Doing Their Bit: How Jigsaw24 Helped Care Home Residents Stay in Touch with Loved Ones and Transform Their Care

Nottingham, United Kingdom, May 15, 2021 --(PR.com)-- Doing their bit: How Jigsaw24 helped care home residents stay in touch with loved ones and transform their care

Leading IT solutions provider Jigsaw24 is celebrating its role as a delivery partner to NHSX to help vulnerable people stay in touch with loved ones during lockdown and keep care home residents safe.

Jigsaw24 and NHSX successfully deployed 11,000 iPads to care homes with low digital maturity across England.

A large-scale project to support the English care home community, which began in November 2020, saw the company’s staff work around the clock to pre-configure and deliver the devices so they would arrive ready for use straight out of the box and in time for Christmas.

Now, these iPads are continuing to improve care, and for many are used every day.

The iPads are being used to:

• initiate video calls with family and friends;
• hold video consultations with health and social care professionals;
• reorder medications;
• access The Summary Care Record, and
• use NHSmail.

This enables care home residents to avoid unnecessary visits to their GP or hospital. Care home staff are also able to reorder medications on behalf of their residents and review information in their GP records.

Matthew Gould, chief executive of NHSX, said: "For tens of thousands of people living in care homes, iPads have been a link to their loved ones during the pandemic, as well as enabling video consultations with their GPs. We made sure we worked with partners to get the iPads into care homes ahead of Christmas.

"NHSX is committed to ensuring the social care sector can use technology to improve the care it gives."

The iPads enabled care home residents to call their relatives, which was particularly important over the Christmas period.

Jigsaw24’s configuration and warehouse teams put in extra hours at the Nottingham headquarters in a COVID-safe manner to deliver this.

The firm’s staging team configured, charged and applied screen protectors to around 750 iPads a day on average.

Meanwhile, employees in departments right across the business were making vital contributions to ensure the project ran smoothly, such as developing a bespoke mobile device management platform so each iPad could be administered remotely, and building a dashboard so every single delivery could be tracked and reported on live.

The result of all this hard work, determination and extra effort was an incredibly successful deployment, with 11,000 iPads arriving on time at over 9,000 care homes – all without any of the normal issues found in a major deployment.

As part of the project, which was commissioned via the Crown Commercial Service’s Technology Products and Associated Services (RM6068) framework, Jigsaw24 has also been providing technical support from a dedicated service desk, helping users with any queries so they can enjoy the full functionality of their iPads.

Laura-Jane Turner, Sales Operations Director at Jigsaw24, said: “We are so proud to have helped get devices in the hands of those who need them most – especially when people were feeling particularly isolated.

“Apple technology was well suited because it is easy to use, secure and offers good value for money. The iPads we have provided have helped and are still helping care home residents and staff alike, and our Apple specialists are available to make sure every home can enjoy the full benefit of their devices.”

Tracey Turner, Care Home Manager at The Heights Care Home, said: “Many of our residents have had no contact with their families since March 2020. The iPad will enable them to see the smiling faces of their loved ones promoting their general and mental health.

“iPads delivered by Jigsaw24 have been an asset to connect families visually. A big thank you to Jigsaw24 for making this possible!”

The iPads were provided in a sanitisable, protective case with a range of approved apps and user instructions so that they could be used immediately, giving the care home residents contact with medical professionals and loved ones quickly, safely and securely.

Jigsaw24 is the only UK company to be an Apple Authorised Enterprise Reseller, an Apple Authorised Education Specialist and an Apple Premium Service Provider.

The firm is a supplier on five public sector frameworks, including Technology Products & Associated Services (TePAS) and Technology Online Purchasing Content, that local authorities, healthcare bodies, government departments and other organisations can use to procure technology equipment and services quickly and cost-effectively.

For more information visit www.jigsaw24.com/customer-stories/providing-ipads-to-care-homes-with-nhsx.