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Improving flows of health information to care homes

A case study in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland – ‘LLR Digital Care Homes’.

Rutland County Council aimed to improve the flow of information from healthcare into adult care homes using technology.

Page contents

Background

As part of the NHS England 'Personalised Health and Care 2020' programme, one of the aims was to "give care professionals and carers access to all the data, information and knowledge they need". This includes giving care providers direct access to selected patient data, provided that consent is given, through NHS IT systems and infrastructure.

While efforts have been made to streamline the communication across health and social care for some time, limited work has been done to modernise communications with social care providers.

It was recognised that the limited use of technology in care homes is a constraint for future development work between health and social care. This project aimed to use the Digital Demonstrators programme to benefit care homes, their residents and the wider health and care system.

What the project involved

The LLR Digital Care Homes project aims to broaden access to core NHS data platforms in primary care (NHSmail and SystmOne) and reduce slow, insecure paper, phone or fax-based communications. This project worked with up to 28 care homes to improve their digital maturity through:

 

  • checks on broadband and WiFi
  • providing a laptop to each care home
  • assisting with NHS Data Security Protection Toolkit accreditation

 

This allowed them to access NHSmail and SystmOne electronic patient record system, giving care homes access to much of the GP medical record (for SystmOne practices) and to district nursing records for their current and prospective residents.

 

The project also delivered Telemedicine, in the form of Skype video calling for crisis triage, and a trusted assessment tool communicating the care needs of University Hospitals of Leicestershire hospital patients.

2.5 full-time equivalent staff weeks saved

Potential savings for hospitals of £125,000

6 fewer hospital admissions (per home)

Benefits of the LLR Digital Care Homes project

Clinical staff benefit from:

  • improved relationships with social care staff
  • all communication held in one place. 
  • referrals, letters and attachments all visible, such as electrocardiogram (ECG) information which can have a significant impact on care
  • reduced GP appointments requested
  • reduced hospital admissions, allowing reallocation of funds

Rutland County Council benefit from improved data security and data protection practices.

Care home staff benefit from:

  • enhanced technology and digital maturity in care homes
  • improved morale due a reduction in time waiting for patient data from primary care
  • Skype calling to assist in providing care to patients.
  • district nurse updates on actions taken (currently fed back verbally if the team leader at the care home is available)

Patients benefit from:

  • improved patient experience and enhanced care from more responsive services
  • Skype video calling which improves communication during a health crisis, potentially helping to avoid admissions

Lessons learned so far

Rutland County Council have learned that:

 

  • active participation from care homes is essential
  • registering for NHSmail was a multi-stage process that care homes usually needed assistance with - it was found helpful to have a flow chart to guide homes through the process
  • it was beneficial to run a workshop with care homes and health colleagues to scope out the tasks that the electronic patient record system could be used for, which enabled a mutually beneficial scope to be agreed for homes and primary care
  • Skype video crisis triaging is very beneficial, though the clinician’s confidence in delivering advice is critical for this to work

Download the full case study

Last edited: 29 September 2022 4:21 pm