Integrating health and social care through Digital Care Homes
Background
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust have been working with Durham County Council, which is part of the County Durham Care Partnership, to support local care homes with the adoption of technology to facilitate integration with the NHS and support remote monitoring for residents.
Situation
Care homes need to maximise staff capacity, create efficiencies and connect with health services, while making sure residents receive appropriate care.
Aspiration
To find a digital solution to integrate between social care and health care services, allowing care home staff to make quicker, high-quality referrals when concerned about their residents wellbeing and better manage their resources.
Solution and impact
Health Call Digital Care Home was rolled out as a system to support electronic referrals into community health and primary care services and also the remote monitoring of residents. Furthermore, the digital Care Home solution allowed the creation and sharing of baseline observations to develop a record of what is ‘normal’ for each resident, helping to identify signs of deterioration.
Resident information is then pulled through to the electronic patient record.
Subsequent developments have included the addition of wound care and undernutrition services for residents. The ability to use the system for video consultation is also being explored.
Care homes were provided with a kit containing a tablet with the Health Call app; medical equipment for remote monitoring, along with training and technical support was also included.
Care providers found using the Digital Care Home solution:
- Led to a reduction in unnecessary hospital admissions
- Reduced the time care staff spent on the telephone, freeing up their capacity to deliver direct care
- Allowed better prioritisation of workloads with more effective and efficient use of local health staff resource
- Improved the quality of referrals to community health and primary care services
Before Health Call Digital Care Homes, I would have had to call his GP, or send him to hospital. This way, he was kept at home, where he and his family wanted him to be.
Functionality
- Integration with EPR
- Secure app and web-based functionality
- Video consultations
- Secure functionality to take photos
- Create baseline observations to record what is normal for patients
- Secure sharing of remote monitoring information
- Digital triage
- Full digital clinical audit trail
Capabilities
- Creation of baseline data enables staff to spot deterioration early to enable early intervention/treatment.
- Data from observations can trigger referrals when they reach certain points.
- Ability to refer residents digitally reduces the amount of time care staff spend on the phone freeing up time to care
- The ability to send clinical information to different clinical teams allows for the more effective and efficient use of resources
Scope of capacity
The service can be used in social care settings.
Key learning points
Running joint engagement sessions early on spread the word and meant people were able to ask questions or express an interest.
Co-producing with care homes meant the right solution could be developed.
Ongoing advice and training support helped to increase uptake.
The partnership working between the trust and Council was an important factor in the implementation work.
Digital equalities
Durham County Council and local NHS Foundation Trust have developed video tutorials on how to use Health Call Digital Care Home on both the app and web portal to support ongoing training needs.
Key figures/ quotes
Pre COVID-19, it was found that the use of this system led to a reduction of 2 hospital admissions per care home per month.
Evaluations in Durham and Darlington of the SBAR pathway have provided the following results:
- 50% reduction in inappropriate admissions
- Empowered care home staff
- Better informed clinicians enabling improved caseload management
- 30% reduction in community nursing visits
A study undertaken by Health Data Research UK found that the implementation of Health Call technology in care homes across County Durham reduced the expected number of monthly emergency department attendances for residents. The study examined 8702 care home residents in 123 care homes across County Durham and Darlington. The impact of implementing Health Call technology shows a ‘step reduction of expected monthly ED attendances for care home residents by 19%.’
Sandra Smyth, a district nurse who has used the service
We will wonder why we did it any other way. The SBAR is effective for nurses to prioritise where they need to attend to ensure the best patient outcomes.
Find out more
Health Call Digital Care Homes
Key contact
Catherine McShane, Project Manager, County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust
catherinemcshane@nhs.net
Helen Robson, Marketing Manager, HealthCall
helen.robson@healthcallsolutions.com
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Disclaimer
These case studies summarise user and patient experiences with digital solutions along the relevant care pathway. Unless expressly stated otherwise, the apps and digital tools referenced are not supplied, distributed or endorsed by NHS England or the Department of Health and Social Care and such parties are not liable for any injury, loss or damage arising from their use.
All playbook case studies have either passed, or are currently undergoing the Digital Technology Assessment Criteria (DTAC) assessment.
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Page last updated: October 2022