More than 500 health and social care professionals have signed up to the Dorset Care Record (DCR), marking a milestone for the project which aims to create a comprehensive and up to date record for every person having treatment in the county.
Representatives from all the Dorset Care Record partnership members have completed the mandatory training around information sharing and security required to access the system, set up in conjunction with tech specialists Orion Health.
Information that can be shared through the system among health and care professionals includes up to date contact details and care needs, lists of diagnosed conditions, medications, allergies, test results and referrals, clinic letters, discharge information and radiology and some pathology records.
The 500th health and social care professional to complete the training is Diane Burgess, one of the sisters at the Minor Injuries Unit at Swanage Hospital, run by Dorset HealthCare.
Diane has worked for the NHS for the past 32 years and has been at Swanage since 2004/5. The Minor Injuries Unit takes a variety of patients: “Basically, anybody that walks through the door we see, treat and either discharge or refer them to acute hospitals.
Diane believes that the Dorset Care Record will be a real benefit at Swanage Hospital: “I think everybody’s hoping to get a bigger overview of the patient care. We’ll be able to see records that we couldn’t before, including social care that the patients have had in their home. It will help if we’ve got elderly patients that we’re going to discharge if they need any extra help.
“We’ll also be able to check up on any appointments that patients have had or will be having. We do referrals to fracture clinics so being able to see what happened at their fracture clinic appointments will be really helpful.
“Just having an overview of the patient’s care will be a lot more helpful to us but also to patients too,” she said.
Peter Gill, DCR Senior Responsible Officer, welcomed the milestone saying people having treatment in Dorset could look forward to better coordinated care. The DCR represents real investment in the future health of Dorset’s residents.
“This innovative approach to enable closer working between professionals across health and social care is a key digital element of our wider Sustainability and Transformation Plan to improve outcomes and reduce health inequalities across the county.” he added.
