Since opening in 1984, St Michael’s Hospice has been providing the highest quality care to the local community in Herefordshire. Following a redevelopment in 2016 and a dramatic growth in operating capacity, the hospice engaged with StartSafe to systemise and standardise their extensive Health and Safety processes across their operation.

A department’s story

The benefits of StartSafe can be seen throughout numerous departments including Health & Safety where the process of reporting accidents and emergencies has been simplified and hygiene standards are ensured to be maintained at optimum levels. The Vehicle Management Department has been particularly successful in managing their fleet’s daily inspection and reporting requirements, tracking damage and faults as they occur.

Kate Dyke, Hub Co – Ordinator explains:

“Since the introduction of StartSafe the savings it has delivered across our department have been hugely significant. The automated reporting and issue notification management aspects of the system easily save me 2-3 hours every day and ensure I’m always informed when issues are found, enabling me to plan and act to address them. My team now use the StartSafe App to complete their inspections, a process which is simpler, quicker and more robust than our previous paper-based approach. StartSafe has become an invaluable tool that seamlessly helps us keep our fleet of cars on the road, enabling us to deliver the vital services our patients require.”

Although initially the fear of change to this new way of working was a real one for Kate’s staff, this proved not to be an issue:

“The transition to StartSafe was an easy one thanks to the exemplary support provided from setup through to go live – there is always someone on the end of the phone to help or advise. The staff have really taken to the App’s clean and logical interface and I’m able to review all their activity through the online dashboard. It’s become a one stop shop for all our inspection and auditing needs.”

What’s next

StartSafe and St Michael’s Hospice are currently exploring how two large scale audits they undertake annually could be implemented into the system – an NHS ‘Patient Led Assessments of the Care Environment’ audit and a large-scale infection control audit. They are also reviewing how the PDF and excel reporting functionality can be utilised to automate their current manual approach to creating the extensive records they are required to keep.

Within the Vehicle Management Department an expansion into the Retail and Servicing aspects of their operation is in development, building on their established success. The future is bright for the StartSafe and St Michael’s Hospice partnership – working together to ensure safe and secure care services are delivered to the Herefordshire community.