Graphnet shared record to unite Black Country and West Birmingham ICS

Black Country and West Birmingham ICS has teamed up with Graphnet Health to deliver an ICS-wide shared record that will provide enhanced care for residents.

The integrated care record will cover Wolverhampton, Walsall, Dudley, Sandwell and West Birmingham and will enable professionals to access a single view of key shared information at the point of care for 1.5million residents.

The large-scale programme will support better and safer care for residents by integrating hundreds of information feeds from the region’s GP practices, councils, acute trusts, mental health trust, ambulance trust, specialist trust, hospices and care homes.

Mike Hastings, digital lead for the Black Country and West Birmingham ICS, said: “This exciting project is all about providing safe, efficient, joined-up care and ensuring that professionals get the same view of their patients’ information no matter where in the Black Country and West Birmingham they are caring for them.”

Graphnet, part of System C & Graphnet Care Alliance, will provide the shared record known as the One Health and Care record.

It is already in use in the neighbouring counties of Shropshire and Staffordshire, and there are plans to link up with these ICSs and the wider West Midlands in the future.

Staff will be able to use the new One Health and Care record to view a person’s medications, social care packages, end of life details, care plans and Covid-19 data such as testing status and shielded patient data.

Graphnet will also provide the ICS with an intelligence platform to enable population segmentation, risk stratification and population health management.

Residents will benefit from the introduction of a personal health record to view, contribute and share information with their care teams for monitoring and planning around an individual’s needs.

Brian Waters, chief executive at Graphnet, said: “We are pleased to be supporting Black Country and West Birmingham. It’s a great collaborative effort by many health and social care organisations across the system, all of which are focused on harnessing data to improve care and outcomes for local people.”

Graphnet is the leading provider of shared care record solutions for integrating services across whole health and care communities. They have played a crucial role in implementing their records and joining up areas.

In October 2021, Kent and Medway ICS went live with a shared care record powered by Graphnet, one of many examples of the company transforming how the NHS functions.