Quality Home Care has been providing the community in North East Lincolnshire with support since 2015. Born out of Mark Hughes’ experience of caring for his mother, the company grew as part of an ambition for a higher quality of care in his community. As demand increased for their services, however, Mark quickly realised how much work was involved in the administration of a home care provider. That was until Registered Manager Aneta Dominik joined their team and suggested a digital approach.
The problem
From the company’s inception up to Aneta joining their team, Quality Home Care was using a paper-based system. This process was long-winded and required multiple people to manage and record all of the necessary information.
“When they opened the agency, they did not have Nourish or any similar system,” Aneta explains. “They were doing rotas and invoices and everything by hand. It was very difficult for the existing [team] to sort things out.
“You would have to have two care coordinators minimum for the amount of clients [we support].”
The solution
Aneta recognised the incredible amount effort being put into delivering not just the care but the administration as well.
“When I came along I thought it would be a good idea to just use some systems, and Nourish was looking like it was the best one on the market. [We shopped around] to save some money on a systems level.”
Having reviewed the software market, Aneta and the Quality Home Care team matched what was on offer to both the budget of their business and the needs of their service.
“It was a hassle to send the carers to the clients and stuff like this without actually seeing them on the screen, like, where they are located on a map. That is why we started researching and seeing what’s available on the market, and this is how we came across Nourish.”
Quality Home Care’s investment in Nourish immediately saw a return in terms of time saved for both their carers and their coordinators as they digitised processes that previously required paperwork.
“I’m extremely happy with the mileage [calculations] because I don’t have to count up any mileage for [the carers] and they don’t have to do it as well, because Nourish is doing [it] for us. It is a massive bonus.”
The Result
Aneta and Quality Home Care quickly recognised that Nourish could do more for them than simply streamline their rostering: the finance integration with SAGE is already paying dividends.
“At this point of time, I can do everything by myself, and it’s about forty five thousand pounds saving a year,” Aneta says.
“I’m always happy to work together on a system. You know, the invoices, the timesheets. It’s so simple and straightforward.”
Aneta also recognises the value in Nourish’s call monitoring features: “When the carer is logging and logging out, I can track them, She says, something she describes as “protecting my company”.
The change to digital can be an intimidating one, even more so when contemplating changing from one system to another. But working with a supplier that prioritises customer support brings peace of mind.
“I have no issues with Nourish,” says Aneta, “and if I ever do – you know, struggling to change some settings – the customer service is always there.”
Ultimately the decision to go digital has been a great success for Quality Home Care. They have been able to massively reduce administration time, report more accurately on their service, and spend more time with their service users.
“It’s more easy and straightforward for me to complete everything,” Aneta says. “That’s why even when I have different companies call me now and ask [me] to come to them instead of Nourish, I strictly refuse, because Nourish is so dead simple for me. There is no way I wish to change.”
