AHSN North East and North Cumbria: Well Connected Care Homes (March 2019)

Summary

A digital tablet intervention to record and communicate data on the health of residents was used in care homes in Sunderland. Between April 2017 and March 2018, a small-scale evaluation compared data between eight of the care homes routinely using the intervention with eight similar care homes who weren’t. The evaluation found that the eight care homes using the intervention made an estimated saving of around £756,144 in A&E attendances and ambulance services during this period.

Content

The AHSN North East and North Cumbria (AHSN NENC) Well Connected Care Homes Programme commissioned a small-scale evaluation of a new digital health intervention that aims to enhance the appropriateness of healthcare received by care home residents and the skills of care home staff.

The goals were to:

• support care homes in becoming internally and externally ‘well connected’ in the digital age;
• to enhance the quality of care experienced by care home residents, and by
• significantly improving communication between care homes and the external health environment.

This would provide better and more efficient cost-effective care. It had the following elements:

• to improve record keeping of care home residents by using tablet-based apps to allow electronic recording of aspects of care plans
• to train qualified and unqualified care home staff to make and record relevant clinical records (NEWS scores)
• to promote use of electronic communication of patient clinical information between care homes and primary care (GP electronic patient records), emergency care (including out of hours), and ambulance services and community services.