Help at Home is a large private sector organisation whose domiciliary service provides care and support to over 1200 older and vulnerable, commissioned by 3 Local Authorities. Having introduced electronic monitoring and upgraded their scheduling system, managers were keen to utilise this wealth of data to analyse and identify further efficiencies and qualitative improvements which could be achieved.
OptiCare was commissioned to do a range of work during 2010 which involved modeling potential changes to staff pay and conditions, measuring the cost of specific quality improvements to the service and identifying the financial benefits which optimisation would deliver. These are described below:
Modelling change
Changing the remuneration arrangement for car mileage payments so that Care Workers were paid for every mile rather than every visit. The objective of this change was to reward staff more fairly but needed to be a cost neutral exercise.
Amalgamating two teams which previously had been managed separately to identify financial savings and staff efficiencies.
Cost of quality improvements
Quantifying the increase in organisational costs as a result of introducing precisely calculated travel times between visits in a Care Workers schedule.
Optimisation savings
Identifying the level of savings which could be achieved by optimising Care Worker schedules through reduced mileage.
Quantifying the additional time which could be utilized for care provision through reducing travel time as a result of optimised care schedules
In every area of the work, OptiCare were able to demonstrate major savings, efficiencies and significant improvements in understanding the effect of potential change.
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