Senior care homes must look to medication management in the new normal

Across the country, COVID-19 has forced businesses to adapt in new ways across nearly every industry. In this wave, residential care organisations have embraced an accelerated shift towards virtual care – born from both necessity and of modern available innovation.

New technology has made it easier for providers to deliver the necessary client-centric care, as well as even boost their offerings while maintaining regulatory compliance. One key example is medication management.

Where health-care professionals such as doctors, nurses and pharmacists could once offer face-to-face consultations, and often shared the same facilities, physical distancing measures mean this is no longer the case today.

Instead, clinicians now work from different locations and rely on digitally shared client information in order to perform their respective roles in the circle of care. While virtual care ensures that clients can continue to access medical counsel and treatment remotely, it comes with a trade-off: a greater risk for errors during information transmission between offices.

The benefits of medication management

Administering the correct medication and dosage is of course a critical function that needs absolute scrutiny – one mistake can have serious consequences. One proven solution method to counter this risk is to adopt a medication management software solution. Such a system links residential care facilities with prescribers and pharmacists, and can improve efficiency, safety and accuracy.

These solutions can:

• Ensure clients are provided the right medicine at the right time.
• Improve compliance by providing a single point of profile-based access for all of a client’s medications with reporting at both facility and corporate levels.
• Integrate all pharmacy, prescriber and facility software together with an offline back-up system.
• Reduce costs and bolster compliance by managing ward stock controls with a comprehensive audit trail.
• Deliver excellent ROI and improved client outcomes, while reducing risk and increasing coordination between care teams.

An end-to-end medication management software, such as AlayaCare Residential – formerly CareExchange – offers a holistic view of client information that empowers teams to deliver personalised care. The software simplifies complex multidisciplinary charting and workflows, freeing a provider to focus on the delivery of care and less on administrative tasks.

Powered by Medi-Map, AlayaCare Residential streamlines the medication prescribing, pharmacy review and administration processes. This enables residential care organisations to provide more efficient services more effectively.

Although 2020 has been filled with uncertainty, it has also illustrated how modern technology can help organisations maintain a seamless continuation of care. Medication management is a critical aspect of such care, and innovative solutions in this area will enable providers to focus on adapting to evolving processes and deliver the care their clients expect – which is of course a vital element in this industry moving forward.