The bigger picture of Care consumables budget management with positive outcomes for all.
Eddy Fishwick, Chairman of award-winning supplier CareHomeLife, discusses how replacing your medical, housekeeping and laundry consumables with fewer, but more effective products and professional systems, allows your care home to do much more, much better with a whole lot less.
Dignity and comfort of those in care
We’re all too aware that it remains a challenging time for the UK’s 18,000+ nursing and care homes. Whilst occupancy rates have been predicted to quickly recover to pre-pandemic levels, covid remains an ongoing threat affecting residents, families and staffing alike. This all serves to highlight the importance for great quality care homes who can safely look after our dependant loved ones.
The dignity and comfort of those in care is vital and our company CareHomeLife exists to support care homes in their quest to provide that. Everyone at CareHomeLife works hard to understand the challenges facing care homes, and the burning issues of today as we navigate our way out of the pandemic. As recent recipients of two Care Sector Supplier Awards – one for Multi-Channel Supplier and another in the all-important Infection Prevention & Cleaning category – it gives me great pleasure to share with this incredible and selfless industry an insight into how, with a sprinkling of innovation and guidance from helpful experts, care homes can achieve breakthrough performance in medical, cleaning and laundry.
Powerful first-time results can be accomplished, adding real value to the care environment with great advantages for everyone involved; the safest, most hygienic surroundings for residents to live in, savings for staff in time and effort, whilst reducing care supply costs and the impact on the planet!
Care consumables spend
Balancing your care home’s budget is integral to success, and whilst the biggest overhead is the workforce, managing spend on day-to-day supplies requires close attention.
Typically, that first port of call for homes looking to make those much-needed savings has been searching for the lowest prices available in the market. However taking a more holistic approach and considering an alternative perspective of ‘Total Operating Value’ will bring the greatest financial benefit to an organisation.
This looks at the bigger picture of not just ‘piece price’, but overall expenditure. Whilst saving money on consumption of product (through high performance and efficiencies), this method also makes a positive impact to other expenditure, such as lowering water and energy consumption, reducing the need to rewash and eliminating waste. This is proven time and again to be a much more sustainable means of reducing spend and introducing efficiencies without conceding product integrity. In most cases new medical and housekeeping regimes will not only save time and money, but also improve on current product performance and results.
Confidence in quality means confidence in care
As the saying goes, ‘you don’t know, what you don’t know.’ Care homes need to know that there is a better alternative out there for the effective management of IPC. CareHomeLife’s supply chain is rich in world-class manufacturers. One of our trusted partners, P&G Professional, really ‘lead the pack’ when it comes to cleaning and laundry, and that’s why they are an integral part of our cleaning proposition. Effective protocols increase confidence in use and that’s why all our systems are reinforced by extensive training and ongoing support from our team of helpful experts.
Simplify and save without compromising quality
Housekeeping and Kitchen Professional System
Our award-winning cleaning proposition is uniquely beneficial to care homes due to a streamlined, high performing product range which reduces waste in addition to introducing monetary and operational efficiencies.
The chemicals are designed to deliver a one stage cleaning process. This means your home needs fewer products to tackle cleaning, disinfection and odour control effectively. Evidence tells us that the selection we recommend really is the powerhouse of cleaning chemicals, having rapid contact times from as little as 15 seconds for killing viruses and bacteria, far quicker and safer than more traditional cleaning products such as bleach. The products are backed with controlled dosing, extensive support, ongoing innovation, and hands-on training, focused on the needs of individual care homes.
“Our Manager at Overton House Margaret Walker and the team were nominated and then went on to win the local Covid healthcare heroes award. We acknowledged in our nomination that HICA had recently partnered with CareHomeLife to use P&G products and we considered that a positive aspect of our 15 months working through these very difficult times. We are proud of our achievement!”
Overton House, HICA Group
Reducing waste, water and energy
Professional Laundry System
We all know that laundry places a significant demand on resources within a care home, more so if the products being used are ineffective. Productivity, linen quality, and the life of machines all become compromised due to repeat washing and ironing. Imagine then a laundry system that has been designed with primary consideration for fragile skin, the necessity for first-time stain removal, combined with disinfection at low wash temperatures and shorter wash cycles. All this ensures better care of resident laundry, combined with significant long-term utility savings.
Implementation of our Professional Laundry System, coupled with ongoing support, typically reduces a care home’s expenditure by 10-25%. In a recent trial its implementation saved a care home estate £1,500 per site per annum on water and energy through washing at lower temperatures, on shorter cycles and through first pass results removing the need for rewashing.
“We’ve been using CareHomeLife for our medical and cleaning products for some time now and our staff have every faith in the consistent quality plus we’ve been supported with great training over the years. The ongoing service we get has been nothing short of excellent and I don’t use that term lightly. I’d recommend any home to take up the offer of a review to find out what’s right for them. We’ve never looked back.”
Director, Hillcroft Homes.
Safe in our hands
It’s understandable that a care home might be reluctant to make changes to the products they’re used to. Having confidence in products and how they’re used is incredibly important, and that’s why we’re always by our customer’s side offering a helping hand with training and ongoing service support. This starts with initial audits and pre-install assessments and continues through to transitional support and monitoring ongoing monthly usage – ensuring all our care home customers get the best possible value and experience.
