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Dorset HealthCare were awarded "Outstanding" in the latest CQC accreditation

How our shared record is helping teams involved with hospital discharges

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During the Covid pandemic many staff were redeployed into the Single Point of Access (SPA) team – the Transfer of Care Hub for Dorset. They have been involved in transferring patients from one setting to another to ensure consistent continuity of care.

The SPA is a remote service, which operates 7 days a week from 8am until 6pm. Its remit is to work with partners across the Integrated Care System, including our acute hospitals and social services. It uses the Discharge to Assess pathways to support hospital discharges, thereby increasing patient flow. Continue reading “How our shared record is helping teams involved with hospital discharges” →

Jayne Catley, DCR Business Analyst

The Agony and the Ecstasy – Benefits

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In our latest think-piece project business analyst Jayne Catley argues that if “you’re not measuring it, you can’t manage it.”

Our Programme Management Office have been working on managing benefits for many months and I’ve provided a brief look at how we’ve gone about it.

Firstly, it’s important to ask what is a benefit and why do we need to identify benefits? A benefit should represent an improvement resulting from an action. Any project should have a good reason for existing in the first place. Otherwise, why do it? Continue reading “The Agony and the Ecstasy – Benefits” →

Project manager Theresa Smith with Orion Health's Vianney Chauvineau and Bruce Horne

New Zealand Orion Health product director meets our staff

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New Zealand Orion Health Product Director Vianney Chauvineau this week spent a day meeting the Dorset Care Record team and the Integrated Care System’s Enterprise Digital Architect Graham Sheppard.

Chauvineau, who is meeting customer clients across Europe, visited with Orion Health’s UK and Ireland Product Owner Bruce Horne to discuss the progress of the diabetes pathway, our fledgling patient portal, myDCR roadmap and future product developments. Continue reading “New Zealand Orion Health product director meets our staff” →

Blog author, Orion Health's senior project manager Doug Robertson

myDCR joins leading patient engagement solutions around the world

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Orion Health’s Senior Project Manager Doug Robertson looks at how myDCR will become the firm’s first patient portal in England and highlights some of the benefits arising. 

Enabling patient engagement is a key priority for Orion Health. While we work with 60+ shared care records globally, relatively few of these have embarked on digital patient engagement programmes.

It has been a privilege to work with the team at My Dorset Care Record (myDCR), particularly given that it is the first implementation of our patient portal technology in England. myDCR expects to deliver wide-ranging benefits to  both patients and health care staff. Continue reading “myDCR joins leading patient engagement solutions around the world” →

Mental Capacity Act - Dorset Council decision tree

Mental Capacity Act and the Dorset Care Record – A user’s view

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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. Continue reading “Mental Capacity Act and the Dorset Care Record – A user’s view” →

Jodie Crowfoot, DCR project manager

Benefits from Lessons Learnt exercises following live releases

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In our latest think-piece, project manager Jodie Crowfoot highlights the team’s work around learning lessons from recent releases

As the Dorset Care Record (DCR) enters its fourth year of being a live system and after a number of different functionality releases, we have now established a successful process by which we record and action any lessons learnt from previous releases.

During a release we maintain documentation which key people on the project can access, so we can  add lessons learnt throughout the process.  These lessons can be things we want to keep as they have gone well or things that we want to improve on in future releases as they have not been as successful. Continue reading “Benefits from Lessons Learnt exercises following live releases” →

Adults safeguarding DC

How our shared care record is used by adult safeguarding triage workers

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Gina Orgec completed the DCR training some years ago while working in the adult social work team at Dorset County Hospital.

However, it hasn’t been until recently that she has started using the shared care record more regularly in her current role as an adult safeguarding triage worker for Dorset Council.

“I use it really to check people to see if they have seen their doctor, to get an update on their health needs, and whether they are in hospital. Continue reading “How our shared care record is used by adult safeguarding triage workers” →

Durdle Door, Dorset - a landscape photo depicting the breadth of Dorset's beauty

Dorset Care Record Stakeholder Update – April 2022

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Welcome to our latest stakeholder update about progress of the Dorset Care Record and our new patient portal, myDCR.

Growing the Dorset Care Record

More than 76,000 patient records were viewed by health and social care professionals in March, making it the busiest month ever for our shared care record. The figure was nearly 14% per cent higher than in February and meant there were 2,400 records being accessed every day. The number of active users also rose, highlighting the success of our online training around information sharing and security. Nearly 4,000 staff have now completed this training. Continue reading “Dorset Care Record Stakeholder Update – April 2022” →

DCR logo

Benefits baseline established for the Dorset Care Record

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Research suggests that the Dorset Care Record (DCR) has enabled efficiency savings of more than £1.4m in the first nine months of the 2021/2 financial year.

As more feeds came into the DCR and usage grew, time savings rose from £333,109 in the first quarter of the year to £586,675 in quarter three, according to the analysis.

It is projected that a total of just under £2m will be saved during the financial year from time savings and consumables, based upon the end of December DCR unique user figures. Continue reading “Benefits baseline established for the Dorset Care Record” →

DHC staff - generic photo

Using the Dorset Care Record to enhance the triage of referrals

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In our latest case study, Dorset HealthCare Community Mental Health Nurse Angela Jones talks about how her team use the Dorset Care Record

I work as a Community Mental Health Nurse within a Community Mental Health Team and we support people over the age of 65 who have mental health problems such as dementia, depression, anxiety and schizophrenia.

Most of the referrals to our team come via Primary Care and this is where having access to the Dorset Care Record (DCR) has had the most positive impact on the team’s working practice. In order to process these referrals in a timely manner, DCR allows us to obtain accurate, up to date information from the patient’s health records. Continue reading “Using the Dorset Care Record to enhance the triage of referrals” →