The remote monitoring-enabled delivery of care programme is a collaborative, multi-disciplinary project delivered by partners across health and social care, including NHS Coventry and Warwickshire CCG, NHS Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust NHS George Eliot Hospital, NHS Integrated Care Community, NHS South Warwickshire Foundation Trust, Warwickshire County Council, North Warwickshire Primary Care Networks and Arden and Gem CSU.
Hartshill, part of Individual Care Services, is a residential home, providing care and accommodation for people with a learning disability and other support needs. The home took part in the remote monitoring programme, which is seeing sites roll out telehealth remote monitoring DOC@HOME platform in residential and care homes, to prevent avoidable hospital visits and reduce administrative burden.
Bobbie Mellor, Registered Manager at Individual Care Services says:
Since using Doc@home, staff have found reporting medical concerns must easier and the responses have been so quick and positive. The system has definitely made an impact on our residential service, supporting learning disability service users and we look forward to continuing using it.
What is remote monitoring?
Remote monitoring enables staff to take residents’ readings – such as blood pressure and blood oxygen levels, record symptoms and submit clinical data to a clinical hub. GPs can also access the data via Emis Single sign on. This helps staff to better support and care for residents, making caring for residents safer, easier and more effective – as well as cutting down on GP surgery time.
How did the remote monitoring project start at Hartshill?
The care home was provided with a device on which they could monitors residents’ readings, on a monthly basis or when they fall ill. Within the device, there is an LD ‘Daily Question set’, a ‘Monthly Wellness Check’ and an ‘Is my resident unwell?’ question set. The observations are then sent to the ICC. Staff can also use the tablet to respond to a number of questions about residents’ health, which means any changes are picked up by the ICC quickly.
The care home team and their respective GP practice were provided with comprehensive training prior to go live. The first session was on using the device and question sets, the second session was clinician website training. SWFT also visited and supported staff with their clinical skills prior to the roll out.
Paul Ashmore the Head of Care for Individual Care Services says:
We first heard about the project in summer 2021 and when we were invited to join the project, we were pleased to start work. In November 2021, the Docobo remote monitoring team came in to give some couple of training sessions to make sure the team understood the system and could use it correctly. We are really pleased with how it is going.
Benefits of the project
Bobbie Mellor says:
It’s brilliant! The general daily questions take only a few minutes. We also do monthly observations. If there is an issue with any of the residents, ICC have been out to us within 2 to 3 hours. It’s saved a lot of time for us calling through the ICC – who have really supported us and been really positive. Prior to using Docobo, we wouldn’t be asking staff to take observations, so we are essentially upskilling our team.
The whole process is generally really simple, all now have log in each day. It’s great that we have evidence that we are doing the checks and observations, as it reassures our residents and their families.
Staff from the team say:
The time that the management team have spent ‘on hold’ to the district nursing service has significantly lowered, as we have a call back, following submitted questions.
Staff are informed to flag certain areas of concern to management following Docobo questions.
It is a way of logging weights and observations; we can use this towards our documentation.
We now monitor and record residents’ observations on a monthly basis, which really helps.
