Middlesbrough revitalises care work for the elderly

Leeds, 30 June 2007 – Liquidlogic, a leading provider of collaborative software to the public sector, has rolled out an electronic Single Assessment Process (SAP) across Middlesbrough Council. Middlesbrough chose Liquidlogic’s PROTOCOL SAP solution to deliver data sharing across all social and care agencies in the district and to provide ‘briefcase’ functionality to support remote working. Middlesbrough’s IT support team, HBS IT Services, implemented the software on behalf of the Council.

With 15 per cent of its population aged 65 years or above, Middlesbrough sought to improve the personalised level of care experienced by the elderly and people on long-term intensive care programmes (Service Users). Previously case assessments had no standard format and were carried out manually, this combined with limited functionality on the existing social care system, SWIFT, meant comprehensive notes could not be entered for social workers to access.

Liquidlogic’s SAP solution provides an interface to the SWIFT system, enabling automatic updates to occur when information is entered separately into the two systems. This ensures all workers across health and social care have access to a current and complete update on a Service User’s status.

Jane Keenan, the Project Leader for the Community SAP project at Middlesbrough Council on behalf of the Strategic Health Authority (SHA), explains, “With the new SAP interface, social workers can now expand upon the basic case assessment notes by entering a Service User’s personal preferences, for example, that ‘Elizabeth prefers to be called Betty’. In this way, all subsequent care workers now know to call Elizabeth ‘Betty’, thus building a good rapport with the Service User and fostering confidence in our health and social care system as a result.”

With Liquidlogic’s ‘briefcase’ functionality, care workers can now download a health check form and the Service User’s case history directly onto their tablet PC from SAP to take on site visits. Care workers can enter their case assessment notes and additional comments remotely onto the tablet PC and this information is automatically updated onto the systems. If Service Users are then referred to hospital or intermediate care, the hospital staff and any intermediate carers can also access and update these case notes on the SAP.

“Liquidlogic’s SAP system has revolutionised the way Middlesbrough performs its case assessments, enabling Middlesbrough to deliver a better quality of service and care to our Service Users. Liquidlogic seamlessly integrated its live SAP with our existing care systems and has developed an easy-to-use, unified interface which has truly revitalised how the health and social care agencies communicate,” commented Fred Taylor, SAP Lead, Middlesbrough Social Services.

Neil Polson, Business Development Manager at Liquidlogic said: “The implementation of this new technology across Middlesbrough did cause initial concern with some users who lacked IT skills. However, Liquidlogic’s SAP now seems to have been embraced by care and social workers due to its ease-of-use and the positive impact it has had on working procedures. In fact, many of the staff appeared proficient and confident in using the system before their training had been completed. The involvement of HBS IT Services has also been invaluable - their technical input and knowledge of the customer services and local government sector have greatly facilitated the smooth implementation of this new technology.”

Developed in Liquidlogic’s PROTOCOL environment, the SAP installation is complemented by real time API interfaces between PROTOCOL and the existing Health and Social Care databases used by Middlesbrough.

Middlesbrough plans to use the SAP system platform for further integration of health and social services in the county in the near future.