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Thank you, Gillian, for all your support. The Healthcare Compliance Solutions Ltd (HCSL) aged care program gives a structured clear pathway through the obstacle course of Certification.

The HSCL program was extremely user friendly and appears very nicely laid out and easy to locate care plans and patient’s information. The general feedback from the staff has been positive.

The policies and procedures were easy to follow, and well presented. We appreciated how thorough these policies were, and how much work had gone into developing them.

We all felt well supported throughout, and it was so nice knowing that you were on the end of the phone/email or zoom. Even when we met in person, you were incredibly positive and encouraging, thank you!

We would recommend this system to anyone needing assistance with the challenge that is Certification.

Barbara Adams

Board Chair-person /Acting Manager.

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Celebrating the COVID-19 vaccination

The following is contributed by Infection Prevention and Control Consultant (RN) Ruth Barrett –

I am 61 years old, a practicing nurse and recently I had a little celebration. I received my 2nd COVID-19 vaccination from a lovely team in Ashburton Hospital in Canterbury.

I feel like celebrating because I have played a small part towards helping New Zealand (and the world) fight this pandemic and get it under control. By having the vaccine, I am helping to keep my whanau and friends safe from catching the virus from me if I get infected, especially if I don’t have any symptoms. It also means I am happier to continue to look after vulnerable people, knowing I won’t be passing on the virus. It is reassuring to know that the vaccine will stop me getting really sick and ending up in hospital or worse. So, if we do have another large outbreak, my hospital bed can go to someone else.

We are lucky in New Zealand to have access to a vaccine that is very safe and very effective, and recent reports show that it is also works against the new variants that are out there.

I was a little nervous about getting the second dose and how I would feel afterwards. Although I have the influenza vaccine every year without any side effects, this time I needed two jabs. But in the end it was all good – I only needed two paracetamols about 6 hours later, had a good sleep, and then, apart from a sore arm for a day and a half, I felt fine.

Of course, I know that vaccinations are not the only thing that keeps us safe – all our public health measures and infection prevention and control activities are just as important. But if you are a healthcare worker, a parent, a partner, a friend, a child, a sibling, a grandchild or other, you can make a difference in your community by having the COVID-19 vaccine.

Ruth Barratt RN, BSc, MAdvPrac (Hons), CICP-E

Infection Prevention and Control Consultant

Christchurch, New Zealand

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Avoiding Personal Grievance claims

One thing new and seasoned managers often fear is having a staff member raise a personal grievance against them.  We asked Rainey Collins Law Associate Jaenine Badenhorst for some ideas to support management avoid personal grievances.  The following advice was the response:

We would recommend that you do these key things to help avoid a personal grievance being raised against you/your business. 

  1. The first key thing to do is to hire the right candidate in the first instance. (Yes, we know that isn’t always easy)!  You want to make sure you have a robust interview and reference checking system in place.  You could also consider your existing team meeting the candidate to make sure there is a good personality fit.  There is also the possibility of a work trial or probation period, depending on the circumstances.

2.   Have a written employment agreement which clearly sets out the parties expectations (for instance about work hours, flexibility, responsibilities, reporting lines, raising problems, and so on).  It is helpful for these matters to be discussed beforehand, so that everyone is on the same page.  This helps to avoid confusion and misunderstandings.  Employee manuals can also be very helpful to cover more detailed rules and guidelines (for example internet use, health and safety, bullying and harassment, etc.).

3.   Keep accurate employee records and files.  This should cover hours worked, leave taken, superannuation or other agreed deductions, discussion around various work conditions and so on.  The employee file should also cover any issues with performance or misconduct (detailing fair processes followed, and outcomes reached). 

4.   Act in good faith towards each other (by being honest and approachable; as well as open and communicative).  Being a good employer, and having a relationship with employees where they feel free to raise issues early on is the best way to resolve problems before they turn into formal grievances.  Regular catch-ups (like weekly or monthly meetings) is a good way of checking in with employees, and letting them know if there are any issues with their conduct or performance. 

5.   Knowing your obligations around the law and the contract you have with your employee is also very important.  This way you are less likely to cause issues which will turn into grievances.  If you are unsure of your obligations, you should seek professional advice. 

Thanks Jaenine, we hope that helps managers of services who might be struggling with this issue. Following due process and keeping accurate records will also support why you have made decisions and how.  Even with the best processes in place, sometimes you cannot completing avoid a grievance but follow professional advice and you can certainly minimise risk of a claim against you or your organisation.

There will be further articles published here supplied by Rainey Collins Law in relation to supporting your employment processes.

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Aged care going digital a raging success!

