98% of care leaders recently reported experiencing problems with management information, which means that tens of thousands of UK care providers are using inaccurate information or inadequate data with which to run their organisations.
Business intelligence tools help organisations collate thousands of pieces of raw data in one place, turning complex information into manageable insights.
As a social care provider, you may be looking for a software solution that can offer advanced business intelligence for better insight of your current and future operations. Perhaps you’re relying on memory and spreadsheets, or your existing system just doesn’t offer the level of detail you need.
What is business intelligence?
Before understanding just how beneficial advanced business insight is for your organisation, it helps to know what business intelligence is.
Business intelligence (BI) refers to technologies or process that takes your original data and translates it into helpful information and / or visual dashboards. You can then use these summaries to make decisions, eliminate inefficiencies and help you discover your business potential.
Signs your social care organisation may be lacking business intelligence
Now we’ve explained what business intelligence is, you might be wondering whether your organisation could benefit from enhancing its BI. Are you part of the 31% of social care providers that have limited advanced visibility of their business?
A few ways you can work out whether your organisation is missing out on key business insights, is by asking yourself:
- Are you relying on multiple systems to record your data?
- Are you frequently finding errors, manually amending data after initial creation?
- Do you lack visual dashboards that summarise your records?
- Are you frequently working from memory to make decisions because the data just isn’t there?
Why is business intelligence important for social care providers?
Varying care needs, numerous suppliers and changing payroll requirements are just some of the things that make dealing with your care information complex. And managing this data becomes more challenging as demand for high quality, personalised social care increases.
1. Work with more detail
By having advanced business intelligence, you’re able to go beyond just ‘what’ happened to why, where, when and how it happened so you can make sure the same errors do not reoccur.
Let’s say for example, multiple residents have stumbled in your care home. Looking at your records, you can see many occurrences happened in the dining room. You dive deeper and see on four occasions a resident has tripped near the front tables – why?
You can use this knowledge to check the exact area and work out what the reason could be. Is the carpet worn? Is there enough room between tables? Is it happening during particular a meal time such as breakfast, and residents could do with some extra support walking in the morning?
2. Direct the future of your business
Business intelligence allows you to see exactly what areas of your business is thriving, and what areas need some work. And when you have a clearer understanding of your current business operations, you can better direct where your organisation needs to be in the future.
Are you expecting a rush in demand during certain times in the year? Advanced business insight can help you predict what you need before you need it.
You can use business intelligence to see where your staff shortfalls are so you can start recruitment processes earlier and have your team members onboarded before that demand peaks (saving you expensive agency spend).
3. Have the supporting evidence
Accurate recording of all key events is a major factor in social care. This is especially important when evidencing regulation compliance where you need to capture things like how you keep your service safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.
Advanced business intelligence can offer more insight into these key areas so you can see the data that sits behind any face value information that you evidence.
Reporting tools and visual dashboards can give you full visibility of care quality and regulatory compliance. You may be able to drilldown to exactly when or why an incident / concern was observed, how it was escalated and what has been done to rectify it. That way, you show step by step how your teams’ actions are directly supporting compliant care delivery.
58% of care organisations have had to develop their own processes, including spreadsheets, to give themselves advanced visibility of their business.
How business intelligence benefits social care providers
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Centralised, real-time data
At its core, business intelligence comes from bringing all your data together to help you make more informed decisions. This means all your records need to be in one place, being updated in real-time so you always have accurate visibility of your current needs.
And by having a centralised system, you’re able to view your business holistically. You can see how all areas of your organisation impacts on the care you are able to deliver.
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If you can measure it, you can improve it
Advanced business intelligence gives you more opportunities to understand how you are performing so you can work towards keeping it great or making it better. Visual dashboards allow you to initially see summaries of your data before being able to drill down to see exactly where that information has come from.
This could mean you’re better able to see exactly the levels of care quality your service users are getting; how efficient it is and what the blockers are so you can make sure you’re delivering the best care you can.
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Work more proactively
Business intelligence doesn’t just show you what your current needs are. BI also helps you predict what your future needs might be. Software solutions may offer you advanced visibility of your staffing levels, for example.
With this data, you can see exactly how many trained staff you currently have and whether you need to start recruitment now for future surges in demand. Having this enhanced business insight means you can stop working from memory, start working from facts and be more proactive in your processes.
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Make the most of what you have
When you have more visibility of your organisation, you’re better able to make the most of what you have. If you don’t know what your opportunities are, how can you be certain that you’re working to your full potential?
For instance, business intelligence features may help you become more aware of your current occupancy levels. That way, you can work out the number of beds available for use by your local authority compared to how many private spaces you have in your arsenal. Being on top of your availability helps you ensure that accommodation is always ready, and you’re not caught out by void penalties.
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Improve event reporting and safeguarding
Recording all your care business management data in one fully integrated system helps give you complete auditability of care provision for things like injuries, repositioning and medication as digital records updated at the point of care are available in real time.
Business intelligence functionalities can also show you key trends of these incidents so you can actively take steps to rectify specific pain points and evidence the changes you’ve made during an inspection.
Care Cloud is our cloud-based, care business management solution packed with vital business intelligence features for any type of care or support provider.
No matter the size of your care or support organisation, or whether you provide domiciliary, residential, supported living, retirement living or extra care, Care Cloud has got you covered.
