Shortage of staff, unachievable schedules and lack of time to care are constant themes in homecare. The graph below is taken from a team in a large community care provider and it shows how Procomp optimisation software enables the same work to be handled by fewer workers. What it doesn’t show is how it also improves quality and staff satisfaction.
It was initially planned that Procomp optimisation software would be used for a 4 week pilot period, but after three weeks we were requested to extend the pilot to six weeks. Optimisation enabled the same work to be handled with 15% fewer staff, which pleased management, yet it was the staff who wanted the pilot to continue; paradoxically, despite handling more work, staff were less rushed, and a sense of order had been brought to the usually chaotic environment. Workloads were more balanced, schedules included realistic time for travelling, leaving carers with enough time to be with clients, and Procomp’s powerful artificial intelligence which, like a chess grandmaster, always plans multiple moves ahead had managed to make sense of things and bring order out of the chaos – This showed as continuity of care was almost perfect; Procomp’s software identified the preferred carer for each client and maintained continuity with very few exceptions.
After the pilot ended things went back to how they were before; more staff were needed in the team and the rush and chaos returned. Staff and management wanted to get optimisation back into use.
When Procomp optimisation was brought back into continuous use the benefits quickly returned. With the team’s added experience with optimisation, they were able to handle the same workload with 20% fewer staff. Effort needed for planning was also drastically reduced; what used to be a full-time and hectic job for two people became a part-time job for one.
In a previous blog post we wrote about how this seemingly impossible task was achieved:
“How on earth did you manage to achieve this?”: How Procomp succeeded with homecare optimisation
