A leading provider of home care management software, CareLineLive, is highlighting the need for home care companies to prepare for changes coming as a result of the proposed POC Medication Framework.
Last month the news of a new Point of Care (POC) Framework in development throughout the UK healthcare system proposed a structure whereby patients and their carers receive faster medication manufactured wherever they receive care.
In effect, this development would mean medicines that are personalised or have a limited usage period are made or dispensed by local hospitals without delays – getting medications and treatments to patients quicker.
The goal is to avoid unnecessary hospital stays, improve responsiveness and enhance patient adherence to treatment instructions by ensuring their medicines reach them straight away from a local provider.
Impacts of the POC Medication Framework on the Home Care Sector
Although the legislation and regulation around this new framework won’t be discussed in Parliament for a few months, the key priority for all healthcare professionals, care agencies and home carers is to ensure they can keep pace.
CareLineLive, a leading provider of advanced home care management software, advises that there are multiple practical outcomes which agencies can prepare for now:
The need to be able to update care records immediately to reflect new medications or prescriptions, particularly where these may reach the patient within the same day.
Requirements to ensure every client has a personalised care record, including changes to medicines, dosages, usage instructions and medical interventions, appointments or recommendations.
The importance of organising the necessary training to ensure allocated care staff understand how to use medical devices or that only appropriately trained carers are assigned to patients with specific needs recently discharged from hospital.
Where the method by which medicines are dispatched, delivered and administered changes rapidly, technology is a fundamental tool to help carers, agencies, managers and other caregivers remain updated with the correct information.
Instant access to patient records will be even more crucial than present because if the planned service is implemented speedily, responsiveness will be imperative to maintaining high care standards and safeguarding patient welfare.
Home Care as a Solution for Hospital Bed Shortages
Alongside the POC framework, the government has shared a funding plan to allocate £250 million to help hospitals release patients sooner, supported by the initiative to dispense personalised medications to continue safe care in their own homes.
Part of the plan, prepared by the Department of Health and Social Care, is to purchase extra beds in residential care facilities, alongside implementing support from GPs, nurses and other clinicians in the community to provide ongoing recovery assistance away from the hospital setting.
The idea will benefit hospitals with huge pressure to free up beds, improve waiting times and address shortages in staffing, and is expected to result in 13,000 people in England being discharged who are currently cared for in hospital.
Outcomes will include increased demand for professional home carers, many that already provide post-hospital care, scheduled visiting care or overnight and live-in care to ensure individuals are taking medication, have companionship, remain fit, healthy and well post-hospital.
Care agencies are a core aspect of this shift. They need to focus on integrated care, with the agility to move quickly, implement personalised care logs and liaise with other healthcare organisations.
Using Home Care Technology to Adapt to Changing Needs
At every step and in every home care management process, tech plays a part in logging information, recording outcomes, home care rostering, and monitoring quality – and this array of emerging developments will highlight forward-thinking agencies with the efficiency, scalability and technological resources to keep pace.
Josh Hough, Managing Director at CareLineLive, says, “We all know that healthcare and home care resources are stretched and with an influx of higher demand for post-hospital care at home, earlier discharges and faster medication issuing procedures, it is essential agencies can respond.
Over the last few years we have worked with a huge number of clients, from well-established agencies to newly formed businesses looking for time and cost-efficient ways to enhance their services, grow their organisations and manage remote working teams.
Software has become increasingly vital to allow home care agencies and their care professionals to maintain high standards and implement CQC-compliant record keeping. We are proud to offer a full-service solution suited for all the pressures and challenges we see on the horizon."
The UK home care sector is worth around £12 billion per year, a figure likely to increase sharply with further reliance on professional home care to reduce hospital stays. The domiciliary care market has grown an annual average of 2.8% per year since 2018 and shows no signs of slowing.
Government initiatives to reduce long-stay hospital occupants are expected to be effective in the short term. POC medication systems are anticipated to be introduced later, following a six-month consultation period that concluded in August 2021.
CareLineLive is an award-winning, all-in-one home care management software system for domiciliary care agencies.
Publisher:
Woya Digital PR
Published by: Steve OBrien