Newspage
October / November
Something we weren’t really expecting is the interest being shown in CareDocs by the larger Care Home groups. Actually it makes a lot of sense, because of course not only do you always get beautifully presented care plans, but there’s a very appealing uniformity to each care plan that fits well with any group trying to make sure that all their homes produce comprehensive plans to a guaranteed standard.
Another development has been an increased interest in being able to network CareDocs, in other words to be able to have more than just the one laptop running in a Home. Anyone not really ‘into’ computers may not appreciate the complexity behind this, but if you try to imagine for a moment what it would be like if more than one person was to try and write the same story at exactly the same time, you may begin to get a hint of the problem.
To cut a long story short, we’ve managed to crack the problem, and so can now offer a networked version of CareDocs that enables as many laptops as you need to work off the same database. If you’re interested in more details, just ring the office.
September
What a blur! The month had hardly started before it was over…it’s been a time of running to keep still! A major move for us has been the employment of Joy Fraser to work for us in the afternoons, following up on the mailshots we send out, so it’s likely that many reading this will have already had the opportunity to talk to her….and many more will as copies of the CareDocs brochure are sent to a wider audience. She obviously doing a great job because the number of requests we’re receiving for demonstrations is growing all the time.
Autumn Newsletter
If you haven’t already received one, you can download a copy of our recent Newsletter here. In it you’ll find details of the changes you’ll find in CareDocs version 2.4, due next month, why not have a quick look, you’ll be impressed!
Existing CareDocs subscribers will receive a copy automatically, all you have to do is slip the disk into your laptop and it will update your system automatically without changing any of your existing files.
August
Summer? What summer?
To be honest it’s been such a busy month that hot, sunny days may have been hard to cope with. Our full back page advertisement in PIR Care Home Management was a great success and has lead to a stream of on-site demonstrations, with all but two turning into orders.
No matter how good the demonstration on this website is, or how many DVDs we send out, potential customers like to see the system working in front of them, and, frankly, who can blame them!
Visiting customers allows us not just the opportunity to meet and get to know people we’re going to be working with, but also to make sure that each system we supply is customised to meet precisely that customers requirements, so everyone’s a winner!
Systems-wise, August has seen also seen us working to make our Care Plan assessment questions more useful to Nursing homes, with additional fields being added to cover specific conditions such as dementia. As soon as this work is complete existing customers will be sent a full update.
July
Holidays? What holidays?
The month has seen us out demonstrating the CareDocs system across the country with enquiries coming in from far and wide. It’s also seen us start to receive more widespread feed-back from those Care Homes that have now been running the system for a couple of months…and it’s all been very positive!
In fact many homes are so taken by the system’s Care Plan writing capability that they’ve not yet started using any of the many other facilities the system has to offer. We’re thinking about offering Homes that have got used to the system a day of additional training to make sure they’re making the most of what it can do for them.
We advertised in the new ‘The Carer’ magazine this month. It’s always interesting to ask callers where they heard about us, and to track the effectiveness of our advertising…
…to date this website has been the most effective marketing tool..,with plans to make it even more so by adding pages showing a sample of a typical CareDocs Care Plan.
June
It’s been a busy month. Enquiries have been flooding in and systems have been supplied to an ever increasing number of customers.
At the same time we’ve been enhancing the CareDocs program, adding in a number of new features, not the least of which is the Home Status page and icon. In effect this means that a glance at the CareDocs ‘home page’ will immediately either warn you that some element of the management of your Care Home needs attention (red light) or that everything is up to date (green light). Clicking through to the reports section of the program will bring up a single page status report covering every element of activity in your Home, be it to do with your Residents, Staff or with the general management matters such as equipment maintenance.
Another new feature is the ability of the program to write Care Plans in the first person, so “ I did so and so” instead of “Fred did….”
The article in Caring UK has gone down well too, with several people getting in touch to say how good it was to read such a positive article…it’s led to some enquiries too!
May
It’s been a busy time for CareDocs, with a steady flow of enquiries arising from the Care Show, this website and the advertisement in Caring UK. The editorial submitted with our advertisement obviously made an impression because we found ourselves being asked to give an interview on the background of the company and the unique features the CareDocs software offers, so we look forward to seeing that in the next edition…
Something of a surprise to us has been the considerable interest being shown in CareDocs by the larger groups of Care Homes, a surprise because we had decided to aim our initial marketing at individual Homes. It was deeply gratifying to demonstrate CareDocs to the Chief Executive Officer of one of the larger groups, someone with a lifetime of experience in the Care Home industry, and be told how impressed he was with the system and how he sees Caredocs as ‘the future.’
10th April dateline
The Bournemouth Care Show on the 1st and 2nd of April was an astonishing success for CareDocs with a steady stream of interested visitors to the stand. It was the automated Care Plans which made the greatest impression, most people finding it hard to believe that a full and detailed Care Plan could be produced so easily from a series of simple questions. The other thing that really impressed people was how easy the system is to use, and the clarity of the graphics.
It was interesting to watch some visitors, who made their dislike of computers very clear, become more and more interested as they began to realise what the CareDocs system could do for their home, and just how easy it is to use.
Over the two days of the show more than 50 solid enquiries were received, including a number from the larger Care Home groups.
Can you make it?
CareDocs is exhibiting at the forthcoming Care Show being held at the Bournemouth International Centre on the 1st and 2nd April. If you’re looking for us, and we hope you will be, we’re on stand W5 in the Windsor Hall; do please come and see us and have a look at our CareDocs Care Home Management software,,, we promise that you’ll be very impressed.