11.20.2023 PCS
Claremont Court was established in 2013, providing dementia nursing care for 36 residents and Ty Cerios was established in 2003 to provide nursing care for 39 residents. Both care home services are run by registered managers who have a legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
What challenges is your industry facing?
In all nursing homes, nurses are under pressure because they must do everything from clinical nursing care that require their expertise to mundane tasks such as medicines administration. In a typical nursing home of 30 residents a full-time equivalent nurse's time is devoted to medicines management. In Claremont Court and Ty Cerios there were three full time nurses and the challenge was to see if nurses were able to delegate the medicines administration safely to carers, to free up their time for more clinical activities. This is the model recommended by Care Inspectorate Wales and the DoH in England.
What made you investigate ATLAS eMAR's technology?
We had already been using ATLAS eMAR and we were part of an independent evaluation by Cardiff university that showed that the system eradicated 21 out of 23 possible types of errors on MAR charts. Our sister home, a residential home, was also using the ATLAS eMAR with our carers were administering medicines and they were just as safe. We worked together and made sure the carer's at Claremont Court and Ty Cerios were trained and competent, then we put together a method of personal delegation by nurses to carers.
What can you do now that you couldn’t do before?
The nurses were able to use the system to prompt where carers had to consult the nurses for certain administrations that had complex requirements such as PEG feeds and PRNs. Our nurses were able to use ATLAS Scorecard to monitor staff performance and resident status. We also arranged meetings with our inspectorate, the health board and our staff to take in to account everyone's concerns. Cardiff University also carried out an evaluation of the system.
What's been the biggest improvement you've seen since implementing ATLAS's Technology?
Claremont and Ty Ceirios were in the spotlight at an event held at Cardiff University where the results of the REMEDY project, a year long evaluation of Nurse Delegated Medicines Administration was presented, ensuring safety of the medicines using technology. This model of care also produced savings as we were able to go from three full time nurses to two full time nurses. Claremont Court and Ty Cerios were also awarded the South Wales Argos Healthcare awards for its innovative model.
Find out more about ATLAS eMAR Technology can support your medicines management needs in your care home.
