Comments from the Carers
Safe Step’s Covid-19 Tracker provides peace of mind to carers in Greater Manchester.
Lindsey Whittle, registered manager of Alexander Care Home in Bury, is impressed by the digital monitoring she can do using Safe Step’s Covid Tracker. It monitors all areas of service users’ needs, from general deterioration and health (RESTORE-2 feature) to blood oxygen levels. It tracks symptoms, records test results and vaccine administration. Whittle finds that the Tracker heightens basic attention to detail. In her words “It has made us focus on the little things, the subtle differences that we need to be looking for to try to pick up symptoms really early.”
Safe Step’s Covid-19 Tracker App
The COVID-19 tracker app allows care home staff to input information about a resident’s COVID-19 related symptoms into a tracker, which can then be shared directly with the resident’s GP and NHS community response team to ensure that a swift assessment and response can be put in place.
It also means that the NHS can closely monitor the situation in care homes across the locality more easily, thanks to a visual dashboard that displays the information at an aggregate level.
The tracker is already being used in almost 200 homes in the GM area, and will be continuing it’s rollout across the UK this year, starting with Cheshire & Mersey.
Safe Steps has been speaking to the frontline workers using the app, and hearing about their experience. Aaliyah Hussein, Home Manager at Holly Court Care Home in Salford has said: “It’s much easier to see data all in one place, the dates [residents] were positive, the dates they were negative and how many days between tests”.
Connecting Care Homes with GPs
Another feature of our product that has proved popular with carers is their connection with GPs. Whittle says: “The advances, you know contacting GPs through tablets...it’s saved us a LOT of time”. The data dashboard feature provides invaluable information to GPs about their patients’ conditions allowing pro-active management and care for each resident. Sarah Horsfield, Manager of Franklin House in Oldham said: “I think maybe if I was using it when we had our first outbreak things could've been different because it might've linked me in with the services we needed".
