The patient experience is a big part of modern healthcare; accounting for the thoughts and feelings of individuals receiving care in a way that hasn’t been done in previous generations.
Before we can explore this subject though, we must first define patient experience.
What is patient experience?
Patient experience is what a person encounters during their care journey; from first interaction with a doctor or nurse, to diagnosis, through to treatment, and then on to aftercare; either within a hospital setting or discharged for observation back in a home or community setting.
Virtual wards are the newest addition to this patient journey, offering a form of hospital at home to allow a more hands-off experience in the familiarity of a home environment whilst still being monitored by top of the range equipment communicating patient vitals in real-time, and having routine check-ins with doctors and nurses.
Many organisations will be wondering how can the patient experience be improved. In this article we will walk through why patient experiences matter and how to enhance the patient experience. We will touch on the two main areas – healthcare software and staff – as well as the ways organisations like the NHS can implement support structures or frameworks to make sure the patient experience is being actively considered with all planning and actions.
Green social prescribing is an example of a pillar of social prescribing that concentrates on helping individuals improve their health and wellbeing through harnessing nature-based activities.
The introduction of green social prescribing escalated because of the Covid-19 pandemic. But since then, its growth has stagnated, predominantly due to limited awareness of its impacts.
It is estimated that with continued growth, it can save over £635 million for the NHS through reducing health inequalities and providing alternative mental health support for children and youth people, as well as adults.
But how does it work? Who funds it? And most importantly how can individuals take part?
This article we explain how green social prescribing works and how it has developed, why it is important, examples and outcomes of different green prescribing pilots, as well as the challenges and barriers to be aware to ensure you can implement the best green prescribing project possible.
All in One vs Best of Breed is an argument about software and establishing a system of solutions. In this instance it is about how health and care providers should go about purchasing and implementing software to help with patient care and other services, and how best to build up that integrated system of solutions so the care workflow is as smooth and efficient as possible.
The two sides to the debate are as follows:
All in One: A single provider with multiple solutions is the best option, because it makes integration and implementation easier as you deal with one organisation.
Best of Breed: Multiple providers means you can choose highly specialised solutions, giving you the best tool for each requirement and a less complex deployment. It's important to maintain a balanced relationship with providers, and multiple solutions helps prevent any single group from exerting undue influence or control over you.
The important thing is quality, above all else. There are lots of healthcare organisations across the UK providing a wide range of services. They need good software solutions that can handle the variety of hospital or community care services provided on a daily basis. Customisation, scalability, real-time access, interoperability… all of these things are what will enable world-class care and allow the most efficient care processes.
In this article we will tackle terminology, like convergence and interoperability, so that you can properly understand the ambitions of the stakeholders involved. We will then explore both sides of the argument, covering the advantages and disadvantages of each, to determine which approach is the most beneficial to healthcare organisations.
Reducing hospital admissions and the dependency on primary, secondary, and emergency care is a huge priority for health and social care professionals. Many organisations, hospitals, and NHS Trusts are looking to find new ways to reduce admissions as well as reduce re-admission after discharge.
With over 500,000 patients experiencing emergency admissions last year and over 42,000 of them waiting over 12 hours to be admitted, more action is needed to find better methods to prevent hospital admissions and re-admissions, including unnecessary admissions.
Shifting from reactive care models to preventative ones is one method that is being used more frequently. Many different preventative and early intervention methods can be used, but which are the most effective?
At The Access Group, we want to help local authorities, primary care, secondary care, and NHS Trusts to reduce the increasing demand by using effective population health management to reduce health inequalities and deliver more targeted support for at-risk patients of continuous re-admission.
This article will review why admissions are on the rise and the impact this has on the individual as well as the wider health and social care market. Ways to prevent hospital admissions will also be discussed to help you deliver better coordinated, person-centred, and preventative care that always concentrates on the individual.
Working out the right staff to resident ratio is a common and pressing concern for both care homes and nursing homes. It’s a trickly balancing act involving both financial and ethical considerations. You want to run your home as efficiently as possible while still safeguarding the safety and wellbeing of your residents.
The CQC’s official position on staff ratios is set out in Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014: Regulation 18.
In the guidance to Regulation 18, the CQC states:
“Providers must deploy sufficient numbers of suitably qualified, competent, skilled and experienced staff to make sure that they can meet people's care and treatment needs and therefore meet the requirements of Section 2 of these regulations (the fundamental standards).”
