Two adult hospices have become the first to join the Dorset Care Record (DCR).
Lewis-Manning Care in Poole and Dorchester based Weldmar Hospicecare have begun to use the shared record for health and social care to receive information on a read-only basis.
The DCR team said that hospices in Dorset take patient referrals from different sources including hospital, GPs or community healthcare professionals. Often these are complex cases as patients have tended to move around the health and social care system in the months leading up to hospice care.
Hayley Bonner, director of clinical services at Lewis-Manning, said: “The opportunity to be part of this partnership will expand our current patient experience and continues our commitment to put patients, carers and their loved ones at the heart of everything we do. We want to ensure our patient’s healthcare journey is as smooth and efficient as possible as it can be an extremely tough time for the people and families who are living with a life-limiting condition.”
Preventing repetition
Her counterpart at Weldmar Hospicecare, Caroline Sweetland, commented: "We sometimes hear from patients and their families that they have to repeat their story to a number of different professionals involved in their care. Sharing information on the Dorset Care Record is brilliant and will really help with the coordination of care for patients and families. This is a great step forward."
More than 5,700 trained staff can use the DCR and over 1.5m patient records have been accessed during the lifetime of the shared care record.
A DCR spokesperson said it is hoped that a third hospice, Forest Holme, will begin used the shared record in the “not too distant future”.
