List of the winners and the judges' comments (cont'd)
Categories:
Best use of IT in primary and community care awards
First place
West Lothian Council
Smart support at home project — the impact of telecare technology on
primary and community care systems in West Lothian
The aim of the smart support at home project is to mainstream the use
of new technology systems within existing service provision to promote
independent living as a real cost-effective alternative to institutional
care. The merger of the technology within the health and care team
overall has assisted West Lothian achieving the lowest proportion of
older people blocking beds in Scotland. The mean duration of length of
stay in hospital by a patient who has been assessed as being ready to
move is 30 days compared with the Scottish average of 112 days.
Judges’ comments:
“ This is a first-class example of how assistive technology can be used
to make caring for older people in the 21st century brighter for
everyone. This project’s vision and scope reshaped the models of care to
promote independent living, prevent hospital admissions, and reduce
delayed discharges in West Lothian. The team knew what they wanted and
faced the barriers and obstacles for change wholeheartedly to make this
service work. There are huge lessons to be learnt from this project team
and their partners.“
Second place
South and East Belfast Health and Social Services Trust
Streamlining the referral process in health and social care
The aim of this project was to set up a single referral point for all
referrals to the Trust (both health- and socialcare), together with a
shared electronic patient record system, which would facilitate
information gathering and sharing across all services. The Trust
established a single point of contact for all Trust referrals and
achieved this through the use of a call management centre and an
electronic person-centred information system. An average of 5000
referrals are now being taken per month by the CMC onto the shared
electronic record system (PARIS).
Judges’ comments:
“Common functionality and transparent communication pathways between
health- and socialcare underpinned the success of this project. The
judges felt that this project was breaking new ground in terms of its
scope and vision and were particularly impressed with the way that the
project teams managed to overcome the professional staff fears over
administration staff recording referral information as well as managing
the challenge of changing long-established working practices.”
Third place
ETHITEC and Leicestershire Community Therapy Services
Implementing an electronic patient record system for allied health
professionals working in the community
This project set out to provide Leicestershire’s and Rutland’s newly
created Adult Community Therapy Services (physiotherapy, occupational
therapy, speech and language therapy, podiatry and dietetics) with a
uniform, multidisciplinary electronic patient record, accessible 24hours
a day across the county’s six primary care trusts. Specific goals
included the modernisation of appointment scheduling and the ability for
therapists to check on their patients’ treatment by other allied
healthcare professionals. Thirty-six months into the project 300 users
and 92 clinical locations use Ethitec’s Tiara 9 system operationally.
Appointment scheduling has been transformed with setting up of three
multidisciplinary appointment call centres with the ability to make
appointments anywhere in the county.
Judges’ comments
“The judges were astounded at how this three-way partnership (Therapy
Services, Health Informatics Service and Ethitec) conquered clinical and
technical challenges to provide reliable information and unify a diverse
range of services across its community.”
Highly commended
Nottingham City Primary Care Trust and Antecedent Limited
Software solution for intermediate care and community rehabilitation
services duty point
This is a real-time electronic capacity management and reservation
system that enables access to the services faster and easier — referrers
need instant access to current available beds and places. In a rapidly
expanding service it prevents bed conflicts and maintains equity. Beds
are booked through a Service Adviser via a central computer database,
enabling fast access to the same service used by different teams.
Referrers and assessors experience a streamlined and efficient referral
process with strict but simple in-hours and out-of-hours protocols.
Discharge facilitators receive daily lists of patients who could be
assessed for intermediate care in hospital, instead of waiting for an
assessment by intermediate care. They can instantly check the beds
available by a text message.
Judges’ comments
“This system had only been fully operational for one month, which meant
it did not score as highly on measurable benefits as other projects in
both award categories. The judges felt that the project overall is
aspiration for other trusts to follow and should be highly commended for
its innovative use of technology in primary and community care settings.
The organisation therefore was recommended for awards in two
categories.”
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