Information-sharing and digital care records for integrated care
What is it and how does it work?
Meeting individuals’ care needs with safe, timely and personalised responses is reliant on good communication and data sharing within and across settings. Digital health and care records provide the means to coordinate care better and manage care proactively because they are:
- accessible to all care teams involved in a person’s care, whenever they are needed
- available to, and travel with, each individual wherever they receive care.
The ability of IT systems to communicate – sometimes called digital interoperability – is a critical enabler of information flow, ensuring services and teams are able to exchange essential data in a timely and safe fashion and virtually operate as a whole, integrated (information) system.
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Video transcript Open
Digital health and care records provide the means for better care coordination and proactive approaches to care management.
This is because they are accessible to all care teams involved in a person’s care, and because they’re available to, and travel with, each individual wherever they receive care.
Digital care records support:
- the identification and targeting of people who benefit most from integration
- care planning tailored around the needs, strengths and goals specific to each individual
- continuity of care for people moving through the health and care system,
- and care coordination by multidisciplinary teams and professionals across care settings.
In addition, joined-up working between health and social care services through data sharing eliminates duplication, including multiple assessments, resulting in a better care experience for service users.
Digital innovation can bring significant benefits and support the integration of services.
But it requires more than just replacing paper based processes with digital ones. It involves using technology to reimagine work processes, professional interactions and the engagement of service users.
Better information exchange and greater digital access to shared health and care records can be expected to improve people’s experience of care as they move seamlessly through the system – only needing to tell their story once and with information safely flowing with them.
Explore information-sharing and digital care records
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Guidance Open
- Information sharing resources (NHS Digital)
- Digital change in health and social care (The King’s Fund 2018)
- Digital care and support plan standard (PRSB 2018)
- Local Health and Care Record exemplars: a summary (NHSE & LGA 2018)
- Quick guide: sharing patient information (NHS England 2018)
- Codes of practice for handling information in health and care (NSHE Digital)
- Digital working, learning and information sharing (Skills for Care 2017)
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Practice examples Open
- Stop & Go Project: connecting technology and social care companies (LGA 2019)
- Digital care and support plan standard: case studies (PRSB 2018)
- Stepping up to the place: part B: evidence review (IPC 2018)
- Quick guide: hospital transfer pathway 'Red Bag' (NHSE et al. 2018)
- New care models: harnessing technology (NHS Confederation et al. 2017)
- Intelligent sharing: unleashing the potential of health and care data in the UK to transform outcomes (Future Care Capital 2017)
- iLINKS information sharing framework (NHS Informatics Merseyside 2016)
- Integrated digital care records: enabling information sharing (COEIS 2015)
- Integrated digital care records: case studies (COEIS}
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Measuring success Open
- SCIROCCO Maturity Model self-assessment tool (Scirocco 2016)
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Tools & resources Open
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Policy documents Open
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Research Open
- Digital change in health and social care (The King’s Fund, 2018)
- Digital care and support plan standard: final report (PRSB 2018)
- Data for public benefit: balancing the risk and benefits of data sharing (Carnegie UK 2018)
- Stepping up to the place: part B: evidence review (IPC 2018)
- Digital Technologies Supporting Person-Centered Integrated Care – A Perspective (IJIC 2017)
- Intelligent sharing: unleashing the potential of health and care data in the UK to transform outcomes (Future Care Capital 2017)
- Redesigning health and social care: challenges and opportunities from an IT and digital perspective (Socitm 2015)
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Latest evidence Open
These are the latest resources from Social Care Online, the UK’s largest database of care knowledge and research.
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About me: implementation guidance
- Professional Record Standards Body, 2020 -
Information standards for health and care integration
- Professional Record Standards Body, 2020 -
What good looks like for digital records in adult social care
- Care Quality Commission, 2020 -
Hospital referral for assessment for community care and support: implementation guidance
- Professional Record Standards Body, 2020 -
Digital social care information for transfers of care: survey results and analysis
- Professional Record Standards Body, 2020 -
Local authority information (for shared health and care records): implementation guidance
- Professional Record Standards Body, 2020 -
Care homes view (of shared health and care records): guidance
- Professional Record Standards Body, 2020 -
Digital social care information: survey results and analysis: about me, care homes view and local authority information
- Professional Record Standards Body, 2020 -
Digital social care information: the development of standards to support information sharing between health and social care. Final report
- Professional Record Standards Body, 2020 -
The future of commissioning for social care
- Social Care Institute for Excellence, 2020
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About me: implementation guidance
How does this support integrated care?
Information flow and data sharing are essential building blocks of successful integrated care models. Digital care records play a role at every step in the delivery of person-centred coordinated care, supporting:
- the identification and targeting of people who benefit most from integration, through risk stratification and case finding
- care planning tailored around the needs, strengths and goals specific to each individual, including the co-production of care plans with individuals
- care coordination by multidisciplinary teams and professionals across care settings, ensuring all decisions about an individual’s treatment and care pathway are based on shared and up-to-date health and care information
- continuity of care for people moving through the health and care system, by making relevant information accessible to all professionals and services involved.
In addition, joined-up working between health and social care services through data sharing eliminates duplication, including multiple assessments, resulting in a better care experience for service users.
What are the enablers of effective information sharing?
Digital innovation can bring significant benefits and support the integration of services. But it requires more than just replacing paper-based processes with digital ones. It involves using technology to reimagine work processes, professional interactions and the engagement of service users. Critical steps to achieving this include:
- committed leadership, supporting culture change, openness and collaboration – beyond the mere introduction of new technologies
- strong information governance, including through formal information-sharing agreements and partnerships
- user-centred design and skills development
- interoperability and standardisation, ensuring IT systems are able to communicate.
What is the evidence for outcomes and impact?
Better information exchange and greater digital access to shared health and care records, including care plans, can be expected to produce the following outcomes:
- greater service user engagement, as more people are able to take an active role in their care – having easy access to essential data about their conditions and the care and support plan they have agreed with their care teams
- improved care coordination by ensuring all professionals involved, and irrespective of their specialism or the setting in which they operate, have timely access to cross-disciplinary information – including what to do in a crisis and during transition
- delivery of a broader mix of services that focus on keeping people well and receiving care closer to home
- improved safety and error avoidance – by ensuring all professionals have quick access to vital information wherever and whenever it is needed
- improved people’s experience of care as they move seamlessly through the system – only needing to tell their story once and with information safely flowing with them.