Understanding the medications that members of the public are taking and also potentially safeguarding vulnerable patients have been two areas where the Dorset Care Record has helped a Respiratory Nurse Consultant.
Natalie Harper has been working at Dorset County Hospital for the past 11 years, and prior to this, she worked in primary care for nearly two decades – both in the county and further afield.
Continue reading “Dorset Care Record – Helping safeguard vulnerable patients and saving money”
Dorset Council adult access team members are using the Dorset Care Record while carrying out “91 Day Reviews”.
These telephone reviews are undertaken 91 days after a person has started having reablement care at home following discharge from hospital. They are a type of welfare check to see if they are still living at home and managing around the house, and have not returned to hospital or moved into a care home.
Continue reading “DCR – Helping with Reablement checks following discharge from hospital”
Occupational Therapist Assistant (OTA) Jeremy Streets believes that the Dorset Care Record will provide real support for people with disabilities.
Jeremy, who currently works for Bournemouth Christchurch and Poole Council (BCP) in the Boscombe/Southbourne area, leads on registering people with disabilities.
Continue reading “The DCR – Helping Occupational Therapists and those working with the disabled”
Respiratory consultant and general physician at Dorset County Hospital (DCH) William McConnell believes the Dorset Care Record will make a real difference for both healthcare professionals and patients.
Until now, Dr McConnell has felt frustrated by not having information at the touch of a button: “Unfortunately, we’re used to having to apologize to patients due to a lack of information that we have. Patients come expecting us to have all their records and are surprised when we say we don’t. This means that sometimes we don’t always have details, for example, of medications tried in the past.”
Continue reading “How Single Sign On can make a difference in an acute hospital setting”
A team from the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospital (RBCH) are currently accessing more than a third of all the records opened by Dorset Care Record (DCR) health and social care professionals.
The Pre-admissions team have accessed around 15,000 of the 40,000 DCR examined so far, using it for every patient that they have contact with primary care to look at GP practice information.
They have found the DCR particularly useful to gain information for medications, allergies, blood pressure and other tests. Continue reading “Pre-admissions team find Dorset Care Record useful for accessing latest primary care information”
Using the Dorset Care Record stops duplication and helps provide the latest information about a person’s health and social care details, according to one Dorset mental health professional.
Roxy Shannahan-Creasey, Dorset Council approved mental health professional, said she had used the Dorset Care Record (DCR) more than a dozen times to get the latest information about her clients.
Continue reading “DCR: Halting duplication and obtaining the latest information”
One of the first local authority members of staff to use the Dorset Care Record believes the system provides important information about the safety and welfare of people receiving treatment in the county.
Julie Phillips, senior service support officer at Dorset Council’s Purbeck local office, said she had been one of the first DCR early adopters:
Continue reading “Improving the safety and welfare of Dorset’s residents”
Members of the Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council (BCP) Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) team are making good use of the Dorset Care Record in their daily work. Continue reading “Making use of the Dorset Care Record – The DoLS story”
Occupational therapist Kelly James, who works for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council (BCP) in the Christchurch locality team, says the Dorset Care Record has helped provide her with quicker access to better information.
Kelly, who has been an OT in adult social care for the past two and a half years, said: “I started using the DCR as soon as it became available last year. I use it as part of information gathering for OT assessment. I use it every time I write a new assessment, which means I go there potentially on a daily basis to check medication and diagnosis.
“In addition, people who have dementia are not always aware of their diagnosis. If we call the GP surgery for confirmation for statutory services it can take a week for them to get back to us. This can delay the clinical assessment and our help for the individual. The DCR helps speed this up.”
A man’s life has been saved thanks to the Dorset Care Record.
The middle-aged man, who has complex learning difficulties, a history of alcohol dependency and a form of psychosis, has in the past often presented himself to hospitals saying he had something in his heart or something was trying to get out of his stomach.
Anna Cosslett, Chief Clinical Information Officer at Dorset HealthCare, said she had noticed some weeks ago that the man also exhibited very high cholesterol levels: “We managed with his GP to add this information to the man’s Summary Care Record, which feed in to the Dorset Care Record (DCR). We said that he should be physically examined before being discharged if he presented himself again at hospital,” she told the DCR Programme Board this week.
The man presented himself at Dorset County Hospital and the first consultant, who did not have access to the DCR, referred him to a psychiatrist on mental health grounds. The second consultant looked on his Dorset Care Record as the first port of call and after tests realised he had suffered a heart attack. He has been treated in Dorchester and is recovering.