Cedar Place

Organisation Overview

Cedar Place is an aged care facility providing both high and low care plus self care units. The facility is located on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales at Kempsey. Cedar Place Aged Care Facility has 41 low care and 25 high care Government funded beds and 6 self care units. They have approximately 60 staff.

Cedar Place is a Public Benevolent Institution and a Non Profit Organisation governed by a Board of Directors.

The Situation

Cedar Place had a Quality Management System in place which had served the facility well however a huge paper trail was being made. “The amount of manual and duplicate documentation care staff were completing was reducing the time they could spend providing actual care to residents. It was also extremely frustrating for them to have duplicate documentation to ensure the information was provided in Progress Notes,Care Plans, Handover Sheets etc.We recognised the need to have an electronic system that would do that for us.” Facility Manager, Mary Henry said.

In line with Cedar Place Aged Care Facility’s desire to be a first-class provider of care, the solution required flexibility to meet their organisational structure, and flexibility to adapt to the various care models they had operating. The solution needed to respond quickly and effectively to the ever changing care service expectations of the community.

An investigation began into implementing an IT systemthat would centralise clinical and care information and ultimately reduce manual documentation thereby providing efficiencies by minimising duplication.

The Solution

Cedar Place decided to implement iCare’s Clinical and Care Solution based on the fact that it focused on making information flow throughout their organisation in real time and was flexible by allowing current business processes to be incorporated.

Mary explains, “Our approach to choosing a system was based a lot on word of mouth from other aged care providers. By networking with them and viewing demonstrations of different systems enabled us to make an informed decision based on which system would best suit our needs.”

“iCare allowed us to enjoy, being a smaller facility in regional Australia, the same tools the larger facilities have access to. We could also provide contemporary tools to care staff to improve their work practices and assist them in providing the best care possible.”

The Implementation

Cedar Place had a very disciplined, systematic approach to the implementation of iCare and invested in the implementation which was a key factor in its success.

Despite being a smaller facility Cedar Place appointed an iCare Implementation Project Manager. “By having a person dedicated to ensuring there was a consistent message delivered to all key stakeholders via various communication channels, and who was also responsible for identifying any potential roadblocks early so they could be addressed quickly was a contributing factor to the success of this implementation. The iCare Implementation Project Leader was also in charge of ensuring that when key milestones were achieved they were celebrated giving staff a sense of achievement and improving morale.” Mary Henry said.

Cedar Place also conducted staff surveys to uncovered perceived advantages and disadvantage of moving to an electronic system which was crucial information as they were able to address them in the staff briefing and training sessions.

Mary explains, “We kept our staff involved so they were looking forward to what was going to happen next. We also kept reinforcing how much easier managing documentation would be for them and how much extra time they would gain by not doing the tedious manual tasks they were previously.”

“For example, before iCare each resident’s individual folder resided in the wing that they were living in. When the doctors or Podiatrists were coming in, resident’s folder’s had to be collected from each of the wings and taken to the doctor’s room. This task would no longer be required as the information would now be stored electronically. Not only would these task be removed, all resident’s clinical information would be stored in the same spot allowing for better care decisions based on up-to-date, complete information.”

Cedar Place staff were initially worried about the ‘unknown’ however knowledge was power. “The more staff were informed about the changes that were coming, the more supportive they were. The fact that we could still incorporate our own management system into iCare by using our own forms meant that staff had a familiar aspect which helped them along the change management process.” said Mary.

Culturally, Cedar Place Aged Care Facility was changing the way approximately 50 staff currently operated. “We provided adequate internal resources committed to training, and provided adequate time to facilitate internal training to ensure staff were confident in using the system.” said Mary.

Another key factor was that Cedar Place staff worked together throughout the entire implementation process helping each other and remaining positive. “Staff came in of their days off to participate in the testing process. Their commitment to the organisation and each other is testament to the staff we employ at Cedar Place Aged Care Facility.” said Mary.

Outcomes

Improved funding

“iCare has been one of the contributing factors that has played a part in our increase in funding. By having the functionality to electronically link all of our supporting evidence, from our improved documentation, to our ACFI forms ensures that our ACFI claims are correct and the ACFI scoring tool shows you instantly what level the resident is on.” Mary stated.

Reduction in the duplication and the time spent on documentation

Mary explains, “Our quality of care has improved since implementing iCare as staff have more time to spend with the residents and provide care. As our staff are now computer literate they find that all clinical and care information about a resident is at their finger tips which helps them make better decisions when providing care.”

Improvements in the quality of documentation

“Our documentation is now very professional and totally legible. Doctors and allied health professionals are impressed with the iCare system. The local Hospital has commented on our ‘Transfer Form’ which has all the resident details as well as a photo of the resident. This has allowed the hospital to provide the correct care from the point of admission.

Despite the fact that the time spent on documentation has been reduced, the quality of it has improved immensely which is extremely important for accreditation purposes.” Mary said.

Staff retention

“The aged care industry has major issues with attraction and retention of staff. By providing our staff with modern tools, such as a Clinical and Care IT solution, it has improved work satisfaction by minimising the frustrations that were previously felt.” said Mary.