100s
of care workers & locations
25+
audit checklists
8h saved
per week, per branch
Industry
Care at Home | Adult Care
About
Smeaton Healthcare is an award-winning provider of domiciliary care services in the UK, offering care services to adults with dementia, learning disabilities, mental health conditions, physical disabilities and sensory impairments.
Fully regulated by the Care Quality Commission, it provides Care at Home, live-in care, as well as Nursing Agency services to other registered establishments, coordinating hundreds of care staff from its 2 branch offices.
Location
United Kingdom – Devon & Cornwal
Smeaton Healthcare is an award-winning provider of Care at Home services to adults in the UK. It is also a nursing agency, coordinating hundreds of care staff spread across many locations, from their central branch offices.
Supporting people in their own home requires building high levels of trust while providing excellent services every day – and the Covid-19 pandemic has put care providers under more scrutiny and pressure than ever.
With that in mind, Smeaton Healthcare teams conduct regular internal audits to ensure consistent quality of care, compliance with internal standards and procedures, as well as compliance with CQC (Care Quality Commission) requirements.
"Paper-based auditing was a time-consuming and constant task"
This ongoing internal auditing process was mostly paper-based and resource-intensive. Benjamin Wakefield, Executive Managing Director at Smeaton Healthcare, was looking for a better solution:
“Before GoAudits, our auditing process was time-consuming, unorganised and a constant task. We were working on paper audits, completing these every month, scanning and uploading them onto our online system, then manually analysing them to identify trends. The process would take weeks to complete each month and we had to assign several staff members to undertake it.”
Trying the GoAudits system and interacting with the Customer support team, Benjamin was convinced it was the right solution and got onboard within a couple of days. After building custom electronic forms on the self-service portal, Benjamin and his team were ready to immediately start paperless audits.
Digitised audits: from weekly Covid-19 checks to annual Service Improvement plans
The team now use the GoAudits mobile app for various daily, weekly, monthly or yearly audits. As an example, this includes:
- Covid-19 risk assessments, testing audits for staff and service users
- Client Care Notes audits, Service User Equipment checks, Medication audits, infection prevention and PPE checks
- HR/recruitment checks, Staff File audits and performance spot checks
- Various workplace health & safety inspections
- User feedback collection and complaints audits
- Bi-annual Service Improvement and Business continuity plans
- …and much more
Audits are conducted on a user-friendly interface, on computers, phones or tablets – even offline. Capturing and sharing information is now much faster. Benjamin particularly highlighted the value brought by the mobile app:
“My team can now undertake real-time audits based on evidence found. Using the mobile app, they can attend a site and take photographic evidence of any risks or hazards, and clearly annotate them within the app. This is something CQC will appreciate!”
"We are saving 8 hours a week, per branch - that's an entire day in the office!"
The main benefit that the team immediately noticed is the significant time savings, which allowed them to better allocate resources and focus on care rather than paperwork. “Since using GoAudits, we have been able to save so much time and money for our auditing process. The tool allowed us to complete tasks in a matter of minutes with one dedicated person, where previously it required several staff over several days,” says Benjamin.
In today’s context where care providers are under pressure to deliver ever more with less resources, such efficiencies are particularly timely. Benjamin estimates the savings at Smeaton: “We are saving a total of 8 hours a week, per branch – that’s an entire day in the office! As a result, we’ve been able to work more efficiently in the office and put more focus into our service users.”
Since using GoAudits, we have been able to save so much time and money for our auditing process. We have saved a total of 8 hours a week, per branch – that’s an entire day in the office!
My team can now undertake real-time audits, take photographic evidence of any risks or hazards and clearly annotate them within the app, instantly generating comprehensive reports. This is something CQC will appreciate!
Benjamin Wakefield
Executive Managing Director
Smeaton Healthcare
"Scores and comprehensive reports give visibility on our progression of care quality"
After completing an audit, the user can instantly generate a comprehensive PDF report, including automated scoring and past audit results. The improved visibility into the operations and auditing process allowed the team to better plan service improvements. Benjamin highlights how quantified scores made a difference at Smeaton Healthcare:
“The GoAudits system automatically grades our audits, which we didn’t have when working on paper forms. The system reports are very detailed and comprehensive, including an analysis of trends. This allows us to compare scores to previous audits, and clearly identify trends and shortfalls in our auditing process. Overall, we get a view our progression of quality in care.”
Embedding audits into daily operations for long-term improvements
The management team realised that GoAudits is a great tool to manage and motivate teams to drive standards and quality improvements across the organisation. Benjamin explains:
“At the touch of a button I am able to see clearly how my branches are doing, any audits that have been missed and the ability to reward our teams because I can see their performance in one place. As a result, our scores have been steadily rising. We are now able to ensure audits are no longer missed or forgotten by receiving reminders from GoAudits, improving our overall performance.”
Benjamin and his team were also impressed with the easy implementation and responsive GoAudits customer service: “I will definitely recommend GoAudits – not only because of the great product that made such a difference for us, but also because of the outstanding 24/7 support we have received. I am always responded to in a timely manner, no matter what time of day it is.”
Digital audit forms and instant reports
The GoAudits audit and inspections app and software is simple to setup and use in any care setting:
- Easily setup custom electronic forms, based on our pre-approved templates or using your existing ones. GoAudits support teams can help with this!
- Schedule and assign regular audits for your team members, so that nothing is forgotten
- Staff can easily audit on a user-friendly app, on any computer or mobile device – capturing photos, notes and issues/risks that need action.
- Instant reports, smart dashboards and all information securely stored online: analyse trends, see pending actions, retrieve past audits and evidence anytime
- Provide proof of robust governance, compliance and high standards at the next CQC inspection.
Learn more about the GoAudits auditing app and software for healthcare providers, or contact us for a free trial and demo.
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