The client
Risedale Care Homes is an independent Cumbrian provider supporting residents with dementia, disabilities, mental health needs and complex nursing in ten care homes across four sites.
The challenge
The care sector has digitised quickly. In 2021, 40% of care providers had adopted digital social care records critical for initiatives like electronic care planning (ECP). By 2025, that had doubled.
Risedale Care Homes was eager to be part of that modernisation, growing from a handful of PCs to hundreds as part of a broad digitisation effort.
But from 100 miles away its incumbent IT provider couldn’t grow the care home’s tech infrastructure effectively.
An on-premises server originally designed to support 20 users was straining to handle 120. IT support at distance from a stretched provider simply wasn’t working.
“You can’t solve all issues remotely within a care home setting, so I started looking for a true local provider with technical expertise that could put boots on the ground in the homes when needed,” recalls Operations Director Tracy Blackwell.
We couldn't push forward and deliver the best care available without the commited team - Tracy Blackwell, Risedale Operations Director.
The solution
In 2022, Risedale found commited, which moved the company to a hybrid solution with cloud apps for multi-site field work.
For that to work well, though, the care provider’s four sites needed better connectivity. They each had little more than a single wireless access point at reception.
commited deployed Wi-Fi across Risedale’s estate that included former hospitals and sensitive Grade II listed buildings, where thick walls and long corridors can hamper WiFi coverage.
The transformation enabled full site WiFI coverage with no black spots across Risedale’s locations, serving over 100 mobile devices, 40 tablets and 140 laptops.
A Mobile Device Management solution enabled committed to provision and secure devices on the fly as part of a managed service, including when end users increased ten fold.
Managed remote and on-site IT support then wraps around up to 500 users to ensure network issues are resolved quickly.
The outcome
Four years ago, Risedale’s technology platform needed some TLC. Now, with commited’s help, it’s in great health.
“commited has enabled us to be a more efficient organisation, where employees are productive and motivated with technology that helps them do a better job of delivering on our high standards of patient care.”
The number of Risedale employees regularly using technology has grown tenfold to around 500 since it partnered with commited. That makes the on-site IT support that the team provides more valuable than ever, which extends to third-party solutions, including an NHS falls-prevention trial using IoT cameras at Risedale’s Abbey Meadow site.
“We couldn’t push forward and deliver the best care available without the commited team,” says Blackwell.
“There have been so many introductions and ideas of new ways of doing things that have enabled us to continually improve the business and our service.
“commited has been involved with it all from the beginning, and is a partner we can truly rely on with deep technical capability and local presence. They’re dedicated to helping us succeed in what we do.
This robust technology partnership has paved the way for new initiatives, including electronic care planning, digitised facilities management and site-wide automated medication administration.
“We have complete confidence in our IT and trust commited’s expertise to help us keep pushing forward with new ways of improving efficiency and patient outcomes.”
