Council launches integrated care record scheme for elderly

Tower Hamlets Primary Care Trust has deployed a new electronic single assessment process to allow GPs, social services, hospitals and mental health services to better co-ordinate their care of older people.

The new system, implemented by BT, is based on Case Notes, from software company CSW, and gives health and social care professionals a single, comprehensive source of information about a patient. This helps provide care workers with an accurate assessment of current needs and existing care provision and allows a more speedy response to new patient problems, the company says.

The Single Assessment Process (SAP), introduced in the Department of Health’s National Service Framework (NSF) for older people, aims to make sure care needs are assessed thoroughly and accurately, but without procedures being needlessly duplicated by different agencies.

The new e-SAP system is shared by 227 users from Tower Hamlets PCT, Tower Hamlets Social Services, Barts and The London NHS Trust and East London and The City Mental Health Trust. The process promotes a multi-disciplinary care team approach, spanning all those Health and Social Care organisations providing care input to its clients.

Once a user logs in to the e-SAP system, he or she is assigned a job ‘role’ based on their chosen access point. Role-based access then restricts their view of that record to display only that which is relevant to their role. The e-SAP system is also integrated with the NHS Care Record Service and meets the required Connecting for Health (CfH) compliance standards for connection.

Polly Wicks, Tower Hamlets Social Services SAP Project Manager said, “We are getting very positive responses from staff across the borough.”