NE Lincolnshire uses TPP social care

North East Lincolnshire Care Trust Plus is the first organisation to go-live with TPP’s new social care module.

The deployment in September means the combined health and social care trust is now using SystmOne across all of its services.

TPP has worked closely with the trust to develop a complete solution for adult social services and are in discussions regarding its deployment at other sites.

The vast majority of GPs in the area (83%) already use SystmOne, as do community services, child health and out-of-hours services.

Lead project manager John Mitchell said this made it seem like a natural choice to deploy the system for social care as well.

SystmOne uses a single care record for patients which can be accessed by anybody involved in their care.

Access is controlled by patient consent, which is requested any time the patient contacts a service for the first time.

More than 3,600 clients are receiving care from the trust and SystmOne is being used to manage everything from referrals through to client needs and assessments.

Kim Cook, senior customer on behalf of the service, said this allows staff making critical decisions about a service user to have all the information in front of them at the time.

"We are encouraging people to share information across the record system because we have confidence in the information security in the system and personal choice as well," Cook explained.

She said the care trust is in the early stages of going paper-lite and staff have been instructed that all new patient records will be electronic rather than paper based.

The organisation is now looking at making inroads into the historical files by possibly scanning them into the system.

"This will revolutionise the way social care records are created and stored," she said.

"It will have a massive impact that offers the organisation some efficiencies in operations because a lot of space and time is taken up by the creation of physical records."

SystmOne has also been integrated with financial software provider Oxford Computer Consultants, which means information entered into the social care record automatically populates the finance record.

Cook said this is important in the area of social care where financial assessments are used to determine the level of funded care a person is entitled to and any related charges. This can now all be done in one assessment.

Mitchell said North East Lincolnshire already has a big drive towards more mobile working.

Adult social care is about to embark on an ‘agile working programme’, with the support of TPP, whereby social workers and care co-ordinators who visit people at home will be able to access and add to records remotely.

Community staff in the area are already using Panasonic Toughbooks for mobile working.

Local GP, Dr Andrew Stead, said having an integrated care record allows GPs to have a more complete view of the care that is given to patients allowing for better informed decisions.

"The use of smart cards and audit trails also reassures me that records kept in the system are safe and secure, therefore maintaining patient confidentiality," he added.