Crystal Dennis - being interviewed by Tony McDougal as part of the Digital Dorset Festival of the Future Health and Social Care Day

Lets talk about our digital future….

As part of Digital Dorset’s Festival of the Future Health and Social Care Day, the Dorset Care Record’s communications and engagement officer Tony McDougal interviewed the DCR’s Senior Responsible Owner Peter Gill and the Operational lead for public facing digital health technologies Crystal Dennis

Tony McDougal – So Peter, as Senior Responsible Owner for the Dorset Care Record, how is the record making a difference to the lives of clinicians and the public? What are the benefits of having a shared care record and does data really save lives?

Peter Gill – So, I think the simple message is instant access to critical information to the DCR which is hard to get to through other mechanisms. Previously people would have had to call through to a GP – a GP receptionist to try and speak to a GP to ask their GP for some information and that person may be coming from a busy emergency department and try to make those calls while the patient is in front of them would be very time consuming and possibly not even effective. Maybe the GP couldn’t come to the phone and describe what they know about the patient. So those very old fashioned processes have now  been replaced by clinicians across UHD and social care staff at a click of a button whilst already in their core electronic record they use every day they can now click through to the DCR and have critical information that primary care, Dorset County, UHD knows about the patient and client in front of them. Continue reading “Lets talk about our digital future….”

DCR stats for Sept 2021

myDCR highlighted in NHSX blog on a celebration of progress for shared care records

The Dorset Care Record has been showcased in a new blog on the progress of shared care records by NHSX Programme Director Ashley Hannah.

The blog highlights the achievements of shared care records across England over the past nine months but Mr Hannah touches on the  DCR for its work on moving towards our patient portal myDCR.

Mr Hannah wrote: “Secondly, the Dorset Care Record (DCR) which brings together Dorset’s acute hospitals, two local authorities, community and mental health providers and GPs. Three years after accepting its first demographic information, the DCR will soon pilot its patient health record “myDCR”. This will enable people in Dorset to view their record, record and monitor health goals and actions, share data with health and social care professionals and receive clinic letters from hospitals about discharge information and appointments.” Continue reading “myDCR highlighted in NHSX blog on a celebration of progress for shared care records”

DCR team hard at work pine cutting at RSPB Arne on their volunteering day

Pine pulling at RSPB Arne: Our Volunteering Day

The Dorset Care Record team has spent their volunteering day this year helping conserve one of our rarest heathland habitats. Equipped with gloves and tree clippers, the team spent the day  at RSPB Arne harvesting fast-growing pine trees that can spread rapidly through the lowland health and gorse.

The team saw a sika deer, which have become quite common on the reserve, but despite scouring the skies failed to spot the white tailed eagle which was seen at Arne at the weekend after flying over from the Isle of Wight. Continue reading “Pine pulling at RSPB Arne: Our Volunteering Day”

Robots supporting the Dorset Care Record

All of Dorset GPs are being given click through access to the Dorset Care Record (DCR) thanks to an emerging form of business process automation technology based on software robots (bots) or artificial intelligence (AI) workers.

The process – known as Robotic Process Automation (RPA) – has been created by IT specialists at Dorset CCG using a solution from global leader in intelligence automation Blue Prism.

Paul Wyman, RPA architect at Dorset CCG, has been working in automation in Dorset with the NHS since 2012 and says the virtual software robots, which are based in the cloud, can perform a range of jobs. Continue reading “Robots supporting the Dorset Care Record”

Head of Service Andy Cowling

Dorset Care Record celebrates new milestones

Patient safety is being increasingly enhanced across Dorset thanks to the growth of the county’s shared health and care record.

More than 40,000 patient records within the Dorset Care Record were viewed during August, enabling professionals to have the most up to date health and social care information.

And more than 3,000 health and social care professionals have now completed the mandatory information sharing and security training, ensuring that the records are used correctly and stored safely. Continue reading “Dorset Care Record celebrates new milestones”

DCR logo

DCR Stakeholder Update – July 2021

Our stakeholder update includes our latest news and information on our work over the past six months and looks ahead at some of our future plans.

Our work around community pharmacies recognised nationally

The Dorset Care Record features in the Government’s data strategy, launched by the Department of Health and Social Care this week. The strategy is designed to support delivery of patient centred care with a view of giving them better access and greater control over their health and care data.

We were highlighted for our work enabling community pharmacies to have access to the Dorset Care Record during the first wave of the Covid pandemic last Spring.

The Strategy says our work “enables community pharmacists to access relevant information about patients, which can help pharmacists support management of long-term conditions, preventing future hospital admissions.”

The Government has said there will be a full consultation and further information is available at Data strategy to support delivery of patient centred care – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

For the full story go to DCR features in Government data strategy publication – Dorset Care Record (dorsetcouncil.gov.uk)

  Continue reading “DCR Stakeholder Update – July 2021”

Nurse looks at health and care record

DCR features in Government data strategy publication

The Dorset Care Record features in the Government’s data strategy, launched by the Department of Health and Social Care this week. The Strategy is designed to support delivery of patient centred care with a view of giving them better access and greater control over their health and care data.

We were highlighted for our work enabling community pharmacies to have access to the Dorset Care Record during the first wave of the Covid pandemic last Spring. Continue reading “DCR features in Government data strategy publication”

Better, more convenient patient care – Dorset Care Record introduces new system for primary care information

Health and social care professionals using the Dorset Care Record are now receiving GP data in a different way that is in-line with GP Connect standards.

The system has replaced the traditional Medical Interoperability Gateway (MIG) system. It aims to support better clinical care by opening up information and data held within GP practice IT systems for use across health and social care. Continue reading “Better, more convenient patient care – Dorset Care Record introduces new system for primary care information”

February Update – Ongoing growth for the Dorset Care Record

We continue to see a rise in use of the Dorset Care Record – both in terms of numbers of patient records viewed and health and social care professionals trained to use the system.

Latest figures for February show that 19,008 records were viewed during the previous month, a rise of 1% on December’s figures. The number of pathology and radiology reports viewed also reached a record high of 4,676 during January. Continue reading “February Update – Ongoing growth for the Dorset Care Record”