Joy Vs Simply Connect Vs Access Elemental – Which digital social prescribing platform is best for you?

Joy Vs Access Elemental Vs Simply Connect – defining who they are: 

All three platforms operate using cloud-based systems. This is important as it helps organisations run and deliver their services to improve their community’s health and wellbeing. This is important as it enables social prescribing projects to grow and scale quickly, taking into consideration multiple funding streams, whilst creating referral pathways that are safe, secure, and accurate.  

	Joy Social Prescribing
What is the aim?	To help social prescribers in primary care networks deliver data-led social prescribing.
What do they have to offer?	Joy Marketplace – Used to make referrals into the community services  Joy Case Management App – An online application used to manage case work efficiently

  

	Access Elemental Social Prescribing
What is the aim?	To deliver more joined up care by enabling GPs and other frontline healthcare professionals refer patients and citizens to a Social Prescribing Link Worker, Care Coordinator, Community Navigator or Health Coach, so that people with social, economical, or practical needs are empowered to engage in local programmes and services, often provided by the voluntary and community ,to improve their health and wellbeing.
What do they have to offer?	Elemental Core – digital social prescribing case management system that helps establish, scale, and measure the evidence and the impact your services have on community health and wellbeing to halt avoidable health inequalities  ConnectorPlus – integrates with leading  primary care clinical systems such as EMIS Web, Vision, SystmOne, Secondary Care (Rio), and Social Care Case Management (Mosaic)  Analytics – Helps build business cases for joined up care by linking datasets across systems to display meaningful results in bespoke reports and dashboards   Digital Community Front Door and Self Management Portal – mA bespoke front-end website (which is connected to Elemental Core via a suite of APIs) to browse the local Directory of Services, Self-Refer (to local care navigation hubs) and self-serve (for more activated and motivated citizens or patients).

  

	Simply Connect
What is the aim?	A platform co-designed with practitioners to support social prescribing, care navigation, public health, and wellbeing services to encourage collaborative working across different organisations.
What do they have to offer?	Social Prescribing and Wellbeing Platform – a platform which manages all elements of the service into a directory of quality assured community support services   Multi Agency Referral Response System – A sophisticated management system to support agencies working in partnership to ensure quick, and efficient referrals   Volunteer Recruitment – offers role advertising, volunteer recruitment, matching and management.

 

Joy Vs Access Elemental Vs Simply Connect – What services do they offer? 

There are a variety of things to look out for and consider when deciding which platform is best for you. Below is a table comparing all three top providers to show what each has to offer. It compares some of the most important areas including: the accessibility of each software, its functions, particularly looking at their interoperability and Directory of Services  as well as the support services they provide.  

	Joy	Access Elemental	Simply Connect
Software accessibility	Software can be used as both an add-on/extension and a standalone software	Software can be used as both an add-on/extension and a standalone software	It is not available as an add-on or extension
Interoperability	Integrates with EMIS Web and SystmOne	Integrates with EMIS Web EMIS Community, VISION, SystmOne and PAM (Patient activation Measure) Rio, and Mosaic	Integrations are available
Directory of Services	Integrates with other directory of services to connect people to local services.	Inbuilt Directory of Services  and also the ability to integrate with other Directories in the area. Providing  a digital front door for the community by allowing social prescribing services to manage the Directory more quickly and more efficiently .	Use the platform to arrange all the services available to make them easier for users to find the support service they need.
User Support	Uses both email/online ticketing and phone support (available 9 to 5 Monday to Friday)	Uses email and online ticketing, through a dedicated Customer Success Portal. Phone support (9-5 Monday to Friday) and online web chat	Uses both online/online ticketing and phone support (9 to 5 Monday to Friday)
Analytics	Uses metrics to record and report as an additional service including: number of referrals its source and where they have been made. Custom analysis can also be performed.	Usage metric are provided per licensee:      Reports: patient Progress, patient Attendance and intervention activity      Activity reports (referrals, destinations, case study updates)   User health journeys, user count and additional metrics can be requested available on SysAdmin dashboard to customize reports	Both Google Analytics and reporting tools within the system are used to provide usage stats including:  Real-time dashboards   Regular Reports   Reports on requests

  

From the table above it is clear that, all three offer a variety of metrics to record and track data from clients’ social prescribing journeys.  

