During the summer’s floods housebound patients in Swindon were visited and assessed by community practitioners, who used mobile devices running the web-based Single Assessment Process software from Liquidlogic.
The software integrates health and social care data between Swindon Borough Council and Swindon PCT and allows practitioners to use a shared assessment platform via an internet-based assessment and workflow situation.
The web-based approach proved vital for practitioners during the flood recovery period earlier this year. Staff had been using mobile devices for 18-months, and were able to take these out to housebound patients whilst GP practices were closed.
Jeremy Moyse, development officer for the Swindon Borough Council/PCT Partnership, told EHI Primary Care: “Mobile devices are part of our critical incident planning. Recent network problems put the contingency plan to test.”
He said that during the floods practitioners were still able to access essential information from case files, ensuring they could carry out their duties with the support they needed.
Moyse added: “The major benefit of the system is that practitioners are not limited to location. People can therefore manage their time more effectively, and practitioners are afforded the flexibility to maintain a good work/life balance.”
Over the last three years, the local council and PCT have been working together on a project named Sapphire, to introduce a joint working culture between health and social care.
Moyse told EHI Primary Care: “The Sapphire project is a framework that is designed to re-build the way that current services are delivered to the community. Based on a traditional practice model assessment plan, the project looked to instill three main values; clarity, simplicity and transparency into the delivery of care.”
Integrating the two authorities is helping meet DH mandates and provide a better quality service to the Swindon community, Moyse added.
“Collaborative working is essential to help us deliver better services and generate efficiencies in line with the Our Health, Our Care, Our Say white paper – a vision to provide people with good quality social care and NHS services in the communities where they live. As part of realising this vision, we have already developed some joint planning and financial processes.”
Using the software, practitioners from both authorities are now seeing community practitioners complete over 500 online assessments and reassessments per month.
Plans are now in place to extend the current collaboration by developing the existing joint community teams into locality-based teams in the community.
David Grigsby, head of business development at Liquidlogic, said: “The initial success of Swindon’s Sapphire project was a key factor in deciding to expand the implementation of our Protocol SAP technology.
“When integrating disparate groups, it’s vital to have clarity, simplicity and transparency and a robust framework to ensure successful roll-out and we are pleased that Swindon Borough Council and the Primary Care Trust had confidence in our technology to deliver this.”
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Joe Fernandez