Catherine is an administrative assistant in the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) team. Using the Dorset Care Record is now an integral part of the role to ensure data is clean and up to date.
For each referral received Catherine and the team check whether patients receiving treatment in the County’s hospitals (and care homes) are from the Dorset Council, Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole (BCP) local authority areas or whether they are out of area.
To do this the person’s ordinary residence needs to be established. However, sometimes addresses are listed as specific hospital wards (rather than the persons home address). So, Catherine uses the DCR to get further demographic information about the patient. This saves time for both the hospitals and the team.
If an address is not found in the DCR this may be an indicator that the person is possibly out of area, (prompting a call to the ward if a home address is not provided on the form).
Although the DCR tab in Mosaic is quick and practical for providing a snapshot of info, Catherine and the team do use the web portal function separately to look at wider info which is really useful. This also helps to establish funding in the case of care home residents, where there is a declaration of ‘Local Authority funding’ but no profile on Mosaic or the DCR, prompting a call to the care home to check if they are not a Dorset person.
We are also able to indicate from the person’s GP surgery where their ordinary residence may be, which allows us to contact the relevant Local Authority if the Care Home are not able to provide the information at that time. DCR is a great means of accessing information for those who may not be previously known to the Council, such as many individuals who are self-funding.
Catherine would love to see wider use of the DCR as it has proved useful and time saving for those hospitals already engaged with using the system.
- The Mental Capacity Act is a piece of legislation that is designed to ensure that the people who are most vulnerable are still at the centre of all decisions that are made about their care and treatment when they are unable to make them for themselves.
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