Spotlight on Tim Jones – Senior Buyer at Colten Care

In this months Spotlight, we speak to Tim Jones, who is Senior Buyer for our long standing client, Colten Care.

1. Could you tell us a bit about Colten Care?

Colten Care operate 21 privately owned care homes in Dorset, Hampshire, Wiltshire & West Sussex. We are a family-owned business voted number 1 Large Care Home Group (carehome.co.uk) and 7 of our homes are rated as outstanding by CQC.

We have dedicated dementia homes, two of which are rated as outstanding. Our own Admiral Nurse supports relatives and ensures the highest Dementia care standards.

2. Could you explain a little bit about your role?

I have been the Senior Buyer of Colten Care for nearly 14 years. My responsibilities including sourcing a huge number of varying products to ensure our homes receive the very latest equipment to enable our staff to provide the absolute best levels of care to our residents. Regular attendance at trade shows (when lock-down permits again), enables me to keep abreast of current trends in the health and care markets, as well as meeting suppliers on a regular basis.

3. What challenges have you faced within your role over the COVID pandemic?

The pandemic produced huge challenges in procuring PPE to keep our residents and staff in a safe as environment as possible. It quickly became apparent that in the early stages of Covid much of the PPE was substandard and though seen as widely available on the worldwide web it did not even exist!

4. How did you overcome those challenges?

Fortunately, strong working relationships with a small nucleus of dedicated suppliers enabled us to secure quality PPE without an interruption in the supply chain.

5. Has technology helped Colten Care overcome challenges throughout the pandemic?

Technology helped in a variety of ways. From sourcing products from across the corners of the globe, by enabling us to track goods as they made their way to the UK, to providing us with weekly stock levels of PPE stored in our warehouse.

The latest Courtney Thorne Nurse Call system, Altra, provides a range of benefits to give instant response to our residents when the need arises. It gives a precise location as to where the resident is located whether it is within the home or surrounding gardens. Different assistive technology equipment allows additional equipment to be included with Altra to assist with resident wellbeing.

6. How have you seen Care Home Technology progress over the last 5 years?

Substantial amounts of cloud-based data available through Courtney Thorne’s CT-Cloud can be analysed. Nurse call response times can be monitored on a regular basis to ensure residents receive prompt attention when needed.

7. Have you had any feedback from homes within the Colten Care group about how technology has improved things for them?

Our staff and residents have welcomed the considerable investments that the company has made in technology over recent years.

For more information on the projects we’ve worked on with Colten Care over the years, you can read our Colten Care case study here.

Written by

Barry Vacher

Date

08.07.21