OVERVIEW

In December 2018 the Scottish Borders Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) partnered with Strata Health’s patient flow software to improve patient discharge processes from Borders General Hospital into all discharge and intermediate care services. This included Discharge to Assess, Trusted Assessment/Home First, Third Sector Interface and all Residential and Nursing Care Home Placements. More recently this has also included an expansion for discharge and transfer to Community Hospitals with more than 10,000 patient referrals to services.

WHY STRATA PATHWAYS

By offering real-time access to critical patient data and care options, Strata Health’s eReferral supported care co-ordinators through the process of matching their patient against the access criteria of each intermediate care service. This provided the decision-support tools needed to implement a ‘Home First’ approach, where going home with support is the default pathway.

As a proven technology deployed across Canada, Australia and the UK, Strata Health’s eReferral software provided an ideal web-based application that could uniquely facilitate patient centred co-ordinated care across the entire Borders health and social care continuum.

THE RESULTS

The results of implementing the Strata Health software solution have been overwhelmingly beneficial. Analysis of comparative data has demonstrated:

  • Significant reduction in administrative inefficiencies and associated costs.
  • Significant decrease in unnecessary delays in hospital discharge for patients.
  • Significant increase in the number of available hospital beds in the NHS system.

Figure 1

Figure 1 shows the original manual process compared to the current process under Strata, which demonstrates a 60% (6 day) time savings in completing a Residential Care placement.

Figure 2Figure 2 demonstrates an estimate of the number of occupied bed days (OBD) saved each year and the corresponding attributable savings. Again, calculating exact actual cost-savings in complex, with estimates ranging between £131-£500 per occupied bed; however, there is no question that introducing Strata Health software has had and will continue to have a significant positive impact on OBD’s with projected recurring annual savings in excess of £400,860.

Figure 3

NEXT STEPS

We will continue to work side by side with our partners at Borders Health and Social Care Partnership in their journey to strategically transform Older Peoples services and improve efficiencies and patient/health outcomes. This year we will co-produce and implement with the third sector our nationally approved Social Prescribing Pathway. Other areas that have been prioritised for digital pathway transformation are Frailty, Mental Health & Wellbeing, Single Point of Access for Localities and Care Homes.

At Strata Health we are passionate about working alongside partners to bridge the gaps between health and social care and communities. All our pathways are configured to suit individual needs. We believe we can help.

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