Dukes Court Care Home uses remote monitoring to reduce ambulance conveyance and enhance care for residents
26 May 2023
Remote patient monitoring technology
The team at Dukes Court Care Home in Wellingborough have been using Docobo remote patient monitoring technology with Integrated Care Northamptonshire since 2021 and have seen benefits for residents and the care home team alike.
Integrated Care Northamptonshire (ICN) provides remote patient monitoring to Dukes Court Care Home and other care homes in the area – supported by Docobo Remote monitoring technology. This enables people to be cared for in their care home where possible and improve the quality of life for the aging population, while helping reduce the pressures on general hospitals and GP surgeries.
The Docobo remote monitoring is provided using their DOC@HOME® solution to monitor residents in the care home. Resident observations are taken by care home staff, entered into Docobo remote monitoring tablets and then automatically transferred to a Virtual Clinical Hub where alerts are reviewed, monitored and acted on swiftly and efficiently. The ICN team has set up this virtual clinical hub and has been working successfully with GP practices, care homes and other stakeholders to deploy remote monitoring across the area, in order to reduce pressure on acute trusts, GP surgeries and ambulance services.
Lauren Mann is Deputy Manager at Dukes Court and explains:
We’ve been using the Docobo system for some time now: It’s a really, really easy system to use and it’s running very, very smoothly. Dukes Court has really, really improved in terms of reduction of ambulance call outs since using the Docobo remote monitoring service within the home. From the residents’ side, they feel very, very reassured that the senior carers have the Docobo system in place and the team of nurses, if they are feeling unwell – and they know they are getting the best help for them.
Virtual Clinical Hub
Key to the success of the project is the Virtual Clinical Hub which the team have set up. This is unique in that the clinical hub really is ‘virtual’ and there are no overheads, such as premises etc. Staff work from home and do bank shifts which is really appealing to them.
How does remote monitoring work at Dukes Court?
By using remote monitoring and ward rounds, residents at Dukes Court care home can be monitored and it enables teams to manage and monitor residents’ health and wellbeing while promoting independence.
Lauren explains:
We use the system in a number of different ways. If we have a resident who is unwell, we would use the Docobo tablet, take a set of observations – such as blood pressure etc – and then follow the ‘question set’ with the resident – asking symptomatic questions, such as how the resident is feeling etc. This information goes through to the virtual clinical hub, which is run by a team of nurses – and they will give you a call to decide the next step – whether a member of the ICT team needs to come out – or if the resident does need to be admitted to hospital.
Using the ward round questions set, any resident that we feel needs to see a GP we would input into device. This would go to the virtual clinical hub and then we discuss each resident in detail and then hub team would see how they can assist with the residents. We would then come up with a list of exactly who needs to be seen by the GP. The hub team would initially see what they can do – if they can contact the GP or they can contact someone else.’
Benefits:
Lauren says:
It’s really reassuring that we’ve got that team of nurses that we can go to for advice if we are concerned about a resident and they are very prompt and very swift. Although it’s supposed to be a 2 hour call time, we do find that they call back very quickly; usually within half an hour.’ The virtual hub team have been very supportive, supportive for the seniors on the floor, supportive for residents and supportive of the management team to ensure that the residents at Dukes Court get the best quality of care and the best quality of health from external providers such as GPs, ICT team and district nurses.
What does remote monitoring measure?
- Blood Pressure
- Pulse
- SpO2
- Respiration rate
- Temperature
Paula Love, Lead Nurse for Transformational Integrated Care Northamptonshire says:
We’ve worked collaboratively with primary care and the ambulance service and other stakeholders to roll out remote monitoring across the area. With 41% of emergency admissions from care homes being avoidable [1], this is proving to be an extremely successful project. Before the project it was ‘all roads lead to an ambulance and acute care’, now with remote monitoring, it’s so much better. We wanted to keep people at home and improve the quality of life for the aging population across Northamptonshire. This is having a positive impact on the ambulance service and – as we can see from Dukes Court – care homes.