Access Elemental offers a variety of report types per licensee to allow users full access in analysing the different areas of their social prescribing project. Both Joy and Access Elemental offer users the opportunity to customize reports to meet their individual needs.  Some of the main reports we offer at Access Elemental Social Prescribing include: 

• Client Journey Report – This report allows you to monitor all clients within a project including their pre and post scores of their health journey, their prescriptions to interventions, and case notes 
• Client/Case Activity repot – This report is a high-level report showing on month-by-month basis the number of new cases and referrals as well as the number of interventions clients were prescribed to each month  

• Attendance/impact report – this report shows the number of clients that have been attending the various interventions they have been prescribed to 
• Health Impact Report – This report demonstrates the true value and impact social prescribing has had on all the clients in your programme. All tracking of information is presented in either red or green rating. For example, information presented in green shows an overall positive change has been achieved and information in red shows the average overall change has not been positive  

We also offer a variety more reports including: intervention activity report, equality monitoring, programme report, activity report and case management report. 

Both Joy and Access Elemental provide details on what other software their social prescribing services can integrate with, but Simply Connect’s information regarding integrations is limited.   

All three providers however offer functionality to develop, manage and update directory of services within their platforms to make it easier for PCNs, local authorities, and housing associations.   

At Access Elemental one of our customers, Age Barnet UK have been using our Core, GP Connector and our Population Plus module to improve their accessibility and diversity of services available. Through using Access Elemental Social Prescribing, they have been able to gain a better understanding of the local community, including reasons for referral to identify gaps in services and adapt quicker as needs change.  

Through our data reports they can easily identify out of their 48 GP practices which are engaging with social prescribing, allowing a better proactive social prescribing approach through encouraging GPs and Health Allied Professionals make more social prescribing referrals to improve their community health and reduce pressure on primary care services.  

At Access Elemental Social Prescribing we are also aware and understand how time is valuable whether you are a Link Worker, Clinician, or another volunteer within the VCFSE sector. We know that saving time on admin to allow more time to be spent co-producing more effective social prescribing journeys is crucial therefore to achieve the best outcomes. Our latest integrations with other Access Products in our HSC portfolio allows better safe and assured pathways to be created to improve the health and wellbeing of communities even further.  

Through integrating with our Access Rio EPR (electronic patient record) and our Social Care Case Management Solution, Access Mosaic, clinicians and social care professionals can have the reassurance that they are referring patients to safe and appropriate services, as well as allowing them to track both the services patients have attended and the impact these services have had, all in one place. It is expected this will save clinical time by approximately 20% as well as improve communications between clinicians and Link Workers to get the best outcomes.  

The referrals made to Access Elemental via Access Mosaic are pre-populated with the client’s information so admin time for the Mosaic Social Care Professional is reduced and helps to reduce the likelihood of social care teams referring and clients to out of date community activities to ensure the best outcomes.  

 Through this integration all Access Mosaic users can also have better access to what community programmes and services are available in their area as well as be able to communicate with the Social Prescribing Link Worker working with their client’s progress in a more qualitative manner. To make it even easier to use Access Mosaic users and social care professionals also have the choice to configure the Access Elemental tab wherever they prefer for better navigation and ease when making referrals. This helps save further time and allows both Social Prescribing Link Workers and Social Care professionals alike to make their client’s their number one priority to help improve their health and wellbeing.  

For more information on our recent integration with Access Mosaic contact us today where we can share our recent webinar explaining the benefits of this integration further and how it helps to reduce pressure on social workers through better utilisation of local preventative services.  

Access Elemental Social Prescribing  

Access Elemental provides 4 main tools that can all be used interchangeably depending on your community’s needs.   

All the tools available aim to provide a digital platform to empower organsiations to establish, scale and better measure the uptake of social prescribing services and the improvements to your community’s health and wellbeing.   

The software is easily implemented to make measuring social prescribing more effective by helping secure future funding by tracking your Return on investment (ROI) and avoid using multiple systems or manual processes to input all your information into.  