Receiving emails from our clients who have made the transition from paper-based to digital give us a lot of satisfaction. One provider who had been under DHB monitoring after an audit that didn’t achieve as well as they could have said they saved $100,000 after implementing the HCSL programme.  They had been spending a lot of time researching, writing and submitting corrective actions to audit findings for quite some time.  This doesn’t happen anymore. They have no findings!

Comments which reflect how very easy they found the process of transition reinforce our concept of where possible we opt for one click instead of two in our design processes.  Some client had used other digital packages in the past which they described as cumbersome and clumsy.  Those packages didn’t integrate with other packages so to find all the information needed, staff had to use multiple sources of information.  This made some reluctant to try something new.  Arriving on site at a client one day Gillian was taken to meet two care staff.  Both were very excited to tell her how due to them both having dyslexia, neither had been able to write their own notes before.  Now with the simplicity combined with spell-check in the digital progress notes, they were able to write their own notes.

The co-design of solutions with our clients maintains the philosophy of simplicity being as easy to use as a basic mobile phone or Facebook.

Early on we identified inequity between the resources available to corporate owned multi-site providers and independently or small group owned aged care services. This inequity, in conjunction with shortages of staff led us to work alongside aged care, retirement village and community services to design a one-stop-shop programme and in 2015 HCSL aged care software  went LIVE.  It has continued to be developed since then to a fully cloud based solution.

Clients said they’d like everything in one place. Despite there being other options we were continually pressured to create a NZ specific product that supports not only benchmarking, quality and risk but also all aspects of providing care while incorporating compliance throughout each aspect of the programme.

The integration with Medi-map medication administration systems will further streamline access to resident care information for remote assessment and treatment planning.  More integrations are underway currently to support as seamless flow of resident information regardless of where those needing information to provide care are situated. Clinical records are now accessible and able to be updated from anywhere with an internet / wi-fi connection.

Having been appointed as the step-in temporary manager at Rosewood Resthome and Hospital during the COVID-19 outbreak, Gillian Robinson was able to implement HCSL cloud-based software for telehealth support.  This programme was literally set up overnight and being used by staff with no training as there simply wasn’t time.  The great test for the system was to note the staff were able to successfully use the digital online care-planning and progress notes without any training other than to be supplied their login.  The uploading of a photograph of a wound for the doctor to review remotely was able to done easily after watching the 5 minute instructional video on ‘how to’.

Community, Disability services and mental health residential services along with retirement villages throughout NZ are now enjoying efficient cloud based records.  To find out how you can use this ready to use, NZ specific programme contact us.

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Governing Boards and Diversity

Boards of any organisation should be well placed to provide strong and transparent governance. This means the members of the board all need to understand the organisation structure, strategy, finances, client base, market changes and employees for the context in which they are operating.  This includes knowledge of behaviours, culture and ethics. The behaviours of all organisational board members gets reflected in employees to set the culture within the workplace which is experienced by the clients and those advocating for them, their family/whanau and friends.

The skill of judgement is necessary for board members to base decision-making on a set of agreed standards or a clearly defined constitution, organisation vision/mission or philosophy.   To have a progressive Board, there is the need to recruit board members with greater skills than already exist within the board. This ensures progressive diversity of thinking and culture based on more than gender and ethnicity.  A greater diversity is needed to also include creativity, innovation, current commercial practice knowledge, information givers and information seekers to increase depth of conversation and concepts being explored.  The Board member profile could do well to include these attributes, abilities and skills. Collectively they need to advance the organisation purpose, vision/mission or philosophy in a way that meets client current and future needs.

Boards are not the place for the faint-hearted or those at the end of career who simply ‘want to give back’ who may base todays decisions on yesterday outdated models.  Diversity will become a more visible part of boards with the introduction of the new Health and Disability Service Standards later this year.  While they are currently in draft, it seems clear the final version will require more diversity within boards. This will include increased desire for Maori representation and inclusion on Boards.  As American diversity advocate and activist Verna Meyers says, “Diversity is being invited to the party, inclusion is being asked to dance”.

If Maori representation isn’t part of your board make-up, it may be advantageous to look at forming relationships with local Iwi who fit the attributes needed to fit your board member profile. All Board members will need to be available, ethics driven, commercially aware and able to contribute.  The Board Chair will need to show these same attributes and also provide consistent innovative, clearly communicated strategic leadership.  The Board as a whole will also need to be agile in their response to unplanned events.  2020 and the emergence of COVID-19 reminded us of this.  It appears 2021 and into the foreseeable future will also present the need for agile thinking and innovation. I suggest now is the right time to review how your board is made up and how effectively they perform.  How can this be improved in your organisation?  

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