Our 2019 client outcomes report demonstrates that live-in care supports people to maximise their quality of life.
As part of our overall commitment to quality, we take time each year to collate and thematically analyse client incident data to better understand clients’ conditions, identify risk, assess the effectiveness of The Good Care Group care strategies and interventions, and identify opportunities for further improvement.
We also seek to benchmark health outcomes against alternative care provisions in order to demonstrate the comparative benefits of live-in care. In 2019 we were able to demonstrate positive outcomes, by focussing on these particular areas.
Managing the risk of falls
In England alone, 30% of people over the age of 65 fall at least once per year; for those 80 and over it’s 50%. By comparison, 7.26% of The Good Care Group clients aged 65 and over fell at least once, and only 6.18% of our clients aged 80 and over fell at least once throughout the year of 2019. Overall we have observed a 13.4% year on year reduction in the number of falls at The Good Care Group.
Reducing falls rates through targeted intervention
Through personalised falls management plans and one to one care, clients at The Good Care Group experience significantly fewer serious injuries from falls, when compared to care homes. Specifically, our clients are 7 times less likely to suffer a serious injury as a result of a fall than residents living in care homes.
We carried out a 3-month intensive falls prevention project led by the in-house Occupational Therapist, with a cohort of clients identified as ‘frequent fallers’. Compared to before the programme clients fell on average 0.67 fewer times a month when involved in the falls prevention programme. This marks an average of 46.85% fewer falls.
Reducing incidence of urinary tract infections
Through the introduction of enhanced training and equipment to enable professional carers to take vital signs measurements and perform urinalysis tests, we made 12% improvement in the average number of UTIs diagnosed year on year (2018 – 2019).
Professional carers are equipped to provide a faster, better quality of information to GPs, enabling swifter diagnosis and treatment at home, avoiding unnecessary emergency interventions and hospital admissions. 82% of UTIs (excluding clients where a sample cannot be obtained) were diagnosed at home using urinalysis kits in 2019.
Preventing pressure sores through one to one care
Through one to one professional care, continual evaluation and service development, we continue to maintain low pressure sore rates and widen the gap between our rates and those of other care settings. Clients at The Good Care Group are 9 times less likely to acquire a pressure sore than they are in a care home, and 3 times less likely than in hospital.
Reducing chest infections through proactive monitoring
Following focussed efforts the average monthly chest infection admissions rate improved 28% year on year. The Good Care Group has partnered with an award-winning health technology company, Feebris. The partnership is the first of its kind in the UK and uses AI-powered technology to monitor vital signs using a suite of handheld devices. The 3-month pilot launched in January 2020 and is designed to detect early signs of respiratory illnesses such as chest infections.
Palliative care; enabling people to spend their last days as comfortably as possible at home
Following a review of the end of life pathway, and emphasis on an honest and open cultural approach, we have increased the number of clients with an end of life care plan in place at the time of their death by 24%.
For people over the age of 85, the percentage of people in the general population who die at home is low at just 16.4%. At The Good Care Group, with our specialist end of life pathways and through professional one to one care, we enable 77.17% of clients over the age of 85 to die at home in their preferred place, which is almost 5 times higher than the general population.
Managing medication safely
Through the introduction of an electronic medication administration record (eMAR), we are able to manage medications more safely than ever. Medication administration error rates are 22.3% in care homes, compared to 3.28% at The Good Care Group.
Reducing the use of antipsychotic medication
The prescription of antipsychotic medications has been increasingly challenged over the last 10-15 years as these drugs have been shown to be harmful to people with dementia, and are thought to often be prescribed unnecessarily (Banerjee, 2009). Through professional and specialist one to one care of clients at TGCG, clients are 4 times less likely to be prescribed antipsychotic medication than care home residents.
If you’d like to find out more about The Good Care Group’s live-in care services, please contact our friendly team.
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