36 Ways For Health And Social Care Services To Increase Efficiency

COLCHESTER, U.K. - July 24, 2014 - PRLog -- The book details how new services are being developed across Care UK’s health and social care sectors to help patients make the most of their treatment and commissioners make the most of their budgets and facilities.

Chief executive Mike Parish said: “At Care UK we’ve developed the most extensive and diverse range of social care and healthcare services of any organisation in the UK. Our aim is to ensure that every service we provide is not only of the best possible quality clinically, but also understands how to treat people as individuals, with respect and courtesy, and with a real insight into their needs.

“We believe that the success of the changes already happening in both health and social care will depend on the ability to connect services intelligently, so that the whole system can target and achieve better outcomes than single providers or single services alone.

“Too often people feel passed from pillar to post, without much consideration or continuity: that the health and social care system is a not particularly coherent bureaucracy. We think this new generation of partnerships and combined services will begin to change that experience.”

The book features a number of practical examples including:

Step-up, step-down
In West Sussex, following a successful three-month trial, Eastbourne, Hailsham and Seaford Clinical Commissioning Group has extended a contract to Care UK’s Bowes House care home. Ten beds in one unit of the home have been given over to providing step-down care, by hospital referral, or step-up care, by GP referral.  The team has set up a new way of working to ensure the patient receives a completely coordinated care package, no matter how many health or social care professionals are involved in their rehabilitation.

One set of notes is kept in the patient’s room and is used and updated by everyone taking part in the client’s care.  This has been very successful and has led to better shared working and excellent results, as well as ensuring that the patients are kept informed and involved in their recovery. The service also frees up hospital beds, by giving appropriate and progressive rehabilitation care to those who no longer have a medical need to be in hospital, as well as preventing unnecessary hospital admissions through the step-up programme.

Providing social care after treatment
In Bristol and Southampton, our treatment centre teams are working with their colleagues in our community services branches to provide care before and after surgery. As well as empowering patients to manage their own care, the service reduces pressure on hospital places and increases the number of procedures a centre can carry out. For example, without someone to administer eye drops, a patient recovering from a cataract operation cannot be discharged. However, with a home visit package in place, provided by our domiciliary care service team, the patient can be discharged to recover in the comfort of their home.

The teams are also providing support for people recovering from hip and knee surgery. Carers from the domiciliary care service can visit four times a day, if needed, to provide a separate package of support with dressing, bathing and meals, and in the future, nurses at the treatment centre will train our carers to provide specialist care, on an individual basis, to get the best outcomes for each person.

Partnership helps speed mental health recovery on the south coast
In 2013, Care UK’s innovative approach and commitment to strategic partnering led to the launch of a ground-breaking partnership with the Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.

The Recovery and Rehabilitation Partnership is the first collaboration between an NHS Foundation Trust and an independent healthcare provider. At the partnership’s first project, Nelson House, in Gosport, people with complex and enduring mental health conditions develop their independent life skills so that they can move closer to being able to live in the community. This summer, the partnership’s second service, 78 Crawley Road, Horsham, opens. The innovative care and support provision will give service users access to the clinical expertise, support network and safeguards of a hospital setting – while beginning their recovery in the safe environment of a shared or individual flat, giving flexibility to ensure genuinely person-centred care.

Introducing About Us - 36 steps towards better care, Mike Parish said: “Care UK continues to occupy a unique place in the UK’s health and social care systems. We provide – and learn from – a greater range of service specialisms than anyone else, supporting more than 18 million patients and clients.

“The 36 examples in the book show just what can be achieved by respecting people as individuals and working in partnership.  Our teams will continue to work on creating new links and alliances to develop services that create seamless, person-centred care.”