Southern Health - Case Study
The Access Group has been working with Southern Health to achieve the goals set out by their 10-year plan to modernise their approach to health and care.
Previously we published a case study on how our Rio Mobilise solution has helped Southern Health with community care, but our partnership has continued to grow since then with the introduction of new software solutions; a digital answer to time-consuming aspects of healthcare, with the aim of improving care outcomes for Southern Health patients.
Who are Southern Health?
Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust is a healthcare provider for Hampshire, delivering a wide range of care services for both physical and mental health, as well as learning disability services.
The main physical services Southern Health provide focus on are:
- Children and Family Services - Hampshire Healthy Families covers children from 0-19 years of age, and focuses on wellbeing, health visits, immunisation, and children in care.
- Community Physical Health Services - This covers issues from continence, falls prevention and pain management, to end of life care.
- Primary Care
- Urgent Treatment Centres
For mental health, there are many more specific services Southern Health provide:
- Community Mental Health Services - This sector focuses on functional mental illnesses such as depression and schizophrenia, as well as organic ones caused by Alzheimer’s. Specialist focus is given for older people and the different difficulties they can face in their later years – often due to loneliness or isolation.
- Crisis Resolution Home Treatment team - This an intensive support unit for acute episodes of mental illness, with a Hospital at Home approach to helping de-escalate a mental health crisis.
- Dementia Service
- Inpatient Mental Health Services - For those people who are no longer suitable or safe to be at home with a condition.
- Psychiatric Liaison Service
- Eating Disorders – Adult or Adolescent
How we helped Southern Health
Maximising efficiency is a hugely important step for all trusts, and the Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust is no different. By utilising software, the speed of communicating patient information and other medical data is increased, and other administrative elements of data recording, management, and integration are all enhanced. With that in mind, here are some of the solutions Southern Health have with us.
GP Connect
GP Connect is a module for our Rio EPR software. It allows Rio EPR users access to GP records, which means a holistic assessment of a patient. Prior to this, clinicians would have to physically go into the surgery or phone up and request documentation. This takes time to request and to be delivered; time software can drastically shorten. By reducing the time, treatments and medications can be started sooner.
NEMS
National Event Management Service (NEMS) is a function within Rio to generate a life record for patients. The most notable event is a birth, which then begins the patient journey within the NHS record system, and Rio’s NEMS module facilitates that by communicating age-appropriate needs with clinicians, so that they can deliver the correct care.
Rio Mobilise
Rio Mobilise is a solution that we have previously touched upon in its own case study, but simply put it is a mobile version of our electronic patient's software; allowing domiciliary care workers to take notes and amend patient records on the go – without having to return to base or wait until they get home. This has the benefits of reducing duplicated effort, reducing work performed out of expected hours, and allowing patients to be present and included in their own care updates and notes.
National Record Locator (NRL)
National Record Locator (NRL) is another Rio module from Access. Southern Health Foundation Trust uses Access Rio's National Record Locator to ensure real-time access to critical patient information in emergency situations, such as medication. This is paramount for effective patient care, but especially helpful thanks to the live feed of information. It handles the changing needs of patients, but also accounts for those patients who might be from out of the catchment area as a visitor.
Parent Information Portal
Parent Information Portal is the final Rio software module Southern Health have onboarded. This is a tool designed to provide parents convenient access to their children's records at any time, and the flexibility to modify appointments. This leads to greater empowerment for parents and a decrease in administrative workload for the trust. A win-win. The child’s full medical history available for review, and there’s two-way communication between the family and clinicians.
