FOI Ref: 0151FOI1920
 
6th December 2019 
 
Freedom of Information Act 2000 – Request for Information
 
We are pleased to respond to your request for information and our response is set out below:
 
Request
 
I am writing to make an open government request for all the information to which I am entitled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  

Could I possibly suggest that you direct these questions towards one or some of the following Trust employees: - the Matron in charge of the locality, Community Liaison team, Multidisciplinary health and Social care staff, Director of operations, Telecare and response manager if applicable, integrated services manager &/or Director of Nursing.  

INTRODUCTION - With future emphasis being towards INTEGRATED CARE, this FOI is investigating how advanced all types of healthcare organisations are, in being able to access information about patients in their own home /other non-hospital settings and supporting the local population with long term conditions. 
This part of the  FOI survey is directed at CCG Trusts,(although other types of healthcare providers will also be polled)  and relates to the use, endorsement or subcontracting of a manned response and monitoring centre, to provide 24x7 monitoring and communication which may;

• address patients’ concerns and questions 
• act upon safety-related alarms and alerts 
• include out of hours provision for NHS patients and private customers alike. 

Some CCG’s have already implemented monitoring centres and even promoted these to other NHS organisations as an income generating opportunity. We understand that the greater impetus has been to promote dignity, independence and safety in a patient’s own home and as a way of expediting hospital discharge plus pro-actively reducing hospital re-admissions and A&E attendances as well as taking the pressure from over stretched GP services. Not to be confused with 111, (although a monitoring centre shares some similarities) a monitoring centre can pro-actively contact the patients, relatives and carers,  as well as take data feeds from a number of devices and alarms,  around the home and also attached to the patient at home. 

In order to assist with this survey, could you please answer the following:-
(NB- if this FOI represents a multiple of CCG’s please assume we would like responses to reflect all CCG’s covered by the same FOI address)
 
1. Does your organization presently provide a Telecare operations centre to monitor your local population or monitor specific conditions? –  NO / YES 

IF the answer is YES please reply to the questions below – 1 to 8 ONLY

IF the answer is NO please skip to questions 9 to 10 ONLY

YES – we do have/use a monitoring centre

a.  Is this service staffed by clinical or non-clinical staff?

b.  Is this an internal support system using your own staff to monitor the calls?

c.  Is this an external support system run by a GP consortium, other CCG or acute Trust/ NHS provider  and does this team have a name/department title/ contact? d.  Is this an external commercially available centre or Local Authority centre and if so, could you disclose the name of the 3rd party provider? 

e. Do you know your cost per patient commitment for using the monitoring service?

f. Do you know what Software is used to hold patient contact data and log calls – if any CRM system used at all? Also if known, do you know the annual cost for use of the software?

g. How could the service/ software- be improved? 
 
2. If CRM/ Call logging system is NOT used, would such a software system prove useful for audit, reporting, management information, communication  – or any other reason?
 
3. Do you know if calls logged are written into your PAS or the patients’ GP system?
 
4. Do you collect any data from the likes of? –
 
a. Glucometers/ Spirometers/ weighing scales/ECG

b. Future advances such as Body worn devices / smart watches that collect data such as Spo2, BP, Pulse, Temp, Movement

c. Manually taken vital signs at home sent into the cloud and then onto some other electronic record

d. Wellbeing questionnaires completed by the patient

e. Domiciliary visits notes

f. GP or Community Nurse or Social care notes

g. Smart Home devices such as alerts re Carbon Monoxide levels, Intruder alarms, Non-Movement etc.

h. Fall detection systems

i. Activities of Daily Living monitoring

Other devices – not named above (please comment)  

5. If you do not collect data from remote devices, would you see any advantages to incorporating data collected from any of the items listed above, by way of ongoing monitoring, establishing baseline health measurements or general patient & social safety/wellbeing? (please comment) 
 
6. Do you use a Video link to get visual contact with your patients? YES/NO

a. If YES – why do you see this as important

b. If NO – why is this not seen as important

c. If NO - is this an aspiration?
 
7. Have you done any ROI analytics/ produced any research, to rationalize why telecare monitoring does have a place in an ACUTE setting? If YES – are you able to share these?
 
8. Who is the main person(s)/ decision maker (s) / team – who are responsible for the Telecare monitoring centre?  
 
Any other comments …………………………………………………………………………………………………… …………….
 
 
9. If the answer is NO – you do  NOT have a monitoring system
 
a. Within the next 2 years, would a Telecare Monitoring Service  be something that the Trust would consider as a way of either reducing hospital admissions, supporting an earlier hospital discharge, promoting population health and wellbeing and/or recognizing and acting upon patient deterioration sooner or maybe managing employee workload …(.or any other possible advantage not listed)?

YES  or NO  or UNSURE

a. Could you explain your reasoning for any of the 3 possible answers given above please?
 
10. Who is the main person(s)/ decision maker (s) / team – who would be responsible for the decision to use a Telecare monitoring centre? 
 
Response 
 
We would advise you contact Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust for this information, if you haven’t already done so. They can be contacted via email at foi@sth.nhs.uk.