Integrated Care in Action

Lisa, a health care assistant from the care home service, conducted a virtual ward round with a rural nursing home, 10 miles away, via jabber. In partnership with the home manager, they identified a resident who was deteriorating as they were nearing the end of life.

Lisa and the home manager discussed what was required for the resident to support them to remain at the nursing home, which was the resident’s preferred place to end their life.

Lisa is able to access EMIS and during the call she checked that all the relevant and up to date information about this resident was recorded. This ensured that relevant and important information about the resident and their choices is available for other clinicians to access if required.

Conducting the ward round virtually increased Lisa’s efficiency by eliminating an hour’s travel time from her day enabling her to re-direct this time to patient focused work. It also enabled her to contemporaneously update the resident’s health record during the call (producing further productivity gains) which supports the sharing of information between health and care organisations as the resident’s condition continued to progress.