8 ways you can prevent & control COVID-19 and other infections using CareDocs
- Categories: COVID-19
Joe Webber
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Infection control is a major theme that runs through the Department of Health and Social Care’s 2020-21 winter plan. The devastating effects that virus outbreaks can have within a care setting were made clear during the first wave of COVID-19 cases. Now with winter approaching, we have an opportunity to look back and see what can be improved to ensure our society’s most vulnerable are as safe as possible.
Preventing or stopping the spread of infection is the essence of infection control. By using the correct PPE, practicing proper hygiene and waste disposal, educating ourselves on the latest policies and procedures and following guidance on social distancing, transmission of infection diseases can be reduced. But how does technology play a part in supporting you with this?
Another key point from the 2020-21 winter plan called for care providers to consider how technology or digital solutions could help to protect the people in your care. CareDocs is digital care management and recording system that helps you provide consistent, top quality care.
Here are 8 ways CareDocs can help you manage infection control in your care setting.
1. COVID-19 features
Earlier in the year we released new forms and reporting tools aimed at supporting you manage potential COVID-19 outbreaks in your care setting. For residents, you can easily record COVID-19 symptoms, perform a breathing assessment and track symptom progress over two weeks. Symptoms can also be recorded in staff and visitors. If an individual has symptoms, you can mark them as being suspected to have COVID-19.
The COVID-19 status of residents – suspected or not suspected – will display across the system on both CareDocs Desktop and CareDocs Cloud Portal (our mobile version) to ensure potential risks are visible at the earliest opportunity.
COVID-19 test samples and results can also be logged for residents and staff. The data is then used to generate instant reports to give you a clear overview of who has tested or still awaiting results. Using a combination of symptom and testing tracking across your setting, you can see who might have developed the virus, who they have been in contact with and whom it originated from.
[Update: 02 November 2021]
We have now released COVID-19 vaccination compliance forms and reports for staff and visitors to help CQC care homes in England comply with upcoming regulatory changes. See our blog for more information: CareDocs update (v4.6.1) including COVID-19 vaccination & exemption recording
2. Go mobile
Remote care recording has become a vital component for many care businesses in the fight against preventing infection. Using portable technology like laptops, smartphones and tablets, you can carry your system with you to provide highly accurate and safer care.
There are several benefits to being able to care on the go. Unnecessary resident movement and interaction is reduced, and efficiency and accuracy are increased. This saves time and provides a better, more comfortable care experience. Technology can also be wiped easily with disinfectant, and is a substitute for paper and other stationery, which is more difficult to clean and poses a greater risk of cross-contamination.
3. Remote care updates
Making trips to and from a care setting now comes with a greater risk of picking up or transmitting an infection. Essential visits to the GP or other health professionals may need to stop temporarily, but the service they provide doesn’t have to. Many doctors and consultants have started using the internet to offer virtual appointments.
Using CareDocs Connect, with the consent of your resident you can grant trusted professionals access to CareDocs care updates. Contacts for your resident will be able to view relevant care updates from the past three days, send text messages and view or send photos and files. This allows them to monitor the treatment process remotely and send you instructions or advice if they need to offer assistance.
4. Person-centred care
A person-centred care plan is required to ensure each individual is receiving the best levels of care, whether or not the resident has an infection. By demonstrating that you understand their needs, proper care can transform a potentially bad situation into a less stressful experience by providing extra comfort and clarity.
5. Charts & Body Maps
Certain charts can help you identify symptoms of COVID-19 and other common infections like influenza before the condition becomes more obvious. You can track temperature, oxygen saturation and pulse, among others, and once the readings have been entered into your digital monitoring chart, you will automatically be shown the progression over the last recordings. When you’re presented with this kind of data, it’s easier to tell if your resident falls within healthy boundaries or if there’s an early sign of infection.
CareDocs’ Body Map feature if another way to monitor and provide accurate treatment for established infections, like COVID-19 and chest infection. It paints a clearer image of what stage the condition is in and the plan of care which is needed.
6. Group Events
Although safety is priority, you will still want to keep your residents as active and social as possible to keep their spirits up. Isolation and loneliness are impacting both mental and physical health, so aiming to maintain a sense of normality can help combat this.
The Group Event feature is similar to Daily Notes, where you can record information about certain activities, situations and events. Group Events is designed to be used for when there are multiple participants. For example, if you are hosting exercise or therapy classes with small groups or bubbles of healthy residents, Group Events is a great way to keep a log of who attended, so you don’t mix them up with other residents in the next session.
7. Policies & Procedures
We have a huge database of fully customisable and printable policies and procedures for everyone to view. The documents are sourced and compiled by care sector experts and contain official government and NHS guidance.
There are policies and procedures for how to handle COVID-19 in a care setting and general infection control guidance. New documents are added regularly through our software updates and managers are able to keep track of who has read each one.
8. Staff Message Centre & Notice Board
Strong communication is key to making others aware of ongoing issues and stopping potential situations from developing. As staff work all kinds of different shift patterns to facilitate the needs of residents, it may be normal to not speak to colleagues that work different times than you. CareDocs has two features that allow staff to communicate with each other.
The Staff Messaging Centre is a secure, internal messaging system that allows you to compose text messages to an individual recipient or to groups. This is ideal for directing concerns to or asking for advice from other members of the team. Just like using email, you can set your messages as high importance, so they stand out in inboxes.
Alternatively, you can use the Staff Notice Board to create general awareness of a subject. That may be a hygiene related reminder, a note to check the latest government advice or CareDocs policy and procedure, or a forewarning of a visitor. A unique quality of the Staff Notice Board is that all posted announcements are available for everyone to view.
Get in touch
We do more than provide a digital care management software. We offer a full transitional service; from getting you set up, to supplying hardware and ongoing training and support. To learn more about CareDocs and how we can help you keep your residents safe, please call 0330 056 3333 or email sales@caredocs.co.uk.
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Joe Webber
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