Over 130 care homes in Greater Manchester are using a digital symptom tracker to monitor COVID-19.
It was implemented through Health Innovation Manchester (HInM), a partnership including the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership, Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, Tameside Council, local GPs and the tech company, Safe Steps.
The service takes the form of an app for care home staff, which allows them to input information about COVID-19-related symptoms. These are then shared directly with GPs and NHS community response teams for swift assessment.
A visual dashboard that displays data at an aggregate level is also being used to help the NHS monitor care homes across the local area. And, in addition, an adaptation has been made to allow the tracker to record vaccination consent and for a dashboard to provide real-time vaccination numbers and statuses.
Dr Saif Ahmed, GP and Clinical Lead for the project, said: “The care homes data dashboard provides invaluable information to GPs about the most up to date status of their patients allowing proactive management and care for the most vulnerable in our society.
“By empowering carers, who know their residents best and can spot symptoms or signs of deterioration, to use the tracker we can easily identify those patients who need advanced care planning by picking up signs of deterioration as soon as they start to happen.
“Adding in the ability to record COVID-19 vaccination meant we can monitor care home residents who have consented and received the vaccine.”
Tameside and Glossop were the first areas in Greater Manchester to see the tracker rolled out successfully, back in April 2020, but the app is now being used in 138 care homes, across eight localities.
For more information, visit healthinnovationmanchester.com.
