAS SCORECARE

SUPPLIER: ATLAS eMAR

ATLAS Scorecard is an analytics tool for medicines management in care homes that allows all care home providers, whether small or large, to monitor and evidence safe and effective processes.

ATLAS Scorecard takes the data collected by ATLAS eMAR and provides 12 measures of medicines management, including safety, near misses, missing entries, time spent with residents, stock outages and training.

At a glance managers are able to see which care homes are performing well in medicines management and if not which issues to address and which members of staff need more support.

For more information visit: www.invatechhealth.com