What are S.A.F.E. care providers and how can I find them?

The aim of S.A.F.E. is to give families looking for elderly care the assurances they need that the care providers they are considering are putting infection control uppermost in their thinking.

During the COVID crisis, when the ability to physically visit care providers was severely restricted, searchable online information became paramount. And when the most frequently asked question on the Autumna advice line was, “How do I know if this care home safe?” then we knew we had to be proactive about providing the answer.  

So, we introduced the S.A.F.E. badge. The S.A.F.E. badge is displayed on a care provider’s profile, when they choose to provide the infection control information that families need to help them make their elderly care decisions.

In October 2020 Autumna formed a partnership with Quality Compliance Systems (QCS), a leading provider of content, guidance and technology for the health care sector.

This partnership gives S.A.F.E. an extra level of accreditation and will provide an even greater level of visibility to concerned families. It will help care providers too by highlighting the outstanding IPC protocols already present within their services.

One of the biggest fears that prospective residential care clients have at the moment are the visiting restrictions that apply as part of the infection prevention and control measures.

As part of the S.A.F.E. initiative though, Autumna has introduced the searchable Safe Visiting Space tab. Here, care providers tell prospective clients about the Safe Visiting Spaces they have that will allow visits to their home to continue.

The ‘moonshot’ element of the S.A.F.E. initiative is to be doing ‘exactly what it says on the tin’ – providing ‘Symptom Assessments For Everyone.’

With the help of new artificial intelligence and assistive technologies, this has the potential to happen on an hour-by-hour or even minute-by-minute basis.

For some this might sound far-fetched, but progress is being made all the time. 

Autumna’s aim is to keep an open mind to new ideas, to collaborate with other industry sectors, and to continue to provide proactive strategies to give the public the information they need to make their elderly care choices.

Get involved

If you would like to know more about the S.A.F.E. infection control initiative, or you are a care provider who wants to display the S.A.F.E. badge or a supplier of infection control products and services who wants to collaborate with us as we move forward, then please email Debbie Harris or call her on: 01892 33 53 30.