Health and social care professionals from across our Partnership have been highlighting some of the benefits of the Dorset Care Record (DCR) in a series of video interviews with our training manager Catherine Snook.
Tim Shaw, CCIO at University Hospitals Dorset, says the DCR has been so useful during the Covid crisis: “The DCR has really come into its own during lockdown, particularly when I’m making phone or virtual conversations with patients. I can see what medications they are on. I can see what they’ve been discussing with their GP and I can do in patient context directly from my electronic patient record.”
Derek Staple, Bournemouth and Poole Council Adult services Social Worker, says the DCR is helping enhance patience safety across partners.
“DCR helped me to identify further information that I couldn’t otherwise get hold of. But it also in both of these discharge documents it helped me to correlate the same sort of problem that we’ve been able to raise with the safeguarding team at the hospital.
“Without that access I would not have been able to get hold of the discharge documents or identify similar issues raised with another patient that had been discharged so from that point it was invaluable.”
Julia Armstrong, BCP social worker and best interest assessor, said she uses the DCR for two main purposes – to check which ward a patient is being treated in hospital and to get up to date information on whether a person has passed away. Before DCR, she said there had been often been difficult conversations with next of kin when she had rung to inquire on the health of a patient, only to be told that they had died.
“These was really upsetting, awkward conversations that were unnecessary – so it’s helpful to have this information as it saves traumatic conversations.”
To see the videos, go to User guides and videos – Dorset Care Record – Staff area (dorsetcouncil.gov.uk)