Reeson Care Homes

When times are hard, one way for any business to avoid getting into difficulty is to improve the business processes and introduce efficiencies. The outbreak of Covid created many problems for the care home industry and Reeson Care Homes saw how important it was to move away from paper-based administration to the online world of digital forms.

The Challenge

Before we started the project, all of the main processes in Reeson Care Homes had been handled manually using paper forms. Not only was this already very time-consuming but also made harder by the requirement for some admin staff to work remotely.

Being able to use software that allowed the distribution of documents in real time, while reviewing and processing data simultaneously with other users and producing reports without any delay was a top priority to improve the business status quo.

In addition, plans were made to increase management efficiency by creating overview dashboards and new reports.

Our mission

HeadChannel had multilevel responsibilities within this project. When working with clients who don’t have their own in-house IT department we do our best to bring added value, not only by delivering the product but also by providing business and technical support. Our goal is to allow the client to focus on the system requirements and internal training. We delivered an ERP system based on the ASP.NET Core framework that enabled Reeson Care Homes to move their main processes into the web application.

In the first phase of the project, we worked with the client to define the system expectations and build the project scope. We ran requirements workshops and offline analysis with the goal of describing the business processes and producing detailed specifications for the many forms that the system required.

Most of those paper documents had been used for many years so it was important to ensure that changing to electronic forms didn’t introduce problems for the staff and the changeover to new ways of working went as smoothly as possible.

In the next stage of the project, during the internal technical design sessions, we focused on choosing a system architecture that would best support the business requirements. Based on the Reeson Care Homes load predictions, we recommended an infrastructure that would allow the business to scale easily as it grows or even to sell the software to similar companies in future. Defining bottlenecks, preventing vulnerabilities and ensuring system reliability were key to the success of the project.

Our solution

The Reeson Care Homes system provides general business administration and employee management, a residents database, care plan documentation, event and incidents tracking, maintenance planning and much more.

HR management

This module allows comprehensive employee management, tracking the history of all employees, their addresses, qualifications, bank accounts, employment or contract details and care home locations. Entering different pay rate types and allowances is possible, as well as work permit registration and annual leave tracking. The user can also store documents here and complete online compliance documents.

Residents database

The system has a database with all personal information, physical health conditions, contract arrangements, registration details, scanned documents, medical history and next of kin contact details. The software stores resident records across all company locations so it gives consistent and up-to-date information, standardised data structure and robust reporting possibilities.

Appointments management

The staff have an overview of all appointments with external professionals per day, week or month within a selected location. Executives can benefit from multi-perspective calendar views and reports exported from the software.

Medical history and care notes

There are tailored modules to manage health progress notes and, depending on the user role, those records can be edited by a member of staff or approved by a privileged team leader. Bespoke templates to track health conditions, sleep hygiene, progress observations, professional recommendations and multidisciplinary care planning have been implemented. Results for a selected resident can be emailed or exported as necessary.

Estate Repairs Management

Scheduling maintenance works, choosing customised repair types, planning contractors, cost tracking and reporting gives a quick and easy overview of a single location for site managers and also a helicopter overview for managing directors.

Event Reporting

Due to the strict security and safety restrictions, all incidents are extensively reported in the software and easily monitored by the responsible managers. The system supports risk assessment, and it allows for generating indecent reports on demand.

Audits and Inspections

We built a module that allows the creation of custom templates for audits or inspections and using them for reporting on a daily basis.

Data history and versioning

In healthcare, data compliance, keeping medical history digitised and being able to process it easily are key requirements. Therefore, we enabled versioning and comprehensive history across all system records. Administrators can easily see who changed a record, and when, to track unconscious slips in the documents and unauthorised user actions.

Bespoke features

We also implemented additional features to support tried and tested ways of working in our customer’s business. We provided Reeson Care Homes with a configuration module that allows dictionaries to be updated with medical terminology or incident types. New document templates can be defined allowing the system to be adjusted any time without developer involvement.

Our journey

Significant changes are required not only to move from an offline work environment to a web application but also to increase operational company efficiency and benefit from process automation. Developing bespoke software is sometimes the only way to re-evaluate processes and procedures, eliminate unnecessary tasks, and improve inefficient processes if there are any.

Reducing paperwork

• Forms and document templates always kept up-to-date
• Record history, audit logs, document versioning, traceability
• The intuitive user interface enables quick and easy form filling
• Instant access to documents created within all locations of the organisation
• One source of truth

Processes optimisation

• Reviewing in-house documents, templates and procedures during development and removal of inefficient processes
• Bespoke multi-perspective views and tables with custom filters
• Dashboards and widgets customised per user or role
• Enabling families to track residents’ progress via online or mobile app

Robust reporting

• Advanced reporting that allows drilling down on data based on the date range or selected care home locations
• Different report types are available depending on the role and privileges within an organisation
• Instant access to overview reports generated automatically or on-demand
• Tailored cost tracking modules

Staff scheduling and management

• Bespoke rostering systems
• Adjusted overview of shifts planned in all locations
• Wage calculation based on different pay rates and allowance types
• Advanced calendar supporting holiday planning and sick leave overview
• Shifts and overtime tracking using the clock in and out solutions
• Staff Supervision & Appraisal module
• Daily duty allocation module

Payroll, Invoice and finance

• Integration with analytics tools (Power BI)
• Integration with payroll systems (Xero, Sage)
• Invoicing modules, online payments
• Tracking bills and expenses

A story of success

We designed and developed a web-based application to support Reeson Care Homes with running their business remotely by improving residents’ record management, supporting HR processes, increasing efficiency, and decreasing the number of human errors by reducing paperwork. The software has improved communication especially amongst managers working in different locations or fully remotely.

Project facts

• Team – Developers 4 (Team Lead and Architect 1, Backend dev 2, Frontend dev 1), QA 1, BA 1, PM 1
• Project management – Scrum for production and Kanban for maintenance
• Technology – Angular, HTML/CSS, ASP.NET Core, Entity Framework, Redis Cache, Metronic, SignalR