It offers fully flexible referral pathways to suit all community and wellbeing programs and integrates with leading clinical systems to make and manage referrals to social prescribing link workers as easy as three clicks.   

Access Elemental Analytics tools also allows bespoke dashboards to be created for each client to make tracking progress of what matters to them even easier and in one place.   

Access Elemental Social Prescribing also integrates to work with 3rd parties to make managing social prescribing referrals even easier. This allows both GP surgeries and Social Prescribing Link Workers to send information back and forth across their systems. Through allowing both end-users to be able to send back free text, send back attachments, and be able to use additional SNOMED codes, helps social prescribing journeys can be managed better, especially now they are getting more complex.   

Through being able to send across both push and pull notifications on the systems not only do Social Prescribing Link Workers have a stronger position within Multi-Disciplinary Teams, it also helps encourage clinical groups to participate more in social prescribing to provide better standardised evidence for social prescribing. To help standardised this evidence further Access Elemental Social Prescribing have also joined the PRSB Joint partnership scheme to help ensure all customers are better informed and prepared for when the new social prescribing standards get implemented later this year. 

Simply Connect 

Simply Connect social prescribing software supports practitioners across numerous health and social care settings aiming to improve case management, health and wellbeing assessments, and task management. It is a multi-partner system to support collaborative working across organisations and offers modules to tailor the system to suit the needs of the organization at an additional cost.  

Simply Connect has a variety of tools to make managing and delivering social prescribing across health and social care sectors more efficient. Its quick and easy referral route provides support to healthcare professionals to connect patients to link workers or verified community services.    

From recording patient details, referrals, and health improvements into one dashboard its inbuilt wellbeing measurement tools enables progress to be monitored. Its case management makes keeping client’s information up to date easy and allows relevant support plans to be uploaded so clients get the most out of their social prescribing journey.   

 

	Joy Social Prescribing	Access Elemental Social Prescribing	Simply Connect
Benefits	AI -powered Directory services makes it easy to know what is locally available  Integrating with clinical systems and self-referral options makes organizing referrals much easier   Email notifications for every new referral can be generated   Customizable referral forms  Data and information can be tracked to see how social prescribing is improving health and wellbeing for individuals and the community	It can create bespoke dashboards to suit the needs of a community   Empowers patients to access support without having to see a GP through self-referral and self-serve modules  Effective measuring of impacts by using several inbuilt measurement tools to measure wellbeing   Increased ability to better support communities by co-designing referral pathways bespoke to the individual   Reduces admin time   Maximises the impact of employment support  Connects students with non-clinical services within and beyond university to improve wellbeing and reduce dropouts  Enables vulnerable tenants to get all the support they need whether they are mobile or not    Offers sophisticated two-way integrations with clinical software including EMIS Web, SystmOne.   Supports those stepping down from inpatient care to exit quickly and safely whilst reducing risk of readmission   Delivers and measure the uptake on key population health management, public health, mental health and obesity objectives	Its simple interface allows both practitioners and individuals access to social prescriptions easily    Patients understand their wellbeing needs using validated measurement tools    Encourages the importance of self-care to enhance user experience    Real-time tracking of clients’ journeys helps clients and service providers see the impact of social prescribing on each individual    Automation of common tasks saves time and resources for all involved

  

  

How much does Joy, Access Elemental and Simply Connect social prescribing software cost? 

Due to the different functionality each of these social prescribing platforms offer the cost of having one can differ.  

Simply Connect’s platform is beneficial for smaller social prescribing services as its pricing only shows costs for up to 300 referrer licences. Whereas both Joy and Access Elemental offer costing breakdowns for population sizes of areas.  

Joy charges separately for their case management system and marketplace solution. Whereas Simply Connect and Access Elemental include directory of services in their main package. Some social prescribing software can be more expensive in the first year due to including training, consultancy, planning and the implementation of the platform in the set price. Others offer a fixed rate.  

All of these social prescribing platforms offer customisable options at an additional cost to create your own bespoke packages according to your community’s needs.  

So, when deciding which platform is best for you, it is important to consider what do you need from a digital social prescribing platform, which ones offer support for those needs, and which offer it at the best value for money. For information on our pricing packages that can be available to you, contact us today.