The need for human-centric care and quality frameworks in adult social care settings

Last Updated on April 24, 2025

Valerie Hanson explores how we can alleviate the administrative burden on care staff and discusses the need for human-centric care and quality frameworks in adult social care settings.

Advancements in medication administration and data protection have markedly strengthened over the past few decades. However, there are still serious concerns across the UK care sector. Increasing administrative burdens on staff hinder carers from vital frontline interactions with residents.

Administrative burdens reduce known health benefits and create barriers to alleviating loneliness and delivering appropriate individual care to the ageing community. Legacy paper-based systems limit carers’ interactions with residents, giving less time to deliver personalised care and enhancing the quality of life of recipients.

How can we alleviate this?

Part of the answer lies in effectively administering medication through digital tools. The care industry has historically been characterised by low levels of digital penetration. That must change if we are to lighten burdens on care settings and free up staff time to deliver personalised, human-centric care to residents. I believe that electronic medication administration (eMAR) is the future.

In a care home, staff time is precious. Minimising carers’ administrative burden and maximising time spent with residents enhances the quality of care delivered. eMAR platforms can reduce medication administration times by 40% and increase resident safety through features such as medication barcode scanning to ensure the right dose is given to the right resident at the right time.

I have seen first-hand how implementing eMAR across the care homes I have supported significantly improves medication efficiency and resident safety. Replacing paper-based MAR charts reduces administration time, enabling staff to spend more quality time with residents and deliver more person-centred care. I witnessed how digital safeguards such as barcode scanning prevented potential medication errors, strengthening clinical governance and supporting Care Quality Commission-compliant practice.

Continuous improvement

From a leadership perspective, the system provided valuable oversight, allowing me to monitor trends, identify risks and drive targeted training. This not only helped to support successful inspections but also embedded a stronger culture of safety, accountability and continuous improvement across care services.

As the number of medications residents require increases with age, eMAR systems are designed to minimise the chance of error. They empower care home staff and give them the security of knowing that medication rounds have been completed accurately.

A structured approach

To roll eMAR systems out, we need to combine digital healthcare tools with personalised care. Currently, care home providers do not have a uniform framework for eMAR that can align with regulation or care standards and, therefore, aid with compliance and mitigate against avoidable errors in care homes.

To support this need, a Gold Standard Medication Policy has been developed to work in harmony with Camascope’s eMAR system. This policy offers a structured, end-to-end approach to medicines management from prescribing and ordering to administration, monitoring and documentation.

It aims to promote consistently safe, high-quality and compliant practices that reflect current legislation, regulatory expectations and national standards. By reducing variation in practice and providing care teams with clear, evidence-based guidance, the policy helps to safeguard residents and staff, strengthen clinical decision-making and embed a culture of safety, transparency and continuous improvement across care settings.

Responsible medication standards

As 75% of care homes still use paper records to manage and administer medication, digitisation is the only avenue in which carers can report accurately and develop valid and responsible medication standards that put residents’ safety first. Digitisation of medication management will allow caregivers to look after patients more and provide better care.

By cutting down the time taken on day-to-day operations and manual compliance checks, we can allow caregivers to do their job – caring for residents in their care.

Valerie Hanson is Clinical Care Manager at Camascope.