Data sharing reduces delayed transfer of care 

The NHS Long Term Plan underpins the transfer of care initiative, with a focus on transfer of care in acute settings by avoiding unnecessary admissions and efficient patient discharge.  The key aims highlighted are: avoiding unnecessary hospital admissions and patient choice in the transfer of care. 

Placing the patient at the centre of care can avoid unnecessary hospital admissions. Providing all healthcare professionals involved in a patient’s care with access to accurate patient data achieves this. Therefore, with clinicians and their systems working together and not in silos, patients get the necessary treatment in a timely manner, which can prevent escalation to acute settings. 

The flexibility of the Medical Interoperability Gateway (MIG) and data sharing capabilities means patient data can be presented regardless of system or setting. MIG technology enables bi–directional flows of data, presenting primary care data in any health care setting or vice versa. 

Provision of integrated care is particularly important for mental health and social care instances. A two way exchange of data enhances the patient journey as care becomes more co-ordinated, patients only need to tell their story once, and alternative pathways of care are highlighted. Joining up gaps in patient data improves continuity of care and the patient experience. Subsequently reducing delays in administration and duplication of effort. Our Service Discovery Locator feature of the MIG facilitates the quick identification of all available patient information held by GP, community and social care organisations. This holistic view of care can be extracted via the Detailed Care Record by clinicians, enabling more informed treatment. 

Patient choice in the transfer of care 

Access to patient data is also critical to address the urgent issue of patient choice in the transfer of care. Our Specialist Datasets present clinicians with real-time medical information about a patient’s complex condition and care plans. For example, we can provide End of Life and Crisis Care Plans for cancer, COPD, and further conditions. Access to this level of detail supports clinicians, giving them confidence that they are acting in line with patient wishes, if the patient cannot convey this. 

Reducing organisational boundaries and improving patient safety 

The key to an integrated care approach is placing focus upon the patient’s perspective. Aiming to improve the continuity of care across boundaries which exist between healthcare settings. The use of varied system views of patient data across acute, primary, secondary and specialist care settings interferes with the effective co-ordination of care for patients, and therefore, patient safety.  

MIG solutions facilitate seamless sharing of current and historical patient data, reducing these organisational and geographical boundaries in care. More accurate prescriptions and avoidance of errors can also reduce unnecessary delays in treatment. Patient data which the MIG provides across our 80+ clinical system partners enables care to be integrated and informed. This reduces duplication for clinicians, and improves the care experience for patients and their families in the transfer of care. 

Interoperability goals 

We support the NHS and our clinical system partners by continuing to adopt professional and technical record standards. 

We’re interoperability specialists and take pride in our end to end fully managed service. Organisations of any size and level of digital maturity are assured to receive a successful programme deployed at scale and pace. Comprehensive support is provided by our dedicated Service Delivery team, including data governance guidance, technical consulting and service-led engagement. 

Opportunities to enable more efficient transfer of care to support care homes, hospices and multi-disciplinary teams have become more prevalent in response to the pandemic. Our aim is to support health and social care professionals involved in a patient’s care to access patient records across all health and care settings. Utilising our capability to provide GP, acute, social, mental and clinical correspondence data across any clinical systems, or with our Shared Record Viewer when a system isn’t in place. 

Healthcare Gateway continue to support ongoing connections into Shared Care Records. Joining up data from health and care settings at a local and regional level and providing patients with safe and efficient care. We always keep the patient at the heart of everything we do and work to enable a complete, joined up health journey for all. 

By Su Jones, Product Manager at Healthcare Gateway