Building from the bottom up: an approach to healthcare

Reader and independent UK consultant Guy Dewsbury writes about an approach to health and social care delivery that gives staff more control, as well as accountability, and integrates mobile into not just tablets, but keeping care plans updated in real time.

Effectively it inverts the current care pathway, but potentially achieves a better quality of care, as frontline staff are not required to spend time updating records in an office because they are updated on the go.

and

Having a smartphone-based programme, in real time, allows the managers to be kept up-to-date on all their staff. The software could also help with reports and handovers ensuring the most up-to-date information on each person being cared for is available to the frontline staff coming on shift.

concluding

Empowering frontline staff with technology can mean more appropriate, timely care and a more resilient workforce who are happier as their worth is valued.

 

He’s been kind enough to give TTA readers access to his freshly published article in Care Management Matters.

Guy’s website here. Previously in TTA on the Dependability Assessment Tool for telecare.

Dependability Telecare Assessment tool released

[grow_thumb image=”https://telecareaware.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/DTA-manual.jpg” thumb_width=”125″ /]From gdewsbury, a joint endeavor of independent consultants Guy Dewsbury PhD and Debbie Ballard, both well-known figures in UK telecare circles, is their development of a unique tool to determine the best telecare support for a person. The Dependability Telecare Assessment (DTA) tool is available in manual form for practitioners and professionals who assess, provide or install telecare, including assistive technology. The DTA is also relevant to the academic sector as a learning resource; currently it is core reading for the postgraduate telecare course at University of Edinburgh. Dr Dewsbury states that it is the “culmination of many years of academic ethnographic research with older and disabled people in the design of telecare technology to support them.” It also advocates the right amount of telecare, and not more: “Only install sufficient telecare to enable a person. Excessive use of telecare could disable a person.” It’s available in spiral-bound form for what seems to be to this Editor a pittance at £19.99 (free shipping in the UK plus postage for international). Order link here; see PDF or Dr Dewsbury’s website above for additional information.