How to maximise Care Professional efficiency

Balancing the time of your care professionals, the needs of the business and the wellbeing of care recipients is no mean feat. This article explores four key strategies that can help maximise care professional efficiency while they’re on shift - ultimately benefiting them, the care recipients and the business as a whole.

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Optimising care visit schedules

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Efficient scheduling in the domiciliary care sector can be…complex. Care visits need to consider factors like timing, travel, and care professional availability. Care coordinators must strike a balance between delivering timely care and ensuring the most efficient use of resources.

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What does it mean to Optimise Care Visit Schedules? Optimising care visit schedules involves strategically planning and organizing care visits to maximize efficiency and improve the quality of care provided. This process considers factors such as the geographic location of care recipients, travel time between visits, and the allocation of care professionals.

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Example: Consider a domiciliary care business serving care recipients across a city. By strategically grouping appointments in specific areas on certain days, the business reduces travel time between visits, allowing care professionals to spend more time with care recipients and less time on the road. This results in improved efficiency and higher-quality care.

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How to Achieve Optimised Schedules:

• Route Planning: Group appointments in geographic clusters to minimise travel time for care professionals.
• Understanding Time Needs: Gain a clear understanding of the time required for each visit, and provide adequate gaps between visits to prevent rushed care.
• Flexibility: Offer flexible working hours to align care professionals' shifts with their availability, reducing the need for last-minute adjustments.
• Digital Solutions: Implement intelligent rostering platforms tailored to domiciliary care to streamline scheduling and reduce travel time. All of the above will become much easier to put in place!

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Enhancing care professional training

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Creating efficiency in domiciliary care doesn't mean ‘cutting corners’; it can mean investing more time up-front in supporting care professionals to understand the importance of effective time management.

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What goes into Efficiency Training for Care Professionals? Enhancing care professional training involves providing ongoing education and skill development opportunities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of care visits. This training goes beyond basic care skills and focuses on techniques for optimising time during visits. One example of such training is "Rapid Assessment Methods." Care professionals are taught how to quickly and accurately assess the needs of care recipients upon arrival. This includes identifying immediate care requirements, prioritising tasks, and efficiently allocating their time to address critical care activities. By mastering rapid assessment methods, care professionals can make the most of their visit time, ensuring that essential care needs are met promptly.

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Example: A domiciliary care business conducts monthly training sessions for its care professionals. These sessions include training on rapid assessment methods, which help care professionals quickly understand care recipient needs. By enhancing their assessment skills, care professionals can efficiently address care needs during visits, ensuring better outcomes for care recipients.

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How to Enhance Care Professional Training:

• Training Topics: Cover essential topics such as rapid assessment methods, task prioritisation during visits, and best practices for delivering efficient domiciliary care.
• Regular Sessions: Schedule regular training sessions designed to improve both efficiency and care quality.
• Investment: View training as an investment in care professionals, leading to improved visit efficiency and overall service quality.

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Implementing standardised visit protocols

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Standardised visit protocols are guiding principles relevant to every care visit, ensuring that essential tasks are consistently performed, regardless of the care professional involved. These protocols enhance both the efficiency and quality of care delivery.

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What Are Standardised Visit Protocols?In a domiciliary care setting, some standardised visit protocols may include:

1. Medication Management: A checklist specifying the steps for accurate medication administration, including checking the medication list, verifying dosages, and documenting the administration.
2. Personal Hygiene: Guidelines on assisting care recipients with personal hygiene routines, such as bathing, dressing, and grooming, to maintain their health and dignity.
3. Social Interaction: Suggestions for engaging in meaningful conversations and activities with care recipients to combat social isolation and enhance their emotional well-being.
4. Safety Checks: A checklist for assessing the safety of the care recipient's environment, identifying and mitigating potential hazards to prevent accidents.

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By having a set of repeatable checklists for each visit, care professionals ensure that they cover all essential aspects of care during their visits. This not only enhances efficiency but also contributes to consistent and high-quality care delivery, ultimately benefiting both care recipients and care professionals.

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Example: A domiciliary care business identifies that the most common elements of visit sinclude medication management, personal hygiene, and social interaction. They create standardised checklists for each component, ensuring that care professionals consistently address these aspects during visits, resulting in improved efficiency and consistent care quality.

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How to Implement Standardised Visit Protocols:

• Identify Critical Components: Collaborate with the care team to identify critical elements of successful care visits.
• Develop Checklists: Create checklists based on identified components, allowing care professionals to manage their time effectively while upholding a consistent standard of care.
• Accessibility: Make standardised visit protocols readily accessible to all care professionals within the organisation. A digital care management platform can really help with this.

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Fostering effective communication with care recipients

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Clear and consistent communication with care recipients sets expectations, builds trust, and ensures efficient care visits.

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What Is Effective Communication with Care Recipients?Effective communication involves establishing and maintaining clear and consistent channels of communication to meet care recipients' needs, build trust, and ensure efficient care visits. This communication goes beyond just verbal exchanges; it includes providing care recipients with comprehensive information packs and creating an environment where they feel comfortable discussing their care needs, preferences, and concerns.

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Example: Imagine a domiciliary care business that goes the extra mile by offering information packs to care recipients. These packs are comprehensive and include not only visit schedules and care plans but also detailed descriptions of the tasks and activities that care professionals will perform during each visit. Additionally, the information packs provide clear expectations for care recipients, helping them understand what to anticipate during their visits. This proactive approach not only empowers care recipients by keeping them well-informed but also significantly reduces confusion and contributes to a more efficient and satisfying care delivery process. Care recipients feel more confident and in control of their care, leading to improved overall outcomes.

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How to Foster Effective Communication:

• Information Packs: One key aspect of effective communication is the provision of information packs to care recipients. These packs should include detailed visit schedules, care plans, and clear expectations for each visit. For example, the information pack can outline the specific tasks and activities that care professionals will perform during each visit. This proactive approach empowers care recipients by keeping them well-informed and reducing potential confusion.
• Open Communication: Encouraging care recipients to openly discuss their needs, preferences, and concerns is another crucial element of effective communication. Care professionals should create an environment where care recipients feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and feelings. For instance, during a visit, a care professional can actively engage in conversation, ask open-ended questions, and show empathy towards care recipients' emotions and concerns. This open dialogue fosters a sense of trust and partnership, contributing to efficient care visits.
• Transparency: Maintaining transparency in communication is essential for building trust with care recipients. Care providers should ensure that care recipients have access to all relevant information about their care, including any changes in schedules or care plans. This transparency not only keeps care recipients informed but also helps them feel in control of their care journey. For example, if there is a change in the visit schedule, care professionals should communicate this promptly to the care recipient and explain the reasons behind the change.

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Want to read more on this? Click the button below to read our article ‘Struggling with wated staff time and effort’