Accurate and meaningful data is the Holy Grail for every organisation, and nowhere is this truer than in social care. Information about a person’s health is vital for health professionals and care providers to make informed decisions about future care needs. Therefore, data must be accurate, real time and up to date to enable better decisions, i.e. Better Data: Better Outcomes.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC)’s 5 Key Lines of Enquiry (KLOE) have many requirements related to data, from showing that medications are stored and administered correctly (Safe); to providing evidence that gas and electrical appliances are regularly tested (Safe); and showing an individual care plan for each resident (Effective). Providers are, therefore, under increasing pressure to have procedures in place to not only store this data correctly at the outset, but also to update it if things change.
Technology is constantly moving forward, and so comes the opportunity to apply it to the social care sector to provide better outcomes for residents. The days of paper files are long gone, as CQC’s requirements both before and during inspection mean that providers and managers need to have required data available immediately in order to answer questions. The Covid pandemic has highlighted this fact as so much communication is now being carried out ‘virtually’, a practice which is unlikely to change. Indeed this was highlighted at the LaingBuisson virtual conference earlier this year, where leaders in the sector said a greater use of technology in social care will be “one of the good things” to come out of the pandemic, with providers switching from paper to digital forms.
With greater use of data, and more data available, the hope is that a greater understanding of residents and their needs will follow. Care planning software for the sector has been available for some years, with some systems also offering elements for staff scheduling and payroll, to provide a wider ‘care management’ package. Until now, however, there has not been a holistic system which brings together data from every element of social care provision.
Although the most significant pieces of data are of course those relating to residents, other information relevant to the running of a care home can affect resident welfare. For example, having adequate staff on duty means that residents have more personal time with them; and having accurate maintenance records reduces the risk of the heating failing or a pipe leaking, both of which would naturally affect residents’ wellbeing.
In addition to the move towards more holistic systems of data collection and monitoring is the introduction of artificial intelligence (Ai) to enhance the data which is collected. An article in Forbes in August this year1 stated that, “for most of the medical profession, Ai will be an accelerant and enabler, not a threat.” The article went on to say that Ai will make the sector faster, less expensive and more accurate.
The same is true for Ai in the social care sector, and PredicAire is the first care management software to truly utilise Ai. Its ‘virtual nurse’, Flo, is central in identifying early warning signs, health and nutritional needs to deliver person-centred care. It is able to offer intuitive point-of-service care and monitors residents’ vital signs, so that anomalies can be detected and appropriate early intervention swiftly taken to predict or prevent avoidable consequences.
Of course, it is impossible to discuss the changing paradigm of social care data without addressing how the collated information is stored and shared. The introduction of GDPR has made everyone acutely aware of what data they can hold about an individual, and how and why they share it. The National Data Guardian for Health and Social Care was put on a statutory footing last year, and reached a Memorandum of Understanding with CQC several months later regarding data breaches within social care.
As we outlined in our blog 10 Reasons to go Fully Digital in Social Care, a recent Government policy paper2 stated that “Technology systems used daily across hospitals, GP surgeries, care homes, pharmacies and community care facilities don’t talk to each other, fail frequently and do not follow modern cyber security practices.” The PredicAire system seeks to overcome this, as a fully digital care home will be able to receive the required information on their new resident electronically from the NHS or previous care provider.
How the social care sector obtains and holds data, what it records, and how it acts upon it, is surely changing. This is not to be feared as it is likely to be, as Forbes suggest, an accelerant and enabler. However, greater access to data brings with it a great responsibility, for not only care providers but also technology providers, to manage the data entrusted to them sensitively and carefully, to ensure that it results in the improved outcomes which everyone in the sector desires.
The future of social care will undoubtedly be reliant on the use of technology. However, of paramount importance is that the technology should be built in a responsible and ethical manner to deal with sensitive healthcare data. Will you be one of the first to embrace it?
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