Digital Care Management System (DCMS) - Portsmouth City Council Residential Homes

The council directly runs 3 residential and nursing homes, employing over 200 care staff and supporting 172 residents. The management and monitoring of residents' care is currently paper based. The current system requires staff to make multiple entries into daily diary notes, support plans, risk assessments and care charts which can lead to inconsistencies.

The replacement of the current paper based system with a Digital Care Management System (DCMS) forms part of the council's Adult Social Care (ASC) strategy and is one of the five strategic shifts outlined in the strategy to use assistive technology to improve and maintain independence. All individuals receiving care and support require an extensive up-to-date support plan (this could be up to 30 pages of information).

Through the implementation of the DCMS efficiencies will be made in the time taken to record client details through an electronic support plan. Implementation will also further contribute to delivery of ASC strategy by improving the accuracy of recording client records (including medications). It is also anticipated that the system will also provide improvements in the quality service of the service and improved reporting for CQC (Care Quality Commission), relatives and law courts when required.

Implementation of the DCMS across the 3 homes will be via an initial 4 week pilot in one home, followed by a phased rollout across the remaining homes. The existing paper based documentation for current patients will be loaded into the solution as part of the rollout. The council would ideally seek the support of the DCMS supplier with data loading and migration.

The council have an in-house workforce development team who will undertake on-going training post roll out and can be used to assist with training during the rollout. As a minimum the supplier will be required to train one 'Super User' per home and several members of the workforce development team. The target is to complete the rollout by the end of 2022.

The DCMS solution must be simple and intuitive to use and require minimal training for care workers. The council will require a fully managed helpdesk contactable via phone and email to be available between 8am - 5pm Monday to Friday as a minimum. The supplier will also be required to provide a method of support outside of usual business hours as the homes operate on a 24/7 basis. The supplier will be required to provide 'help' resources, including for training, FAQs, and step by step instructions/guide of how to use the product.

The solution must include reporting tools and interfaces to enable the timely processing and analysis of data. The reporting solution must be able to present data in range of visual formats, ie: Bar charts, Pie Charts. The solution must also be capable of producing client specific bespoke reports, and to include all data on such reports, including data contained in bespoke forms/fields. The reporting solution should be capable of reporting on current clients only or on clients who resided at council homes between a given date range.

The council provides care 24/7 so needs the ability to access client information at all times. This includes access when on-line functionality is unavailable either due to the online system being unavailable, or network connectivity not being available. Cover is required for both planned and unplanned outages.

The council takes security of data very seriously, complying with GDPR, and with National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) guidelines. Whilst operating at council facilities users will need to connect to the council trusted network, using the devices, and as such the council would consider a user id and suitably strong password adequate security. On some occasions it will be desirable to connect from other untrusted locations (e.g. a hospital) where the council would require multi factor authentication to be in place. Whilst on the trusted network ease of access is important, so if multifactor authentication is present it must not hinder access to the solution.