We catch up with Drew Mason, our Digital Services Director, to talk about all things digital at Choice Care.

Hi Drew, can you tell us about what you and the team are up to at the moment?  

Yes of course! With a lot in the press about how digital and technology can help support and enhance care, we’re working on a lot of exciting developments.  

Everything we do in the digital team at Choice Care is to help our colleagues give the people we support the best possible care. We’ve achieved a massive milestone recently, with 119 of our residential and supported living services going live with our digital care planning system: Nourish. That’s over 2,500 colleagues trained and using the solution since we started rolling it out 13 months ago – which is astounding! I’m so proud of our colleagues and the digital team! We started out using a paper-based system and there were plenty of people at Choice Care who had little technology experience, but everyone has embraced the change and we’re getting amazing feedback from colleagues!  

Can you tell us about any other future developments?  

At the moment, a lot of our medication management is paper based, so we are looking at implementing electronic medicines administration records (eMAR) which will improve accuracy and reduce transcription errors. eMAR will also strengthen audit trails, as well as saving time for colleagues.  

We have just started piloting the new Safety module of Nourish. This is a more comprehensive way of tracking accidents and incidents for the people we support and colleagues, meaning issues can be reported quickly, easily and we can learn from them. We can also track follow up, reportable incidents and safeguarding concerns. 

This is going live in a number of pilot services in England and Wales.  

What about assistive technology for the people we support?  

We’ve got some really exciting developments on assistive technology. The type of assistive technology we implement will vary across our services, depending on the needs of the people who draw on our support. We are looking at a solution that uses imagery to help the people we support who are non-verbal to express how they are feeling, using images.   

Another solution that is already being used in around six services at Choice Care is Painchek. PainChek is a medical tool accredited by the NHS which supports the analysis and recording of pain for people who have difficulty communicating the level of pain they’re experiencing. It uses phone cameras to scan 42 muscle groups, assessing the severity of pain and prompts us to take the right next steps – whether that’s alleviating through medication, keeping it under review or recommending a GP appointment. We’re getting some extraordinary results so far!    PainChek has already managed to confirm pain symptoms in a couple of instances for people we support, which has meant we could get appropriate care put in place.

That sounds great! Can you tell me if you are embracing AI at Choice Care? 

Interesting question! Well, there’s been a certain amount of apprehension around the use of AI in the care sector, including concerns about its potential impact on certain roles. In the care industry, AI is never going to replace the actual physical act of caring for someone, so we’re looking at using AI to enhance processes in care and maintain consistency. We are currently working on an area of the Nourish system that will use AI to go through a care plan. This will identify where there are any inconsistencies or use of language that could be perceived as negative and then suggests improvements.  We asked a number of colleagues with specialist expertise to review the content and they confirmed that the recommendations were accurate and appropriate. However, it’s still really important that care plans are written and signed off by the people who know those we are supporting the best. AI can’t replace this, so it’s vital that experts check. It also means that, going forward, wherever you are reading within the care plan, the information will be clear, reliable and consistent throughout. 

Can you tell us more about how you work as a team?  

“By working in partnership with the people who draw on our support and those who care for them, we take a truly personalised approach to digital innovation.”

We are committed to using digital innovation to help the people we support to develop new skills, build confidence and achieve meaningful goals that enhance their independence and quality of life. We are also committed to supporting our colleagues in their daily roles, so that they can continue to provide exceptional care. Our fantastic digital team are continuing to introduce innovative technology that empowers colleagues to deliver even better outcomes and helps the people we support live more independent and fulfilling lives. 

 Thanks so much Drew for sharing all this with us!