Using Simple Technology to Integrate Healthcare and Social Care

For many years the debate about integrating healthcare and social care has raged on in UK. We are drowning in statistics for Delayed Transfer of Care (DToC) from the NHS, we have ‘Joint Commissioning’ underway. But do we have the affordable tools to get the job done at an everyday operational level?

We have countless initiatives being undertaken by NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) and local authority Social Services to pursue joined-up healthcare and social care – and generally, create a more joined-up world for the ‘Pathways’, or journey from hospital discharge to the timely provision of the right social care.

However, the coordination of all stakeholders across this integrated healthcare and social care world cannot be accomplished with current state, paper-based systems or even the integration of legacy IT systems among such a broad and diverse set of organisations.

In response to this challenge at NTTDATA, we have developed a simple technology solution to create what we call a Social Care Value Chain: joining-up all of the stakeholders, including hospital professionals, local authority social workers, care agency managers, field carers – and, of course – the patients and their families. We call this the ehCOS Social Care Platform.

Meeting Five Big Challenges

1. Delayed Transfer of Care (DToC). Liberar camas ejecutando el cuidado adecuado, en el momento adecuado – más rápido.
2. Value-Risk. Ensuring that the right care has the right funding – not too much, not too little.
3. Citizen-First. Providing clients and their families with real-time visibility into everyday care.
4. Accountability. Using social computing to make care a more accountable service – end-to-end.
5. Enabling Actionable Insights.

What Needs to Change

You can’t integrate healthcare and social care if each stakeholder organisation persists in having their IT systems in silos.

What’s needed is an IT architecture that lives above the boundaries of NHS CCGs, CSUs, local authorities and private care agencies – to enable true collaboration among all stakeholders – including citizens as clients – and their families.