Working in Partnership and Sharing Success
Last July, we reported how Newcross Care Home in Wolverhampton received a trophy from Black Country and West Birmingham CCG for being the first care home within the county to successfully implement FREED training.
The FREED training strategy works to upskill senior staff members in vital signs training. It can shorten GPs and paramedics’ time in homes by arranging appropriate care required, including hospital admissions. This works alongside the Docobo (a remote patient monitoring system), automatically updating GP surgeries and flagging high-risk residents.
Newcross Home Manager, Jenna Hughes, has worked in close partnership with Sarah Sherwood, Quality Improvement Nurse Lead at Black Country and West Birmingham CCG, when carrying out the implementation training and was recently invited to speak at the Sandwell FREED Workshop on Tuesday the 15th of February to share her experience of the initiative from her perspective as care home manager.
During her talk at the workshop, Jenna explained how the automatic GP updates had been an extremely valuable tool, particularly as GPs can request vital checks for specific health conditions such as diabetes. This helps create a complete diabetic picture of the resident, with individual daily readings added and sent to the GP surgery through the automatic system.
Jenna described how the remote monitoring system allows senior staff to input vital statistics for suspected infections. This provides information for GPs to determine the best treatment method, such as prescriptions being received by the home or residents being referred to a rapid intervention team.
Jenna stated, ‘’FREED and remote monitoring has seen a decrease in acute hospital admissions and precious reduced times for GP’s and paramedics. This has enabled staff to recognise early warning signs of a deteriorated individual in line with NEWS2 guidance’’.
This is a fantastic achievement for Jenna and the team at Newcross and is an excellent example of how we work in partnership with the local authority and alongside health professionals. Well done, Jenna!
