Health & Social Care Integration at Sefton Borough Council

Sharing data and workflows with health continues to be a priority for councils, although there is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to health and social care integration. Sefton Council has successfully implemented a platform to access critical GP data, illustrating how health and social care integration can be achieved in bite-sized pieces.

Viewing GP Data in EMIS Health

The council uses Healthcare Gateway’s Medical Interoperability Gateway (MIG) platform which is embedded into the Liquidlogic Adults’ Social Care System (LAS) to obtain live data from GP surgeries around the borough.

A number of data sets are available with some of the most beneficial including diagnosis information, details of investigations, medications, and examinations. Lynn Robinson, System Development Lead at the council explains the initial setup of the project:

"Liquidlogic put a lot of work into setting up the integration along with EMIS Health. Our main tasks involved switching on permissions, ensuring that appropriate data was accessed and that the correct protocols were in place. They truly went out of their way to make sure that we were supported on this, giving us the confidence to forge ahead with the project. Liquidlogic’s knowledge of health systems integration meant that getting live was as simple as it could be."

Supporting Social Workers with Real-Time Data

Lynn Robinson goes on to say:

"Previously, when social workers required medical-related information, they had to call one of 49 surgeries in the borough for that detail. This was a significant drain on their time. Now they can simply search for a service user in the Liquidlogic system and, providing the appropriate data sharing permissions have been obtained by the GP, they can see up to date
information immediately.

At times, social workers support service users who are unable to recall details of their medical information, in particular when medications prescribed are considerable, but also when changes to medication are issued. Having this information at hand not only saves time but also reduces any margin for error by having accurate data within the system.

The additional strain placed on GP services with the current pandemic means that contacting surgeries at the moment would be even more challenging. Being able to look up information instantly eliminates the need to make those calls at all. Both social workers and occupational therapists have access to EMIS data via the MIG within the Liquidlogic social care system. In time, social care and occupational therapy data will be available to GPs via EMIS health, this forms part of a second phase which the council is currently working towards."

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