Benefits of Remote Monitoring in Residential Care Homes

Remote monitoring is the ability for residential care homes to be aware of their patients without physically needing to be with them. It doesn’t just cover visual monitoring like cameras but can also include equipment that detects falls, movement sensors for beds and chairs as well as activity and behaviour tracking to identify trends.

It’s not about studying your patients every move but more about being vigilant with their monitoring and having a digital record which could be useful for their future or current care. Similarly, the role of digital monitoring is not to replace care teams but to facilitate them in their jobs and lighten their workloads. 

Remote monitoring is growing in popularity within residential care homes because of the fact that care teams are under increasing pressure to deliver. Whether it’s the number of patients they’re caring for, the variety of care they need to administer, the admin pressures to stay ahead of the audit trail or something else, remote monitoring is in place to protect staff welfare as much as their patients. Staffing pressures can mean that there’s fewer eyes on patients than previously and with care only becoming more complex as people live longer and come into residential homes later, there’s more of a need for early intervention and prevention.

But there’s more to care monitoring than that. Read on to find out how care monitoring can support resident safety, reassure families, aid leadership teams and more.  

Improving Resident Safety

Remote monitoring is a non-invasive way of allowing patients freedom and autonomy while keeping their safety a top priority. It includes things like fall detection, movement monitoring, alerts for unusual activity or inactivity but can also extend to environmental monitoring such as shifts in temperature and air quality.  

Supporting Early Intervention and Proactive Care

The complexities of care can leave teams feeling stretched to cater for the needs of all their patients and stay on top of would-be accidents. Remote care monitoring does a lot of the heavy lifting and can help teams identify subtle behaviour or routine shifts. This helps to reduce avoidable incidents and possible hospital admissions, allowing care providers to act sooner and with more confidence.  

Enhancing Quality of Life and Independence

A major concern for residential care homes who have not yet implemented remote monitoring is the fear that it feels less genuine, reduces the need for staff and is invasive to patients. However, remote monitoring still requires teams and also gives patience more autonomy. Not only that, it gives them safer independence that still looks out for their dignity and respects their personal choice. There’s also the possibility that remote monitoring can afford patients fewer unnecessary checks and interruptions. 

Reducing Pressure on Care Teams

Caring can often be a challenging and demanding job which is where remote monitoring offers support. For one, it can reduce the cognitive load on care teams contributing to a healthier overall wellbeing and them being on top of incidents before they happen or directly as they do. It helps them to prioritise their days, ensuring everyone gets what they need when they need it, in a more proactive and timely manner.  

Benefits of Managers and Leadership Teams

As a result of supporting patient safety and giving care teams an extra pair of eyes, care home management and leadership teams benefit. It not only gives you more confidence in your safety oversight and greater visibility over risks and trends but also records instances to give care home leaders evidence to support inspections, audits and governance.  

Reassurance for Families and Loved Ones

With remote monitoring in your residential care home, families get peace of mind and confidence that their loved ones are well looked after and are receiving proactive care.  

As with any technology, it’s important to gain consent and follow the correct storage of data in line with GDPR. This not only protects your patients but also protects you and your staff.

Remote monitoring should be a choice and patients should be given an option to opt-in to its use when they arrive, or as you implement it - whichever comes first.  

It’s also worth remembering that remote monitoring exists as a tool to facilitate your teams to do their work better, not to replace them. Keeping this top of mind will help you to design a way of working that benefits everyone. 

So, what should you actually look for in a remote monitoring system? Firstly, look for solutions which are designed for residential care environments. That means you’ll be fully supported with a software that understands unique residential care needs. Next, look for care management systems that integrate with any existing software you have to ensure a synced up system.  

Beyond that, a strong data security policy and GDPR system are a must – but the good news is that these days, systems will come with these as standard. And then finally, consider how alerts are processed in the system. You want something with clear alerts but not constant noise which is not only distracting but also makes it more difficult to understand when action needs to be taken.

Explore how remote monitoring can enhance safety, support independence, and strengthen confidence in care.