What is Complex Care?
Complex care is specialised, long-term support for people who have multiple or serious health needs, such as neurological conditions, progressive illnesses, strokes, or cardiac conditions. It’s designed for individuals who might need medical equipment, skilled nursing, or regular input from different healthcare professionals to help manage their condition.
Put simply, complex care focuses on keeping someone safe, comfortable, and as independent as possible — whether they’re living at home or in a care setting — while meeting their ongoing medical and personal needs.
In this article, we’ll explore the main challenges in complex care and how digital tools can make managing complex care simpler, safer, and more efficient for care teams.
Challenges in Complex Care Management
Delivering complex care can be, as you might expect, complex. The challenge is being able to support a range of varied and long-term needs — and handle the long list of admin tasks that come with it.
Below, we share some of the top challenges that our customers working in complex care have previously faced.
Paper-Based Reporting
Incidents and near misses are common occurrences in a healthcare setting, so it’s important to ensure efficient and accurate reporting for any event.
However, we often hear that complex care providers are relying on paper forms to report incidents that occur.
Paper-based reporting can lead to inefficiencies and issues. It often results in a delay in reporting, as often there is not time to retrieve a paper form, figure out the relevant fields to fill out and submit to the correct person. This reporting lag leads to a lack of real-time insights and a delay in preventative or corrective actions being put into place.
It also makes it much harder to collate and analyse data when reports are scattered across many paper forms, making it difficult to identify areas that need to be improved.
Manual Data Entry
Manual data entry is often a symptom of paper-based reporting. In cases where a spreadsheet or digital log is used, these reports must be manually input into the system.
Not only is this time-consuming and holds staff back from delivering care, but it is also prone to human error, with incorrect data entries skewing stats.
Tracking Specialist Equipment in Complex Care
A wide range of specialised equipment is needed to support different complex care requirements, such as:
- Respiratory support equipment
- Nutritional and hydration support
- Monitoring and diagnostic equipment
- Mobility and positioning aids
- Continence support
- Emergency and safety equipment
All of this equipment needs to be logged and maintained, and keeping track of it can become unwieldy without a proper system in place.
Without adequate tracking, it can be difficult for staff to find the right equipment when needed. It also makes it easier to schedule and perform preventative maintenance, which reduces the chance of a medical device failing, which could put a client at risk.
Fragmented Client Data
Lacking a single source of truth for client data can result in missed information and client incidents. If a carer wants to access the records of a client, but they have to look in several different places to collect this information, they may not be able to get an accurate representation of the care the client requires.
The risk is heightened with new or temporary staff who may not be familiar with the client or systems, and may administer the wrong medication or use the wrong equipment if they’re not able to see all client data in one place instantly.
Benefits of Using Complex Care Software
Complex care software can help reduce the manual admin tasks that take up too much of your team’s time.
We share the three main benefits of implementing a complex care platform below.
Specialist Equipment Tracked in Asset Register
Care management software can help you keep track of all your specialised equipment, allowing you to easily check inventory, availability, the last service date, and which client currently has the equipment. Equipment can also be tied to an incident report or linked to a particular site or client, enabling you to see all the information you need in a few clicks.
If a particular piece of equipment is exclusively used by one client, it can be assigned and linked to their client record, making it easy to see their care needs and where the equipment is being used. You can also track key information, like their date of birth, address, communication needs, and client ID so that you don’t have to re-enter this information every time you file a new report.
Client-Led Data Linked to Event Records
Similarly, client data can now be linked to specific events, such as a near-miss report or to any feedback that is reported. Keeping a record of compliments and complaints is important from both a safeguarding and compliance perspective. It’s easy to see the client’s history and any related files or connected cases under their contact record.
This ensures continuity and accuracy of care, plus provides meaningful context that can be picked up by any member of care staff.
Real-time reporting of an incident means that all relevant team members get instant insight into any safety concerns or medical issues relating to a specific client.
360° Client Safety and Compliance Overview
Having a single source of truth for all of your complex care data and records makes it easier and faster to find the information you need. This is particularly important in a care environment where there are often urgent and time-sensitive issues to deal with.
However, it’s also beneficial from a compliance perspective to maintain consolidated records. The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) Single Assessment Framework requires a body of evidence to be submitted against each of its five standards, and being able to pull this from a centralised source saves time and stress when you are inspected.
How Vatix Helps Simplify Complex Care Management
Vatix’s event reporting software brings together client data, incident and near-miss reporting, risk management, and document management in one place, providing centralised access to client records and proof of compliance.
Our platform is also fully customisable, so you can name fields, forms, and audits with the language you use internally.
Workflows are also flexible and can be tailored to seamlessly integrate with (or improve) your existing processes. In complex care, there is a wide range of events that are reported on – compliments, incidents, near misses, and safeguarding – and you need to ensure that these are put into flows with clear and specific next steps. Vatix’s pipeline feature allows you to create unique workflows and customise the steps and required fields, ensuring you capture all the necessary data.
Rigid legacy platforms don’t allow for this level of flexibility, and it can be more challenging to get your team on board if there’s a misalignment in language or with existing processes.
Book a free demo to see how Vatix can help your team simplify complex care management.
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