Evolution and revolution – the best approach for digital in health and care
Tommy Henderson-Reay, social worker and digital engagement lead, joint NHS/DHSC Digitising Social Care programme, outlines the path to digital transformation ahead of one of the health and care sector’s leading technology events next week.
They say the clue is in the title… and next week I have the honour of taking part in the opening and closing panel discussions at this year’s HETT Show (Healthcare Excellence Through Technology).
The title of the closing session in the Digital Maturity Forum on Tuesday is does digital in health and care need evolution or revolution?
Spoiler alert: my answer will be evolution. Revolution sounds exciting but the reality is we have to think about transformation through the lens of the sector, which needs long term, sustainable support.
Happily, that evolution is well underway. The Digitising Social Care programme (DiSC) exists to support the sector and help speed up that evolutionary process, but we are mindful that this is a sector under strain. Digitisation, whether that’s digital social care records, electronic medicines administration records (eMAR) or AI tools to help record care plans and action notes, takes a range of forms. There is no single solution suitable for all.
As well as supporting the social care system to be digital adopters, we also need to be supporting the workforce and its leaders to become digitally critical.
When you go to the supermarket, there isn’t one just one brand of baked beans on the shelf – a shopper must make a choice. They make that choice on a range of factors. There are a multitude of digital social care solutions on offer. Through education, outreach, funding and support, we are helping the leaders and workforce in social care to carry out effective critical analysis when it comes to digital decisions and delivery.
Whether you’re a social care provider or a local authority, there are a host of systems and lots that can be done to improve processes and ultimately improve quality of care. But this a gradual process, recognising that the day job is massive and time, resources and head space for transformation is limited.
That is why we commission the Digital Care Hub offering practical advice and support by the sector for the sector on technology, data protection and cyber security. And that’s why we use experts to develop and test data standards for the adult social care sector, to ensure systems can effectively interact in order to improve care. It’s a gradual process.
Revolution does not deliver accountability to citizens, people who draw on care and families or support democratic processes. Revolution, when it comes to digital transformation, is in fact fanciful. We have to be cognisant of, and sensitive to, what organisational change feels like for staff on the frontline and people in receipt of services. That’s why we work with Partners in Care and Health, the digital transformation arm of the Local Government Association, to create the What Good Looks Like framework and its associated self-assessment tool to help support informed commissioning and benchmark progress.
As well as the now established benefits of digital, including more accurate care planning, access to crucial medical information and time saving on admin meaning staff can spend more time with the people they care for, the evolution is moving onto wider system benefits. Ultimately these have the same goal – to improve care. For example, more coherent data collection means better sharing and understanding of needs, so a person’s journey becomes less bumpy, more focused on their individual experience and support, and less about organisational boundaries.
The evolution will not be televised, as Gil Scott-Heron didn’t quite say. I’m not sure the HETT panel discussions will be either – but I’m certainly looking forward to a front row seat.