In May 2015, Jo Keyes helped launch Woodfield 24, an end of life care agency that operates in partnership with the NHS Foundation Trust in Doncaster. Currently, 18 staff members deliver 400 hours of care each week for people approaching the final stages of life, and plans are in place for the operation to double in size.
In her position as Registered Manager, Jo researched several rota systems for domiciliary care. Ultimately she was attracted to Nourish Rostering for its simplicity.
The Problem
The nature of Woodfield24’s service means they have a high turnover of service users, as individual circumstances can change rapidly. As such, it’s vital that the rota is easy to edit and update. Jo comments: “Scheduling appointments is actually very straightforward. But the rota often looks completely different from the morning to the end of the day.
“We constantly have new referrals. Whilst other patients pass away or need to increase their number of visits at very short notice. Frankly, I don’t know how we’d cope without Nourish because it makes the admin side of things so easy.”
As an NHS-funded service, Jo also has to run reports on several Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) each month, such as the time spent providing face-to-face care and time spent travelling between visits. These can be generated with a few simple clicks, and exported into Excel spreadsheets.
The solution
Nourish’s secure cloud-based system ensures that rota changes are automatically updated and immediately viewable. Woodfield24 staff are also provided with Android phones and use the Nourish app to check-in at each location, keep on top of messages and share information.
“If there are three or four different people involved in one person’s care, it’s really useful to leave notes and communicate with each other in the online diary. This has proven to be extremely helpful in ensuring we deliver the very best service.”
Woodfield 24 also uses the Nourish dashboard to send and receive text messages, communicating urgent updates to staff and notifying them of last minute changes.
The result
The most important KPI in Jo’s eyes is the percentage of people that die where they wish to. Nationally, this figure stands at 50%, but Woodfield24 delivers a 95% success rate. “We’re very proud of this,” confirms Jo, “and Nourish has helped us achieve it.”
The Nourish team are always accessible, checking in on helpdesk enquiries seven days a week. Jo continues: “They respond to calls and emails very quickly, and have been very keen to resolve issues. With our high turnover of clients, we experienced a minor problem when it came to the reports, but the Nourish team found a solution very quickly.
“The cost is very reasonable and we’re seeing a fantastic return on investment, so I’d have to give Nourish 10/10.”
