Each domiciliary care client must have a custom care plan, which shows their assessed needs and how carers can meet these. The plan is always customised and based on the client’s health, personal and social care needs.
Customisation might sound like a time-consuming process, but in fact, digital care plans can speed-up the process and turn the guidelines into actions that generate happy clients. Here are four steps to creating custom care plans quickly.
1. Stop wasting your time with paper, start using digital care plans
You can customise care plans digitally much faster than on paper as digital documents are quick to build and easier to update. Digital tools allow you to automate certain parts of the process so you can focus on your client’s needs.
Making your care plans digital is one straightforward way of making the information required more accessible and intuitive for you, your carers and even the client’s family members. It’s easier to keep the information updated and ensure that all those taking part in the care always have the most recent version of the care plan available to them while papers are easy to get lost and be outdated. With digital care plans, there are no interruptions in information sharing.
2. Create pre-made templates to speed up the customisation process
Pre-made care plan templates speed up the customisation process, meaning you don’t need to start writing everything from scratch every time you are building a care plan.
Do you have an ideal care plan template? Convert it to a digital format and copy it to each client for the necessary parts. It’s pointless to use the same layout for everyone as one client might need help with mobility while another one can move perfectly well but needs help with medication.
Choose the required categories for a client such as nutrition, personal care and mobility and write client-specific information there. The templates can work as a checklist for managers to ensure you have recorded all detail related to the client’s care.
3. Build a custom care plan directly on clients’ profiles to find the right information whenever needed
Care plans are always client-specific, and therefore it’s crucial to be able to locate relevant information quickly and efficiently. It can be frustrating working with paper or multiple software systems when trying to find the right information. When information is held in one central place, you can be confident that your carers know exactly what to do on their visits.
Choose the relevant categories from the template according to the client’s needs and add the custom care plan directly to the client’s profile. Describe a customer’s needs, write down all necessary actions and determine the urgency. You can choose client-specific services from an editable list and add instructions for the care workers.
Care plans not only keep everyone aligned; they also provide a safety net for you and your carers, ensuring everyone is aware of their duties. Click here to read a real-life horror story of a situation when a care plan wasn’t followed correctly.
4. Turn a digital care plan into a detailed task list for carers so that they always know what to do on a visit
Finally, turn the digital care plan into a detailed checklist for your carers, so they see what they need to do at each visit. Share both the care plan and the list of tasks to carers via the mobile app. Carers can go through the list and carry out the tasks during a call and mark them as done, as the visit progresses.
NHS: Care support planning
