CareLineLive Case Study
The South Eastern Health and Social Care Trust in Northern Ireland began working with CareLineLive back in 2021 on a project to maximise resources and improve workplace efficiency in it’s home care service which provides over 30,000 domiciliary care visits a week via a team of some 600+ carers and additional office staff.
Prior to partnering with CareLineLive, the home care service was managed with traditional tools like spreadsheets and printed paper-based rotas delivered by post.
The slowness and untimeliness of information flows resulted in patients being discharged from hospital but no carer attending a visit due to the rota not arriving in time. Rounds allocating carers to service users were inefficient and care staff were frequently interrupted outside work hours to agree rosters and pass on vital client care information.
Realising that digitalisation held the key to improved performance and greater efficiencies, SE Trust contracted CareLineLive to deliver an all-in-one digital system that would manage rostering and real-time capacity management, person centred care planning including e-mar and digital visit records, comprehensive carer information, compliance documentation, stakeholder and carer communications and more.
A significant cultural shift was required not just for carers who were traditionally quite technologically averse but even for office-based staff. Carers were provided with iPads installed with CareLineLive’s Carer Companion app and despite initial concerns of resistance the surveys done since implementation have proved that the concerns were misplaced and the benefits of the transformation have been substantial.
Staff, carer and service user feedback
After the initial pilot study 100% of office staff voted for CareLineLive to be implemented as the permanent solution across the Trust. One staff member said “I was completely against it at the start and was unwilling to embrace it. Now I feel silly because it has all worked out for the best”.
Carers have reported that it “Makes things a lot easier as we have the info before we go into someone’s home” and “So much easier to see where you are working and updates made on my run”.
A family member of one of the service users said “My father has Dementia and rings to say he has seen no-one. I can now diffuse the situation quicker as I can reassure him on that first phone call. It used to take forever to get through to the office who would pass the message to the team then someone would go check with the carer and ring me to say carers had been. It makes life much easier for my dad and I.”
Financial and efficiency improvements
The results of using CareLineLive reveal significant improvements across the board. Over a period of eight months, an additional 3,919 hours of capacity were created (a £73k value) with no additional recruitment or agency staff hires. Admin time for rota management was reduced from 17 to 12 hours per week – with a capacity gain of 30% – and 87% of service users reported better service delivery. There has been a 96% reduction in missed calls. From 287 to 11 in one year. The Trust has saved £35k a year on postage alone – more than enough to cover the costs of using CareLineLive. Additional savings have been made on paper and printing costs.
About Health Trusts in Northern Ireland
In England, Scotland and Wales, the National Health Service (NHS) provides health care services while local councils provide social care services. In Northern Ireland these services are combined under what is known as Health and Social Care (HSC). Like the NHS, the service is free at the point of delivery.