New tech helps to cut hospital admissions from Bucks' care homes
24/7 video calls are helping residents and care workers
New technology is helping to cut-back on hospital admissions in Buckinghamshire.
24-hour video care systems have been installed in some care homes and now over 80% of residents who've had a fall stay in the home for treatment.
It's thought this has saved the NHS over ÂŁ1 million in two years.
Immedicare is a secure, video-enabled, clinical healthcare service linking care homes to the NHS with 24-hour access to a highly skilled, multidisciplinary clinical team based at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust in Yorkshire.
The service had been previously adopted by 37 care homes in the region and earlier this year, this was increased to 123 care homes throughout Buckinghamshire.
What has the service delivered?
The provision of consistent, high quality care is particularly important during the Covid-19 pandemic, as many care homes struggle with absent staff due to self-isolation, ongoing recruitment challenges and Government movement restrictions.
Between January 2019 and October 2020, 6,689 video consultations were completed from the care homes who have access to the Immedicare central hub.
Of these calls, 1,951 (29%) were related to falls.
Following a consultation with a clinical specialist, 87% of residents remained in their care home for assessment, follow-up and monitoring of their condition.
Prior to installation of the service, care home residents would have been routinely sent to hospital for assessment after a fall, usually via an ambulance.
It is estimated that the service has saved Buckinghamshire CCG nearly ÂŁ1 million in less than two years in ambulance conveyancing and hospital admissions related to falls.
What do care homes think?
Angie Wilkes, Care Home Manager for Ryeview Manor in High Wycombe, said:
“Falls are very common in elderly people, especially those with dementia, and a common reason for emergency hospital admissions.
“Going to hospital is an extremely disorientating and stressful experience for our residents, and often their condition worsens just by being in an unfamiliar environment.
"If our residents can be assessed and managed at home with us, this is better for the resident and the NHS.”
Falls in the elderly are a huge challenge.
In 2018/19, there were over 225,000 falls-related emergency hospital admissions among people aged 65 and older in England alone.
Falls and fractures cost the NHS an estimated ÂŁ2 billion a year.
Around a third of people aged 65 and over, and around half of people aged 80 and over, fall at least once a year.
Older people living in care homes are three times more likely to fall than older people living in their own homes.5 Falls are the leading cause of emergency hospital admissions for older people.
Once admitted as an emergency, care home residents aged 65 or older spend on average 8.2 days in hospital.
It can be a stressful and disorientating experience for elderly care home residents, of whom 69% have dementia or memory problems.
In the current climate, the potential for distress is heightened by visitor restrictions and can lead to additional problems associated with worse health outcomes, such as hospital delirium, which affects a third of elderly patients admitted to hospital.
Rachel Binks, Nurse Consultant, Digital and Acute Care, Airedale NHS Foundation Trust and Clinical Lead for Immedicare, said:
“Buckinghamshire CCG made the decision to commission the Immedicare service as the local data showed an increase in unplanned hospital admissions from elderly care homes – putting their residents at risk and adding extra pressure to already stretched acute local services.
“They needed a solution that allowed residents to be assessed and managed in their care home by a highly experienced multidisciplinary team, and which now has the unforeseen added benefit of reducing the risk of exposing residents to COVID-19.
"The care homes embraced this new approach, and as the data shows, they are seeing cost savings grow year-on-year in relation to reduced ambulance conveyances and hospital admissions.”