Why is the Shared Care Record initiative in place?
In August, Simon Stevens, NHS CEO, outlined the third phase of the NHS response to COVID-19, setting out priorities for the NHS developing and implementing a full Shared Care Record. Since, NHSX CEO Matthew Gould has called for all 42 STP’s and ICS’s to have the Minimum Viable Solution of a Shared Care Record in place by September 2021. These steps are in place to address inequalities in digital maturity across the NHS, and satisfy the need for digital transformation across health and care.
What is the Minimum Viable Solution?
The details of the Minimum Viable Solution are set out in the Core Information Standard by the Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB). This identifies 1500+ data fields which are necessary to achieve the basic level of a Shared Care Record.
However, the use of these data fields and achievement of the Minimum Viable Solution is open for interpretation by STPs and ICSs based upon your own data access needs. You should consider the scale and needs of your trust when adding datasets to the Shared Care Record and establishing connections between systems. Required patient data will be held across many clinical systems, therefore, interoperability and bi-directional feeds of information between these systems is essential to the achievement of the Minimum Viable Solution.
We have recently become a partner of the PRSB’s Standards Partnership Scheme. Supporting Healthcare Gateway’s commitment to adopt professionally endorsed record standards that will improve and integrate care and support delivery of interoperability.
What is the goal of the Shared Care Record?
The Minimum Viable Solution acts as a ‘basic’ level of record sharing, fulfilling NHSX’s goal to get all NHS trusts over the minimum threshold of interoperability. This will ensure all NHS trusts deliver a core set of capabilities, closing gaps in digital maturity.
According to Matthew Gould, this is the first chapter in the digital transformation of the NHS. Paving the way to increasing flows of data between health care settings, and optimised patient outcomes. Initiatives such as NHSX’s reinforce this goal. So far, allocating funding and support to 55 NHS trusts to develop their digital strategy.
How can a successful Shared Care Record be achieved?
Deployment at scale and pace
The September deadline for Shared Care Record deployment leaves a narrow time frame for successful delivery. Our Prince2 qualified projects team have a track record connecting over 4500 health and care settings, with rapid deployment. We deploy our projects at pace, meaning clinicians can quickly access patient data to support informed decisions and clinical safety.
Shared Care Records need to link to multiple clinical systems to ensure data flows between care settings. Today, Healthcare Gateway have 80+ clinical systems, supporting programmes of work at both local and regional level. Facilitating an average of 18 million safe and secure transactions each month.
Availability of patient records
The complex landscape of clinical systems in place across the NHS uncovers gaps in patient care where patient data is not connected. A true Shared Care Record is one that is connected and reliant upon data locked in disparate systems. The MIG using national standards makes this simple by joining up any patient data from any clinical system in real-time. This ensures every healthcare professional can access accurate patient data in their native system, improving patient care pathways.
The MIG connects patient data from ALL primary care systems plus health and social care data. Working with our trusted partners the MIG enables bi-directional feeds of HTML or structured data, making a complete economy of data available to clinicians when and where it is needed. Including, primary care, acute, mental health, social care and community datasets.
Interoperability specialists
Interoperability is at the heart of every Shared Care Record. It’s the component that breaks down data silos, enabling data to flow. We’re not only a technology provider. We’re experts currently supporting 60% of STPs across England, spanning projects of all shapes and sizes. Beyond implementing MIG solutions, our specialist knowledge and partner alliances ensure our customers receive that crucial end to end fully managed service.
Our MIG Managed Service provides specialist support at every step of your interoperability journey, from project scoping and delivery to tailored account management beyond implementation. Providing expertise in all aspects including data governance guidance, technical support and service-led engagement. We’re ISO27001 certified, with our people keeping the gears moving across digital transformation projects.
In Summary
Healthcare Gateway can support the roll out of Shared Care Records by:
- Implementing interoperability projects at pace
- Provide access to patient data from ALL primary care systems, plus health and social care data
- Support integration and beyond with our end to end fully managed service.
We’re interoperability specialists. We have already supported the roll out of many Shared Care Records, yours could be next.
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