If you’re wondering “How many carers for 30 residents?” or “How many carers should be on a night shift?” or any other similar questions, the regulations do not offer one-size-fits-all answers that can apply across all services.
As set out in the CQC’s guidance, the correct approach is to learn how to answer these questions in a way that is unique to your service. This article will show you the most effective methods and tools to use to determine the right staff ratio for your needs.
Setting up a home care agency is a step taken by veteran business people from outside of social care, and more frequently by those who have worked in social care for many years.
The home care marketplace has a ‘long tail’, meaning there are a very small number of medium-large operators, with the rest of the market demand being met by small care agencies, typically focused entirely on local markets.
Agencies in this group will typically have 1-2 offices and less than 50 care workers at any time. This is hardly surprising given the nature of home care, with its emphasis on locality, personability and the relative importance of each client to the size of the business.
So if you are wondering how to start a domiciliary care agency, you are not alone. As the UK's leading provider of home care software, including our exclusive care agency start-up package we've got plenty of experience in watching our clients start up their own home care agencies, so I've put the main steps together in this article.
Knowing how to implement EHR is the penultimate step in the onboarding process of adding electronic health records to your organisation’s operations.
By this point you should know what an electronic health record is, but if not you can read our article on EHR systems for a quick explanation. We’ve also covered the advantages and disadvantages of electronic medical records, and provided a primer on EHR integration and its importance. This research is important, because you can’t successfully implement electronic health records if you don’t know what purpose they serve and how they will support your organisation.
In this article we will cover the next step; providing a quick recap of patient records and the benefits of digitising them, before moving on to crux of the matter: EHR implementation and the best practices for successfully implementing EHR systems. We’ll also showcase the ways to measure success, so you can be sure your EHR implementation has gone well.
Children's mental health is rapidly declining. Some experts and researchers argue we are in a children’s mental health crisis. Currently, 75% of children and young people who experience mental health problems aren’t getting the help that they need.
At least one in six children and young people aged 7 to 16 years have a probable mental health disorder which increases to 1 in 4 in 17 – 19 years old. So, what are the factors and wider social determinants of health that impact children’s mental health and wellbeing? What is being done currently to tackle these issues? And what more can be done?
To find the best solutions, we must get to the heart of the problem and understand why children’s mental health is declining.
At Access Elemental Social Prescribing, we know that social prescribing has been well established and successful when used by both adults and students. We have worked with a number of different organisations across health and social care, housing, and education to deliver better preventative and early intervention services which can easily be adapted to apply in children and young people (CYP) too.
This article will review what factors have caused the mental health in children to decline, the current mental health problems in children, what support is available, as well as explore how social prescribing in children can be a proactive alternative to improving mental health support for our children and young people.
Feedback in health and social care is often overlooked. When it comes to understanding the experiences, perspectives and needs of people drawing on support, caregivers and regulatory bodies, nothing can compare to care feedback. In England, CQC feedback forms are the cornerstone of continuous improvement and quality assurance in care, so should be taken advantage of.
Good communication in health and social care is the first step to developing good relationships with people and generating consistent feedback that can be used to praise your team or motivate them to change and improve the care your service offers. It’s also key to promoting empowerment in health and social care, which gives people in your care the feeling of control and autonomy over their lives.
We at The Access Group have been working with care services across the country for over 30 years, providing them with high-quality digital services, support and information to help them succeed. We have put this article together along with other useful resources to help you understand feedback in health and social care, its importance and how you can use feedback to improve your quality of care.
The cost of electronic health records can be the deciding factor whether or not to buy a solution; regardless of the benefits such software will have on patients or clients.
These solutions aren’t cheap, it’s true, but it’s a classic case of you get what you pay for: buying an electronic health record (EHR) is an investment that will have longer term benefits, and it’s on an organisation to perform analysis to determine whether there are cost benefits as well as care benefits for them to onboard an EHR software.
For new healthcare organisations, it may be a step too soon, but for established organisations like NHS trusts it is commonplace to have electronic patient records already – and NHS Digital are pushing for all trusts in England to have these solutions as a matter of course. This push is encouraging private healthcare providers to follow suit, to better collaborate with the Integrated Care Systems (ICS) in the UK and be a part of the growing health and care ecosystem aiming to provide joined-up care.
In this article we will explore these costs by looking at the initial outlay, subscription fees, how an EHR can reduce costs and the return on investment, as well as the market out there and the competition, and how pricing structures might differ.
