7 care tools to help you stay organised over the holidays

The holiday season is back again, which means it’s time to spread some cheer and have some fun! However, celebrations can’t happen without a little planning. 

CareDocs is a person-centred care software at its core, but it’s also designed to assist you in the day-to-day running of your care business. This includes helping you manage your events, share useful information and communicate with others, so everyone can stay organised.

Here are our picks for seven care tools that might come in extra handy over the holiday season.

1. Choice

The ‘Choice’ tool is a space for recording each person’s food, interest and daily routine preferences. Keeping it up to date with plenty of information is extremely beneficial, not only so new staff can quickly learn about the people in their care, but also because the residents won’t have to repeat themselves – helping everyone feel heard and valued.

It can come in particularly handy throughout the holiday season when there’s a lot to consider in regard to personal tastes. For example, if someone doesn’t like Brussels sprouts then you’ll know to leave them off their dinner plate. Other people may prefer a quiet game of bingo and an early night to an evening of live festive entertainment. Providing a variety of options to cater for everyone’s preferences will help ensure nobody is left out.

2. Home Diary

For many people, December is an exciting but busy month! With visitations, shopping trips, arts and crafts and community events (on top of all the usual goings-on), it can be a challenge to keep track of everything. The ‘Home Diary’ tool is designed to record and display all the events that staff should be aware of both in and outside of the home.

Religious events, Christmas parties, live entertainment, catering, staff meetings, maintenance, visitations or inspections; all can be popped into the diary. It’s a simple way to stay organised while providing transparency to your team so nobody gets caught off guard. Upcoming events and reminders also appear on the Home Status page.

3. Group Events

Similar to individual Daily Notes, the ‘Group Events’ tool allows you to create digital records for events that involve multiple residents. Group Events can be added at the time of the event, but for the best results, you can create notes in advance. This allows you to enter the names of all attendees and an agenda that should be followed. Once the event starts, you check everything is in place and then return to edit the note after the event is finished to record the residents’ experience.

4. Menu Planning

CareDocs is full of useful features to help you stay organised and manage various aspects of your business. Within the ‘Home Management’ section of CareDocs – in addition to creating invoices and logging maintenance details – you can plan your menus for the week! With the variety of meals, snacks and drink on offer over the holiday period, the menu planning tool can be a great asset for kitchen staff.

5. Update photos

Christmas isn’t for everyone, but the holidays do have a way of bringing people together through good company and fine food. Seeing as the camera normally makes an appearance anyway, this is a great opportunity to update staff and resident photos and capture the natural cheer of the occasion.

Although it’s easy enough to update photos in the CareDocs desktop system, why not try logging into CareDocs Cloud Portal and taking a live photo using your mobile phone?

6. Personal Belongings Record form

As we move into the new year, it may be a suitable time to update resident inventory records. Especially for those who received gifts! CareDocs’ ‘Personal Belongings Record’ form is used to log personal possessions, such as clothing, furniture, electricals, jewellery and other valuables.

Inventories are essential documents that can aid individuals in multiple ways. In the event items go missing, you have a written record of when it was last logged to refer to. They can be used as packing checklists for when people change residency and can help jog the memories of those who have difficulty remembering certain details.

7. COVID-19 visitor forms & reports

Winter colds and other viruses are more likely to spread with an increase in visitors. Using CareDocs Cloud Portal, you can use your mobile phones to perform a quick COVID-19 symptom check on people as they arrive. Temperatures, coughs and other symptoms can be logged in a single form to help you make a quick decision on whether any special IPC measures should be taken on a case-by-case basis.

Should you suspect someone has COVID-19, then you can log their swab test and test result directly in CareDocs. In the event that any residents do become unwell, you can check the ‘COVID-19 Visitor History’ report to see who has been in recently.

From everyone at CareDocs… have a great time!

The festive season is certainly hard work, but it’s important to make the most of it and remember to enjoy it! Keeping detailed records in a single easy-access system is one way to ensure everyone stays organised and remains aware of what’s happening in real-time.

In care, communication is paramount when it comes to providing the best possible service and avoiding mistakes. Digital systems like CareDocs support you with this by promoting information sharing and making it simple to find what you need. Whether you’re looking for resident preferences, upcoming events, Christmas menus, personal inventories or COVID-19 data, it can all be located in just a few clicks for maximum efficiency.

If you’re a CareDocs customer and would like any support with the features mentioned above, please contact our friendly customer service team by emailing support@caredocs.co.uk or phoning 0330 056 3333.

To enquire about becoming a CareDocs customer, please contact our knowledgeable business development team by emailing sales@caredocs.co.uk or clicking here to book a free demo.

Looking for more Christmas inspiration? Here’s another blog you might find useful: 

8 Christmas activities which are COVID-19 safe