Care homes are facing cost pressures from all directions. Energy is the one that’s hitting most of the headlines right now. And, unlike in our own homes, turning the heating down a few degrees and putting on an extra layer of clothing isn’t a viable option when you’re caring for elderly and vulnerable clients.
Care home managers have to budget for higher food costs and also need to ensure that store cupboards are well stocked with PPE and cleaning materials in case there’s another major Covid spike this winter. The withdrawal of the infection control and testing fund adds yet another cost to hard-pressed care homes.
At the same time there’s the most basic driver of all: maintaining consistently high standards of care. This relies on having a well-trained team and a staff development programme that meets CQC expectations.
Digitisation and Efficiencies
Most of the extra costs care homes face are externally driven. Managers have little control over them. This makes the search for internal operating efficiencies a priority – so that more resources can be directed to care delivery.
Adopting digital tools to automate repetitive or labour-intensive admin tasks is an effective way to reduce costs. Many care businesses already use cloud-based solutions for care planning, rostering, medications administration and updating care records.
A digital-first approach can also be applied to essential staff training. The eBox online learning platform is a highly cost-efficient way to keep the skills of your care team up-to-date and to support the professional development that’s so vital for staff retention.
Invest in the Future of Your Business
Through deploying eBox online learning you will not only save money, but also time and valuable resources within your business. A Quality Assurance Manager we equipped with eBox stated that they have saved 5 hours per week through not having to sift through paperwork, certificates and generate reports detailing their training. eBox has automated all of that for them. What would you do with those “5 hours” within your working week? What would be the benefit to your team or your service users with the extra time?
We appreciate that a brand new digital system could be daunting for you and your colleagues, which is why we are offering a free demo, and why we work very closely with our clients to integrate eBox. Staff soon become accustomed to accessing bite size chunks of course content at a time convenient to them and the reporting makes your life less challenging whilst avoiding unforeseen training costs. Which means that you can keep staff skills updated with minimal disruption and your compliance on track.
To find out more or see eBox in action arrange a demo or contact ebox@redcrier.com.
