Daily use of Architecture in your organisation

How many carers are using the system in the company?

There are three administrators and we have about ten to twenty carers when we are running at capacity. We do a lot of one-to-one packages over long hours rather than a lot of short visits in a day.

User experience and accessibility

How intuitive and user-friendly is Architecture for caregivers and for admin staff?

The carer app is very user friendly. Like all technology in your business, it’s all about good adoption processes and that initial learning curve, remembering where things are in the system and remembering how you do everything. So, yes, it’s very straightforward.

The admin app gets better the more you use it, but I think that’s the case for pretty much any admin software. Once you know your way around it, it’s great. I probably did everyone’s head in because I was asking the same questions all the time. And then one day it just clicked!

Have you got any examples of how Architecture has simplified your daily tasks?

The day-to-day notes are a lot easier. Rather than having to do one bulk upload, we are just able to organise our notes by tasks. I can just go in on the app and see what’s been done, and what’s still left to do. I think for the carers as well, when I’ve been on shift, it’s just been super-easy to write a quick note when you’re sitting down for five minutes or having a break, you can write something up quickly and know that that’s done and in the system for people to find easily.

Our hourly checks are much easier too. We were doing hourly checks on one of our clients and the task system worked well because I didn’t have to dig through the notes to find if tasks had been done. I can just look at the outstanding checks, on the outstanding tasks.

AI

How are you using ‘Jack’ – the AI assistant, not Jack the owner?!

AI is something very new for me. That’s AI in general, rather than just Architecture! But I’m getting there with AI and I really like that element of it. I really like the fact that when I’m doing the rotas and so on, it’s learning all the time. There’s one client in particular where I don’t actually have to do their rota now because the AI in Architecture does it all for me. The rota plans two carers, one who works Mondays to Thursday, the other working Friday to Sunday. AI ‘Jack’ does it all for me in a couple of seconds.

I don’t have to do their rota now because the AI system does it all for me.

Platform depth

What other features would you highlight on the platform?

I use the e-learning. It’s great because I don’t have to upload everything. It automatically uploads to each carer’s Architecture. Device-wise, it works brilliantly on the tablets that we have, and it works fine on the carers’ phones and the clients’ phones as well.

Customisation and scalability

How customisable is Architecture and have you needed to customise it in any way to fit in with your working practices?

They’ve just released Compliance 365 for us to add custom audits and then have the system rate them, automatically calculating whether we’ve passed or failed that audit.

I’ve found that they’ve incorporated how we do things really well. So, initially there wasn’t an instant reporting aspect in the app, and I worked with the company to build one for the system and it works brilliantly for us.

I’m talking to them now about creating an audit centre because we do all our audits through the custom forms at the moment. They’ve also just released Compliance 365 for us to add custom audits and then have the system rate them, automatically calculating whether we’ve passed or failed that audit.

Communication and coordination

How does Architecture facilitate communication between caregivers, clients, and others? And can you provide an example of where it’s improved coordination and response times?

You can just send a message through the app, and the staff can send signals if they’re in trouble. They can send an emergency alert and it’ll come through to all three admin app holders. You can create secure, controlled groups on Architecture too. It’s much safer and professional than using WhatsApp.

The custom groups is a great new feature. And there’s also now a bulletin board and handover functions. So, I can do a bulletin board post and that will be accessible immediately to all the carers. And then the handovers on each client are accessible to whoever needs them. If you just need to hand over one bit of information, I can just do a handover rather than the staff having to read through a massive paragraph.

I can  just highlight important information, or if I get a phone call to say that that client’s got an appointment on this date, I can put it on the handover note on the system. Easy.

Compliance and reporting

How does Architecture ensure that compliance with regulations and standards is improved and have you got an example from your experience?

From the visit side of things, it’s really good because I can see when staff have or haven’t clocked in, I’m able to check where that staff member is. So, if they’re not with the client, I can look into it further to resolve things. The new individual audit functionality will make compliance even better.

Scheduling and time management

How effective is Architecture in managing caregiver schedules and tracking time? Can you describe a scenario where it has significantly reduced scheduling conflicts?

Architecture scheduling is really, really easy to use and it’s actually been really, really helpful too because it means that staff can’t accidentally be booked onto 24-hour shifts, which we used to get quite a lot.

I do four weekly rotas, so week one, week two, week three, week four, and then it just restarts.

Architecture deals with complex organising in seconds.

But when I was first building those rotas, there was a couple of times where a staff member would come off a night shift and then be on a day shift, or be on a day shift and go onto a night shift until you get the pattern sorted.

Architecture tells you that you’ve scheduled a staff member for, say, 24 hours or a back-to-back shift, or they can’t work, or you’ve already scheduled them with another client so they then can’t work with this client at that time because it conflicts with another client. It deals with complex organising in seconds.

Client and caregiver feedback

How does Architecture collect and use feedback from clients and caregivers?

I always say to staff, if they get stuck, email Health Automated through the app, which they’ve always done and it’s always been sorted out or raised further when needed.

With regards to client feedback, I get a lot of emergency respite clients, so I always encourage them to try and use the client app because it means that they can rate our carers and rate our services.

The POA apps have actually been used really well. I give access to all the social workers and they really like it. They really like the fact that they can access it too. The other feedback I’ve had from social workers is that on their work phones, nine times out of ten they can’t download apps. So, it would be good for them to have a web version of the POA app. With the admin app, I have a web version and an app version. I’m sure Architecture will find an answer to this too!

I give access to all the social workers and the social workers really like it.

Data security and privacy

Are you happy with the levels that Architecture have set?

Yes, really happy. It has all been good.

Training and support

What has your experience been so far?

Every time we have an issue or need support, I can drop them a message or send a support email and it’s always responded to and dealt with promptly – all from inside the system.

Every time we need support, it’s always responded to and dealt with promptly – all from inside the system.

ROI

You’ve been using Architecture for some time. What do you think the return on investment has been like for your business?

When we are really busy, the ROI is significant, it’s great. The feedback we’re getting from social workers and from families (especially people who come in on emergency respites) is really great so in that respect, the investment is also very valuable. When social workers are dealing with an emergency around safe-guarding they haven’t always got time to ring staff to find out what’s going on because it takes so long to get information back from departments. So them having access to the POA app is saving them a lot of time.

It’s worth its weight in gold! They can just go in and get the information they need, instantly.

We’re quite quiet at the moment, but our monthly subscription is very low, so it’s not a problem. Long term, it’s a great investment. We’re focusing on our dom care side of things right now and I know that as soon as that starts growing, the software, once again, will be worth its weight in gold from the route planning to the scheduling to the family apps, to the client apps to the POA apps. When we are back to 20 carers out there with 100 clients, it will absolutely be worth its weight in gold. Well, it is worth its weight in gold anyway!