Last week, new Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay announced the launch of a new £500 million Adult Social Care Discharge Fund, which will aim to support integrated care boards and local authorities to improve capacity.
HTN covered the aspects of Barclay’s speech related to digital healthcare here.
Following that announcement, here we share a special report focusing on digital care, with input from Inhealthcare and Intelligent Lilli on their innovations, customer projects and results, as well as exploring projects tackling recruitment, data security and care planning.
The technology used for UK’s biggest remote monitoring service is helping hospitals to safely discharge patients to virtual wards.
The remote monitoring technology that came of age during the pandemic is now being used to set up virtual wards to help local areas discharge patients from hospital in a timely way, safe in the knowledge they will be cared for at home.
Inhealthcare delivered the UK’s biggest remote monitoring service during the pandemic and is using the same tried-and-tested approach to help NHS organisations to extend hospital care into patients’ homes.
Ahead of the coming winter, the government is targeting practical measures to support the NHS and has launched a new £500 million fund to get people who do not need to be on wards out of hospital and into social care. Local areas will be free to determine how to spend the money but the government will be looking closely at the impact and using this data to inform future decisions on funding.
In a speech to NHS Providers, Health Secretary Steve Barclay highlighted the opportunity for supportive technology to speed up delayed transfers and said the latest technologies and trends could improve outcomes for patients and make sure that taxpayers’ money is well spent.
Founded more than a decade ago, Inhealthcare has led the way with the development of remote patient monitoring in the UK with more than two million patients to date benefiting from its digital health services co-designed with clinicians.
The company’s platform provides the building blocks for clinicians to deliver convenient, easy-to-use and digitally inclusive remote monitoring services, which enable patients to receive healthcare in their home instead of in hospital, increasing capacity in actual wards.
Inhealthcare worked with Wessex AHSN during the pandemic to design and build the Oximetry @ Home service for Covid patients across southern England. It has since been used by more than 25,000 patients, making it the largest remote monitoring service of its kind in the UK. Research published in the BMJ this year demonstrated a significant association between the service and better patient outcomes; “most notably a reduction in the odds of hospital lengths of stays longer than seven, 14 and 28 days and 30-day hospital mortality”.
The same, proven infrastructure is being used by ICBs to develop and roll out remote monitoring services for other conditions, including for patients with respiratory illnesses. This uses blood pressure cuffs, oximeters and thermometers to record NEWS2 scores, physiological ‘early warning’ measurements that are routinely recorded at a patient’s bedside.
Hospital consultants elsewhere are using the platform creating a virtual ward for patients with heart failure and atrial fibrillation who would otherwise need to stay in hospital. They are “starting off safe” with low-risk, tech savvy individuals before expanding to provide hospital care at home for patients with more complex needs.
Looking ahead, Inhealthcare’s platform has open and published APIs for connecting to a diverse range of high-tech devices, from weighing scales to wearable patches, which can support a multitude of health conditions now and in the future.
The company already has the capability to step down and step up patient care, allowing patients to move from spot monitoring to continuous monitoring as and when required by their healthcare professionals. Analysis of the data this generates can yield vital insights into health trends and allow more healthcare to take place outside of traditional settings – freeing up even more hospital beds.
Content from Inhealthcare. To explore the solution and case studies further, visit Inhealthcare’s website here.
Supporting independent living by enabling people to safely, happily and independently regardless of their age or health condition.
Commenting on Steve Barclay’s announcement, Intelligent Lilli’s Chief Care Officer Fiona Brown said: “With a care sector already under huge pressure in terms of resource availability and funding, while this policy shift is great in principle, the problem is that there just isn’t enough resource available to deliver the increase demand for care that will follow.
“For those on the ground to even have a chance of managing this increase in workload, these shortages need to be addressed, and digitisation projects that can help optimise the sector is a good place to start. Technology is going to be vital in delivering a joined-up health and social care service, but for these digital transformation projects to succeed, there needs to be a serious consideration made under the new approach around how the Government will be supporting the scalability and implementation of them.”
Intelligent Lilli’s platform provides care providers with the data and insights that they need to review a person’s behavioural patterns and trends within their home so that they can accurately and identify what type of care support is needed. In addition, thereafter it will also support them in identifying where changes in behaviours occur that could indicate a change in a person’s state of health.
Lilli tech delivers a cost-effective and non-intrusive monitoring system that supports efficient and effective care delivery, prevents declining health conditions and reduces the need for hospital visits whilst supporting individuals with self-limiting health conditions to maintain their independence at home for as long as possible.
