Plain Healthcare
Plain Healthcare is a
patient-driven company that provides rapid, safe assessment and
advice for primary and urgent care through Odyssey and PathFinderRF
– the company’s clinical decision support solutions. Trading for 17
years and carrying out around 20 million consultations in the
health care industry, Plain Healthcare has recently branched out
into the care home sector. The company has 30 virtual offices with
36 employees who work on a mobile basis, many of whom are
part-time.
Tim Morris, Managing Director, explains how Cobweb’s Hosted
Desktop solution is helping the company expand...
It’s no secret: the quality and management of care for
vulnerable, elderly residents in care homes is under scrutiny due
to growing concerns from friends, families and the Care Quality
Commission. There’s also a need for the health service to manage
the needs of the growing number of elderly people more effectively
and proactively to avoid the costs associated with emergency and
urgent care.
Plain Healthcare has developed a hosted software solution that
underlines the importance of proactive care for the elderly in
residential and nursing homes. What’s more, with Cobweb’s help,
it’s becoming even more of a success amongst users.
The software itself, Odyssey CareAssess, supports the assessment
and treatment of any condition presented by an elderly resident in
a care home, enabling nurses or non-clinical care workers to assess
the resident’s condition before calling out a doctor or emergency
ambulance.
Benefiting patients by preventing delays in medical attention
and reducing the distress, risks of infection and disorientation of
unnecessary visits to the emergency department, the assessment
software allows care workers and nurses to determine the urgency of
the illness, how quickly the patient needs to be seen by a doctor
and whether the patient is high dependency or seriously ill. For
those with minor conditions identified by the software, Odyssey
CareAssess provides relevant, simple advice and instructions that
care staff can follow, including guidance on when to reassess the
patient’s condition.
The Challenge
A key aspect of Odyssey CareAssess is to provide care workers
and nurses the ability to undertake the assessment directly at a
resident’s bedside or where they are sitting, whether they are
living in a care home or sheltered housing environment.
Consequently, the application needs to be mobile.
Prior to its launch, Plain Healthcare completed a trial of the
software on slate computers running Windows 7, installed locally
with data stored on a proprietary database.
From an IT perspective, it was found that many of the care staff
users weren’t very technically minded and therefore needed a
solution that would be easy to set up without the need for
additional training. Another issue that surfaced was the lack of
support available with certain devices:
“We had a problem sourcing the devices we were using and also
found that potential customers had the desire to use our software
on their iPads and android tablets, which we were unable to support
in standalone technologies. Besides, we also didn’t have the
resources at that time to develop a native iPad app.”
In addition to this and due to the sensitivity of the data, the
product team also knew a standalone option could be perceived as a
less secure environment. Records sitting in one location are at
risk of getting lost or stolen and this could lead to a crisis of
confidence.
The Solution
Having
thoroughly assessed the situation, Tim realised a hosted solution
was the only viable alternative. He’d heard of Hosted Desktop
before and had previously thought about going down that route, but
the technology was still in its infancy. As the technology became
available, he knew exactly who to call:
“I’d already had dealings with Cobweb and introduced Plain
Healthcare to their services when I joined the company in 2008.
Back then I’d turned to Cobweb for their Hosted Exchange solution
and I’ve had confidence in them ever since, so they were the first
port of call in helping me find the solution I needed.”
Having spoken to Matt Hall, Cobweb’s Sales Executive, about the
possibilities that were available to him, Tim was satisfied Hosted
Desktop would solve the issues Plain Healthcare had been faced with
– it was the ideal solution:
“By using Cobweb’s Hosted Desktop solution with our software,
we’ve been able to remove the majority of difficulties in supplying
expert clinical systems to environments with no internal IT. This
has given us the freedom to focus on expanding our sales within the
residential care home sector.”
One of the main benefits Tim found using Hosted Desktop was the
peace of mind it brought him in terms of security. Patient records
are stored in secure primary and secondary data centres with
perimeter and server-level protection including daily backup:
“The security aspect was extremely appealing; now that I know
customer clinical health assessments are secure and backed up, I
can relax and leave it up to the professionals at Cobweb.”
And this also strengthens the possibility for mobile
working:
“The mobile ability is a key benefit to the whole solution. Care
workers and nurses can now sit at the patient’s bedside, using
their iPads or other devices to access the assessment software
without having to leave the patient’s side.”
The Cobweb Experience
Tim had scheduled two weeks for Plain Healthcare to go through
the onboarding process – and it went seamlessly. Summing up the
experience to be “very positive with true flexibility of services
and pricing that can be offered on a monthly basis”, Tim already
recommends Cobweb’s services to other partners and customers.
He also added:
“With Cobweb Hosted Desktop, we are now planning to branch out
beyond care homes and soon we hope to enable patients to be
assessed within the comfort of their own homes and
surroundings.”
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