Case Studies

Elmswood Retirement Village

Based in Christchurch, Elmswood Retirement Village provides a range of retirement lifestyle packages including Villas, Serviced Apartments, Studios, Resthome, Hospital Level Care and Respite Care (short term). The primary system then was paper-based and was effective at that point in time, but were experiencing increasing challenges as the business grew. The opportunity then arose to evaluate a range of resident management systems, and ultimately, VCare was selected. Elmswood utilises VCare to the fullest through the use of assessments, charts, observations, progress notes, reviews, evaluations and much more.

The Challenges

Elmswood’s business has grown steadily over the last few years. Letitia Welsford, General Manager for Elmswood, said that despite their existing manual solutions being effective, they were experiencing increasing challenges as the organisation grew. ”Looking forward, we had plans to develop a hospital wing and knew that the old system had expired.” She adds “A more efficient electronic system needed to be implemented that could easily handle the rapid growth of the business.”

The Solution

Elmswood Retirement Village implemented the VCare solution in mid-2013; it was an efficient and organised transition experience. “The implementation of the VCare solution at Elmswood was quite smooth.”

The most noticeable benefits for Elmswood are that VCare ensures accurate records are updated by having a single point of data entry. Another advantage that VCare brings to Elmswood is the efficient and accurate VCare billing and receipting processes. Julia Mead, Facility Manager for Elmswood, mentioned that a significant advantage with VCare is being able to access resident information from anywhere. “VCare Any-ware is brilliant, and we have just set up progress notes templates. Mostly for Any-ware it’s for progress notes and charts, whether it’s a turning chart or fluid chart.”

The Results

A lot more recording happens in VCare. “A lot more recording happens, we can look at it everywhere, I don’t know how we would have the registered nurses on the weekend shift who are covering both here and Fendalton. Someone could ring up and say “Brittany’s looking unwell” and the RN could look up VCare and they have everything at their fingertips. I don’t know how we would do it otherwise. They would have to go to the facility in person. So, a lot more gets recorded, and it’s much easier to have access to it.”

Julia commented on the collaborative work that VCare and Elmswood do together. Letitia commented on the excellent support Elmswood receives from the VCare team. If there is ever an issue, they make it a priority and get it resolved as soon as they can. “Technical support has always worked well, if we find an error they get onto it.”