Health and care professionals at Sirona care & health are now using an in-context launch from their Community EMIS system into Connecting Care, and can access the Medical Interoperability Gateway (MIG) to securely view patient and citizen data.
Using this in-context launch Sirona care & health are able to view the information from 85 GP practices, three local hospitals, the mental health provider and information from three councils for Adult and Children’s Social Care via Connecting Care (which is the local Shared Care Record for Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire and the IT System is provided by Orion Health).
Sirona care & health provide community services to support adults and children at home, in the community and in schools across Bristol, South Gloucestershire, and North Somerset (BNSSG). They employ thousands of health and care professionals including district nursing teams, therapists, and support workers who now benefit from accessing rich, real-time patient data to deliver quality, patient-centred care.
The community services Sirona provide include palliative care, long COVID service, urgent care at home, dermatology, musculoskeletal (MSK) services, rehabilitation, and community services. They also offer children’s services such as immunisations and school health nursing, and are also supporting hospital discharge processes across the region [1].
Traditionally, the Sirona care & health clinical and professional staff did not have access to all the information they needed, which delayed care as time was spent calling other clinical professionals and social care staff in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. Staff had to spend valuable time trying to find the information they needed to provide patients with the best care.
Appropriately authorised Sirona care & health professionals are now able to securely view health and care data within the Connecting Care Shared Care Record.
Quick access to real-time patient data has transformed Sirona care & health’s ability to deliver patients the best possible care in a timely manner.
“Historically, there would often be a gap in the data that's available, and you would find yourselves trying to fill in the blanks, or taking a stab in the dark at times, to try and formulate a picture which might not be totally accurate. This is certainly not something that as an organisation or as individual clinicians would be sustainable, or that we would want to see in the long term. So having Connecting Care come on the horizon has been a bit of a saving grace for us. It prevents that disconnect and fills those gaps, and it's been well received by myself and my team.”
Being able to access MIG data via the Connecting Care in-context launch, has given Sirona care & health the ability to triage patients even more appropriately and efficiently, and make better decisions supported by views of the most up to date diagnosis of a patient, their medication, vaccination and test results, items they otherwise may not have been able to see, or had to wait to see. They are also able to view end of life information so that patient’s wishes are respected.
“It's particularly beneficial for more complex patients, especially for end-of-life patients where you're looking more in depth for things like respect forms and care plans which have come from various places. Having all of that in one place, and via one access through our source system into Connecting Care is really, really helpful.”
Healthcare Gateway provide the Connecting Care partnership with Medical Interoperability Gateway’s (MIG’s) Detailed Care Record (DCR), EMIS GP Journal View and EMIS Community Journal View providing consultation notes of GP contacts, plus the MIG’s End of Life Dataset to support patient wishes at the end of life where the person has agreed they would like their information shared from the EMIS GP system.
Working together with partner organisations, Connecting Care have recently implemented an in-context launch from Community EMIS, the local Sirona care & health IT system. This allows secure access into the same person’s record (in-context) within Connecting Care.
Once into the Connecting Care Shared Care Record, the detailed MIG views of GP and Sirona care & health community information are available.
The curated presentation of detailed information, cleverly set out in ‘views’ enables professionals to quickly find the particular data that they need to support direct care of their service user.
Benefits of our Detailed Care Record, GP Journal View, and End of Life Dataset include:
Connecting Care is also supporting community care services to improve the experience of patients being discharged from hospital via the Collaborative Integrated Care Bureau (CICB). This innovation was recently implemented across the three local Acute hospitals, Sirona care & health and the three local authorities in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.
“We have made it possible for staff working across acute, community and social care to have visibility of patients who are being discharged from hospital. In the past, when somebody was medically fit for discharge, there would sometimes be delays because there was no visibility that they were medically fit for discharge. As a result, their care needs and care packages were sometimes not put in place in time.
Recently to support the CICB we've made a ‘medically fit for discharge’ list from the hospital available in Connecting Care, and Sirona care & health are able to view all patients who are being discharged back to home, and also patients who need a bit more support in the community or provided care in respite and care homes. Using this list and information provided using the MIG views, Sirona care & health and social care colleagues are able to agree on the care plan and respite support needed. The CICB are now able to provide a better experience and more seamless transfer of care for patients, their families, carers, and for staff.”
In the future, Connecting Care is looking to expand the availability of data across the region and explore datasets to enable further data sharing from other organisations in BNSSG and across boundaries with other Local Shared Care Records.
To find out more about the MIG and how we can support your next interoperability project, please get in touch with a member of our team here.
[1] List of teams currently accessing Healthcare Gateway MIG views in Connecting Care via in context launch:
Adult Learning Disability Health Service; Adult Safeguarding; Bladder and Bowel Service; CCHP Children Services; CCHP Community Paediatrics; CCHP Health Visiting Service; CCHP Safeguarding Children; CCHP School Nursing; CCHP Therapy Service; Community Heart Function Service; Community Learning Disabilities Team; Community Nursing; Community Rehabilitation; Community Respiratory Service; Community Therapy; Covid Virtual Ward; DANS – Diabetes & Nutrition Services; Dermatology; End of Life Service; Falls Specialist Team; Integrated Community Care Bureau; Lymphoedema Service; Minor Injuries Unit; Musculoskeletal Service; Occupational Therapy; Out of Hours; Parkinson’s Service; Partner 2 Care; Physiotherapy; Podiatry; Pulse Oximeter Virtual Ward; Rehabilitation Service; Single Point of Access; South Bristol Community Hospital; Specialist; Community Neurology Service; Speech and Language Therapy; Stroke Service; The Haven – Asylum Seekers; Tuberculosis Service; Urgent Care Centre; Urgent Treatment Centre; Wound Care Service
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