Integrated Care Record views in BSW hit one million milestone
Organisations across Bath and North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire (BSW) have been working together since 2020 to make it easier for health and care professionals to access the patient information they need.
This careful and secure sharing of information has been achieved through the development of BSW ICB’s Integrated Care Records (ICR) programme.
The ICR helps colleagues access local information about an individual they’re caring for more quickly and helps professionals work faster and provide better care. They reduce the need for phoning around to find missing pieces of information, reduce duplicated referrals and can avoid unnecessary admissions.
Over 1 million records have now been viewed across BSW. Currently, around 1,000 colleagues access the ICR every day. In a month, that figure rises to 4300 people accessing at least one record. Independent valuation has estimated savings related to the use of ICR will be around £3.8m for 2023/4.
Integrated Care Records can be accessed in BSW through Care Centric software provided by a company called Graphnet.
For those who haven’t accessed ICRs before, they essentially provide a way of sharing the different pieces of patient information that are held in different parts of our health and care system. For example, a consultant working in one of our hospital emergency departments may want to know more about a patient’s end-of-life preferences or a mental health crisis plan. The BSW ICR makes accessing that information much easier than it has been in the past.
The ICR is accessible by clicking a link in a patient’s Electronic Patient Record (EPR). This will launch the ICR for the same patient as viewed in the EPR. There are no separate logins, passwords or websites to remember.
One user working in BSW said being able to access ICRs “was the most brilliant and positive” change to their job. “Being able to access results, blood tests and diagnosis helps me do my job – it was previously a barrier to care,” they said.
The diagram below describes which organisations can view the record or share data with the ICR.
The ICR programme of work is constantly evolving and the team behind its development are currently working on adding data from 11, CaMHS and local authority child care (BaNES) and adult social care information (Swindon). ReSPECT forms can be created in the ICR and will soon be rolled out to the Wiltshire locality and made available to SWAST.
What colleagues have said about using ICR
“Having access via ICR is really useful for clarifying the two week wait appointments have been made and attended” PA Team, local GP surgery
“Occupational Therapy Services visited a lady and the referral indicated she was vulnerable and had mental health issues. The worker had no response from knocking on her door and was unable to see through the windows. The therapy services worker rang the office and the ICR showed the lady was in A/E at a local hospital. This prevented the need for a welfare check from the police.” Wiltshire Council user
“I was recently able to check on a specialist haematology medicine that was not on an RUH discharge summary and contact the appropriate clinician quickly and easily while a relative was with me, potentially saving harm as it was written up by the specialist that day.” Frailty Nurse RUH
if you want to learn more about how the ICR can help with your role visit the website or drop an email to the team at bswicb.icrinfo@nhs.net