The first wave of COVID19 put domiciliary care services under extreme pressure. Service users either couldn’t or were unwilling to go into residential care. The numbers of people needing care in their own home went up. At the same time brokers and care providers had to manage volatile staffing arrangements, as staff either became infected or had to isolate.
The coming months will likely stretch the system close to breaking point. The question is what can be done now to make the system more resilient and better able to cope with high and unpredictable demand? What options are there to minimise the stress and risk of burnout?
Cloud-Based Care Brokerage
One thing that brokerage teams could do almost immediately is to move the care brokerage system onto a secure cloud-based platform such as Ulysses eBrokerage. This would cut out the spreadsheets, emails and phone calls that have been keeping the process going to date in many areas.
Instead, there would be a simple online marketplace. Brokers post new packages online and approved providers get an automated notification. Details of the package including a map location can be viewed on any device. Providers can then quickly and seamlessly bid for the packages they are able to fulfil.
Brokers award the package and track delivery from within the Ulysses eBrokerage platform – removing even more manual steps from the process. There’s even the option (controlled by brokerage teams) for providers to trade individual care packages that have become uneconomic because there are no longer other care users nearby.
There’s Still Time to Act
The Ulysses eBrokerage platform can be procured quickly through the G-Cloud 12 Framework. Installation and training can take as little as 14 days.