Helping Dorset Adult Integrated Respiratory Service (DAIRS)
Improved patient safety, quicker tests for patients and enhanced management practices are set to be key benefits for the Dorset Adult Integrated Respiratory Service once the Dorset Care Record is rolled out.
Kate Crabb, DAIRS Clinical lead Dorset Adult Integrated Respiratory Service, Royal Bournemouth Hospital, said she believed the introduction of the DCR, which brings health details together in a single electronic record, will remove the need for faxing information to primary care teams.
The DAIRS service – set up three years ago as a one-stop shop – consists of a dedicated team working to reduce with patients with respiratory problems, such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), asthma, bronchiectasis and interstitial lung diseases.
The team coordinate the assessment and follow up of home oxygen, offers support in both the patient’s home and in hospital, and the team aims to aid early discharge from hospital with home follow-up.
They also try to prevent admissions by the early identification of “at risk” patients working closely with primary care services.
And they deliver education packages and self-management plan to provide patients with the appropriate information to enable them to manage their disease better, supporting admission avoidance.
Kate’s team of 13 covers Dorset’s eastern cluster, taking in east and north Bournemouth, Christchurch, Ferndown and Cranborne.
She said that a present so much time is spent having to contact GP surgeries for information about patients history because they are unable to see current records.
“Sometimes GP surgeries take a couple of days to get back to us – at other times we don’t get any response at all because the receptionists don’t know what we are looking for. As a result, we sometimes have to rely on patient information, which isn’t necessarily accurate.
“We have to rely on faxing information to the primary care teams and making numerous phone calls which can be very time consuming.
“The Dorset Care Record will provide us with online integration with primary care so that we can all see and use the same system. It will help primary care too because they can’t see what we are up to either, she added.
The team will be able to see medicines and allergies and Kate believes the system will substantially enhance patient safety.