Early adopters have found a wide range of benefits of using the Dorset Care Record including its ease of use, help for a vulnerable person potentially caught up in bad weather and enhanced information to provide support for a lady at risk of falls:
One Borough of Poole local authority early adopter said “I broke the seal on a record on a Friday which was very useful. There was an adult that we were worried might be in danger due to care workers not being able to gain entry because of the adverse weather. I noticed that there was an alert on CareDirector that the adult was in hospital, but I accessed DCR and confirmed that the adult was not still in hospital so could still be at risk. This was a lot easier than having to call up the hospital or GP teams, and saved us a lot of crucial time. In the end, the adult was OK, but in different circumstances being able to access DCR could have had a big positive impact in efforts to safeguard.”
Senior Dorset doctor, Verwood GP Andrew Polkinghorn said: ‘Using the Dorset Care Record is wonderfully simple and is a great achievement. It compares favourably to other GP and primary care systems. If only the log-in was built into my existing HER log-in arrangements.’
Claire Collett, Occupational Therapist with the Technology Enabled Care Team at Dorset County Council, said she had found the Dorset Care Record useful in providing greater information to adult and community services staff on a recent referral regarding equipment needed to prevent falls.
‘We had an enquiry where there seemed to be no diagnosis for the lady in question but we had been told she was on medication supporting a diagnosis. I was able to go on the DCR to see if there was an official diagnosis and I was able to see the lady’s medical history regarding recent falls, which was quite useful. It was a case of being able to use the system in real time. It allowed us to analyse whether the enquiry was appropriate for adult services and signpost the enquirer in a more timely way – otherwise we would have had to make several more telephone calls to gather more information – which would have been more time-consuming.’
David Wheeler, Bournemouth Borough Council Business Engagement Officer, said ‘I have just got into the test record and it’s even better than I thought. Certainly a lot of information including alerts of allergies etc. which is likely to be very useful.’
A Senior Consultant at Dorset County Hospital said:
‘I am very happy with it – it has helped me get to grips with medication lists in particular and thus prevented mistakes. Not all GPs have loaded patient details on this system so the more that get their patient’s data on the better.’
A senior Dorset County Council Adult and Community Services Manager said:
‘It’s nice and easy to use. It’s better than PAS and better too than the NHS system. The search functionality is better as the Dorset Care Record has more options.’