Pioneering Technology Transfers Care Home Records to Hospital

Published in July issue of Care Management Matters (CMM) Magazine

Digital Red Bag

Person Centred Software is working on a demonstrator project with Sutton Council as part of the South West London Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) to digitise the transfer of documentation between care homes and the hospital. This will improve the integration of information and communication during resident transfers between care homes and hospitals, a significant step forward for the sector. Especially as the Government’s Green Paper for Social Care, exploring social and healthcare integration, continues to be delayed.

In February 2019, Belmont Care Home in Sutton, part of Caring Homes Group, successfully sent a resident’s hospital admission information digitally to St Helier Hospital in Carshalton. Up-to-date care records compiled as a ‘Hospital pack’ existing in Person Centred Software’s electronic system, Mobile Care Monitoring, arrived at the hospital at the same time as the ambulance.

Person Centred Software’s Head of Product Management, Andrew Coles says: “When a resident is transferred to hospital, most care homes give a printed ‘Hospital pack’ to the ambulance driver for A&E staff, but it’s not shared with the ward, pharmacy, or physiotherapist. This means healthcare professionals are often unaware of a patient’s personal preferences and care needs. Sharing information is especially important with vulnerable residents as they may be unable to voice their individual needs.”

Person Centred Software has extended its ‘Hospital pack’ into an admission process and includes information communicated to ambulance crew, emergency department, ward teams and physiotherapists. It incorporates the CARES (Concerns Action Response Examination Shared Information) form based on the red bag documentation pioneered by Sutton CCG in order to aid with hospital admissions.

Benefits to electronic transfer of information to hospital

Arthur Tanare, Manager at Belmont House, part of Caring Homes Group says: “Person Centred Software’s digitalisation of the red bag scheme improves the lives of residents and staff at Belmont House. With the electronic transfer of information, the hospital has all the personal information they need to care for the resident in front of them, not just the emergency clinical information, so doctors and nurses no longer need to call us to find out more information. This saves a lot of time and means that residents receive smooth transfers to hospital and holistic, person-centred care at every stage of hospitalisation.”

Moyra Hillman, Manager at Grasmere Residential Care Home, part of South Care Homes says: “The ‘Red bag’ scheme is a great idea, but on paper we couldn’t guarantee that the information we sent to the hospital would be passed from A&E to the ward with the resident. Now by sending this electronically, everyone involved in the resident’s care in hospital has the ‘Red bag’ information available on the screen and it’s a lot safer for the resident’s care.”

Mobile Care Monitoring is used by over 1,200 care homes across the UK and the ‘Who I am’ feature is also incorporated into the ‘Hospital pack’ transfer. The feature enables care homes to share vital information about residents’ routines, life story and wishes from the care plan so everyone involved in their care is fully informed about their personal needs. The ‘Hospital pack’ also includes a baseline assessment, advance care plan and scanned documentation for DNACPR and MAR sheet. This gives care providers confidence that their residents will be well cared for in hospital.

Following the pilot in Sutton, Person Centred Software is now engaged in conversations with Clinical Commissioning Groups about rolling out this technology within their areas.