
Adult social care staff at Durham County Council have begun to access clinical data on the Health Information Exchange (HIE) to help them tackle COVID-19.
25 team leaders now have access to a sub-set of clinical data on the HIE. HIE allows health and care records from different organisations to be viewed and shared as part of the Great North Care Record.
Durham are the second council in the region to access this data. Newcastle City Council staff were the first to access the HIE in July. Gateshead Council will be the next to join. The remaining councils across the region are considering using the HIE viewer.
Staff in Durham will use a web portal view of the HIE as an interim step in response to COVID-19. It means that adult social workers can find out about a patient’s status, if they have been admitted to hospital instance, or if they have been shielding.
This interim step is in place until the council connect their case management system to the HIE. As a result, this will not only provide an integrated view for staff at Durham, but also that data from their system will be made available on the HIE.
Marion Ingleby, Strategic Manager Operational Support said:
“We have been working with the Great North Care Record Team for over a year and it is a real achievement that we are now at the point where we can begin to access this range of data within our Adult Social Care teams.“Access to the Great North Care Record will allow us to deliver better outcomes for our service users and their families and carers, as staff will now be able to view important information quickly and use it to inform the decisions we make together.”
Thank you for sharing the information about this initiative.
Thanks Jennifer – we are very excited about beginning to share data with our colleagues in adult social care.