Care homes across Liverpool will have access to a service allowing staff to video call a hospital when a resident has a health concern.
Immedicare was initially launched in 37 care homes, but Liverpool Clinical Commissioning Group are now expanding the service to all 56 homes in the city.
The telemedicine service allows care workers to video call the digital hub in Airedale Hospital whenever a resident has a health concern and to speak to a nurse who is trained to deal with acute problems.
The service is currently being deployed as part of the wider Liverpool Care Home Improvement Strategy which is a joint partnership between the CCG, Liverpool City Council and the care home community.
Dr Fiona Ogden-Forde, governing body member and clinical lead for healthy ageing at Liverpool CCG said immedicare is an important part of their Care Home strategy, “in achieving our ultimate goal of delivering the best possible experience for residents, families and care home staff.”
The service reassures staff of the resident’s wellbeing and treatment, helps to avoid unnecessary unplanned hospital visits, with hub nurses also able to request a prescription from the registered GP during the video call (if medication is needed).
Phil Parkinson, managing director of Immedicare said the joint venture will help assist more care homes across the city.
“We’re excited to be working with the LCHIP team in Liverpool as they are a highly innovative group, and their decision to commission our service for a longer term will provide us with the opportunity to aid more care homes with telemedicine across Liverpool,” Parkinson said.
“This expansion takes the number of care homes using Immedicare to over 600 and we’re hoping to see the same success in Liverpool as we have across the county.”
In July, a report by the Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB) found that care homes need better digital information sharing following hospital discharge.
According to the survey of more than 260 care home respondents, care home workers needed better handovers to care homes, better planning by hospitals ahead of discharge, higher quality discharge summary information and appropriate discharge times for their service users.
Visit Immedicare’s website for more information or email hello@immedicare.co.uk.