Making sure digital care records speak the same language
New data standards for care providers have been implemented to improve care and reduce system pressures.
The benefits of making social care records digital are enormous. It will mean better, safer and more personalised care for everyone. It will ensure care packages can be set up faster, more efficiently and in close collaboration with partner organisations in the NHS and the community. It will also help to reduce the burden on care providers, freeing up precious time and resources to deliver care.
Ensuring that all care providers and partners are speaking the same language when it comes to the data they collect and safely share will be key to the programme’s success.
Until now, there has never been a standard definition of data within adult care. A good care plan must always be closely tailored to the individual. But currently, care plans also differ greatly in terms of the information and data they capture between organisations and IT systems.
That’s why the digitising social care programme (DiSC) has worked with people from across the sector to develop a new Adult Social Care Minimum Operational Data Standard (MODS). This is a set of standard data and definitions to help care providers capture information in the same format, and label it the same way, across all care systems in England.
Digital records will revolutionise the way that care is delivered – giving health and care professionals in the NHS, social care and in the community instant access to all the information they need to plan and deliver the best possible care for an individual, no matter where they are.
Like any language, the data requirements and formats will evolve. The digitising social care programme will continue to work with representatives across the care sector to ensure these standards are regularly updated to reflect developments and best practice.
The new Minimum Operational Data Standard (MODS) has been developed primarily for Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered care providers which use or are preparing to use Digital Social Care Records (DSCR) for recording standardised information to share.