We spoke to one of our Australian customers, Healthy Life Community Services, an NDS provider in Brisbane, Queensland. Healthy Life was formed just six months ago and runs a medical centre along with home care services. Jo Oluafe, is the Executive Officer and Wendy McDonald is the Executive Client Engagement Manager.
When Healthy Life formed it began using the popular software platform Shift Care but Jo was keen to switch to Careline Live thanks to his previous experience as Client Engagement Manager and Executive Officer at Home Care Nurses Australia. He says “With having used Careline Live before, Shift Care just didn’t feel right. Too many things were missing like observations and reports on medication administration. Not many systems have reports like that, and with our higher end medical needs clients, we really needed that type of functionality.”
“It’s been really good having CareLineLive and having those compliance checks in place. It means that we can see how things are going with service users in real time.”
Jo finds the rostering system really helpful but the tasks function really makes it stand out from the other software that is available. The ability to set appointments and alerts. “I like that staff members can’t log out until they have completed all the tasks and that the alerts and concerns will pick up on issues which trigger an alert that has to be acknowledged. This keeps everyone accountable and means that we can see what is going on out in the field.”
Healthy Life has a lot of high intensity clients that require medication management. This is where they find CareLineLive’s ability to monitor medications via the MAR particularly helpful with medication easily allocated on the app and then given an exact timestamp with the name of the person that administered it. Jo says that other systems tend to require written notes for medication record keeping. He says “That timestamp combined with electronic medical records is a big deal for us in our clinical work – it really helps us stand out and has enabled us to take on a large number of high intensity clients in the last six months.”
The MAR report is seen by the stakeholder team. These people are interested to see detail such as how many times a client with a PRN has needed their medication each month. “Pulling that report is easy and it looks so much better, it helps the office follow through with compliance as well as helping us monitor what is happening on the ground.”
Jo says that his staff find CareLineLive very easy to use. “They found it different from what else was out there, it’s good, not complicated at all. When we had a glitch that was resolved very quickly – we just had to email the support team who sorted it out. Support always get back to us within 24 hours.”
We spoke to Jo when our support team was all UK-based. In 2024 we will have had localised support which will enable Australian time zone phone and email support meaning that customers there can receive instant support when they have questions.
For onboarding process Jo decided to have himself and one of the managers trained before they then trained the rest of the team. “It was all pretty straightforward. I shared the videos of our onboarding and they’ve not had any issues at all either with the initial onboarding or with getting new staff up-to-speed. We have a client and staff engagement officer who catches up with new staff after the first shift. We have a Jane Doe on our system that sets up dummy shifts for them so that they can practice logging in and out, complete tasks and other aspects.”
Feedback from staff on the ground
Executive Client Engagement Manager Wendy McDonald said “We’ve not had any issues using CareLineLive and it has been very easy to learn”. Wendy took some feedback from her team who reported that incorporating CareLineLive into their disability support operations has brought about noteworthy improvements in several key areas:
- Immediate access to client information: one of the most impactful features is the ability for our staff to access all relevant client information instantly as soon as they are rostered for a shift. This immediate availability of comprehensive data ensures that every carer is well-prepared and informed, leading to more personalised and effective support for each client.
- Digital reporting and medication management: transitioning from traditional paper methods to digital reporting has revolutionised the way we manage medications. This digital approach not only minimises errors but also streamlines our administrative processes, allowing us to focus more on client care.
- Real-time updates and task management: Real time check-in and check-out geolocation feature is a significant enhancement for operational efficiency and staff accountability. The ability to set tasks that require completion prior to checking out of the shift ensures important tasks aren’t missed.
- Overall, CareLineLive has been instrumental in elevating the quality of our disability support services. The combination of instant access to client information, streamlined digital reporting, and reliable geolocation tracking aligns seamlessly with our commitment to delivering efficient, responsive, and high-quality care to those we serve.