Here’s a case study to demonstrate – how Lilli supported Esther.
Esther, who had been living independently, was admitted to hospital with a fractured wrist after a fall at home, having suffered from dehydration caused by a UTI.
The D2A team assessed Esther after she was declared fit for discharge, recommending three half-hour visits per day along with implementation of Lilli. Data from Lilli showed that two weeks after having the cast on her wrist removed, Esther was able to feed herself and make drinks, but was demonstrating changes in behaviour that once investigated proved to be another UTI. This was treated with antibiotics, enabling Esther to continue her reablement.
After six weeks, Adult Social Care took responsibility and the Home from Hospital team presented data showing Esther could dress and feed herself but needed help with personal hygiene. This enabled social services to reduce her package to a single daily 30-minute visit. The Lilli system remained in place, reassuring Esther and her family that passive monitoring would help prevent future crisis events.
Content from Intelligent Lilli. To explore the solution and case studies further, visit the Intelligent Lilli website here.
What else can be done to support this area? HTN explored NHS Digital’s Digital Social Care programme, where a range of success stories share good practice, ideas and inspiration.
Digital tools boost recruitment in Bedfordshire
One such success story is that of Lansdowne Care Services, a learning disability provider in Bedfordshire.
They found that they were having to rely on agency staff to maintain adequate staffing levels, which was expensive and “didn’t give the consistency the team needed and had a negative impact on staff morale”, and was beginning to affect long-term quality of care.
The service turned to Recruitomate, a digital tool that uses social media to find and recruit staff, significantly reducing admin in the process. They received 200 applications in four weeks, a significant improvement in interest levels. The tool uses data-driven campaigns to generate a continuous stream of qualified candidates in the local area, with automatic conversation messaging used to engage and pre-screen candidates and a tracking system automating 90 percent of recruitment administration such as follow ups, sending application forms and scheduling interviews.
Lansdowne Care received 200 applications in 4 weeks, a significantly improved level of interest for their roles. Having previously experienced low show-up rates to interviews with less than 30 percent attendance, the pre-screened candidates had a turnout rate of around 97 percent.
Data Security and Protection Toolkit supports care agency in South Yorkshire
Ross White-Hunt, Managing Director and owner of CPA Ltd, a small domiciliary care agency in South Yorkshire, has said: “The only way that we can access timely information to help us with decisions about people’s care is to embrace contemporary technology and practices. But this means we need essential training not only in the use of these systems – but also in the fundamental practices required to keep all the data safe and secure.”
His team contacted their local Better Security, Better Care partner for free support and took part in free Data Security Protection Toolkit (DSPT).
The toolkit provides comprehensive self-assessment, enabling care providers to check and improve data and cyber security arrangements.
Ross added: “The contents of the course and our subsequent integration with the DSPT system and practices has been essential to the ongoing high standard of care we deliver to our service users and staff. The support has also been extremely beneficial to our potential future growth as a business, as we look to key developments in the near future.”
As a result, CPA Ltd have taken action including upgrading their cyber security programmes and strengthening existing protocols, including introducing higher levels of encryption for shared information.
Nursing home in Wiltshire moves to digital system
Aldbourne Nursing Home in Wiltshire recently moved to a digital system with the aim of improving their reporting, saving staff time and enhancing individual care.
Helen Peach, Registered Manager, said: “Paperwork was gradually taking more and more time. We were keen to find a way to monitor effectively, but in a way which meant staff could still spend quality time with residents.”
Three different online platforms were researched before the service selected Sekoia, a digital care planning solution which allows the electronic recording of day-to-day care and keeps documentation in one place. Care workers can access the software via an app with a personal ID to log in, and staff can specify exactly how a task should be completed to ensure that care remains consistent.
Helen added: “It’s much easier for staff to document as they go, saving valuable time. It makes compliance and accurate reporting straightforward. I feel that it really helps to individualise care for our residents which is so important.”
In the past months, HTN has also run a number of webinars on and around digital social care, from various perspectives. You can catch some of our past sessions below, with recordings and write-ups available.
- Shuri Network, Somerset CCG and Dorset Hospital on transforming care services
- NHS Arden & GEM CSU on linking health and social care data to improve services
- Leeds Teaching Hospitals on criteria-led discharge
- Healthcare Gateway and SCW CSU on how connecting care can benefit care homes
