Additional data from hospitals added to Dorset Care Record

Additional data is being added to the Dorset Care Record (DCR), including alerts from hospitals.

Alerts and encounters from inpatient and outpatient wards, as well as the emergency departments at Dorset Country Hospital Foundation Trust, are being added to the shared record, which is supplied by Orion Health.

It is expected that up to 5,000 messages a day will be fed into the DCR from the trust, with the aim of enhancing coordination of care between the hospital, GPs and social care.

Mike Sinclair, the trust’s CIO, said the shared record had been “very well received by hospital clinicians” when it was implemented in autumn 2017.

On the subject of the additional data being added, he said: “Knowing what treatment people have received in hospital, along with what special considerations might need to be taken into account for an individual, will help make sure that targeted and safer care is provided by different teams across the county.’

This added data marks the latest phase of the DCR, following the sharing of demographic data from the county’s three acute hospitals, including name, date of birth, address, next of kin, NHS number and ethnicity, which took place at the end of February.

GP records covering diagnosis, events, examinations, investigations, medications and allergies, procedures and risks with consent from the individual are also live on the DCR system.

The shared record project is being led by Dorset County Council, working in partnership with local NHS organisations and borough councils. Each will contribute to the overall cost of the project, which is estimated at £20 million over 10 years.