“There are huge benefits if we can seamlessly share medical information between health and care professionals; to improve care outcomes for individuals and to help reduce their length of stay in hospital.”
Ms Sutcliffe commenting on the potential of digital integration between the care sector and the NHS.

“… it’s disappointing that many of the Sustainability and Transformation Plans being produced completely ignore how transformational digital integration between health and care environments could be improving care outcomes for older people.”
Prof. Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England

At admission, the nurse assesses David and the carer before leaving, advises her that the care home uses RemindMeCare (ReMe) and that she can access knowledge of David on their ward pc and tablets. Having already joined the ReMe network, the nurse is able to click onto David and view his This Is Me, My Health Passport and information on Risk, Preferences and other personal history data on screen.

David becomes agitated courtesy of the unfamiliar surroundings and the nurse pulls up ReMe and sources the last content that David had been communicating about the day before. She sees in image format that he had been in the care home garden and had discussed his love of sailing with his wife Jane. She uses this quickly gained knowledge to engage with and calm David, and he responds to a discussion about sailing.

Now calm, she does not have to resort to medication and is able to complete his admission processing.

Once David is settled, the nurse prints out a This Is Me personal summary, that includes key risk information (such as that David has a visual allergy to red, dislikes coffee, is a good sleeper but wakes up very early).

She ensures that its posted by the bedside so that the other nurses can adapt their relationship with David accordingly.

The ward is an advocate of person centred care and seeks to know key facts about the person; their faith, culture, their likes and dislikes and key facts that define the person as they see themselves.

ReMe provides them with a one button touch means to access this information, and in a fun multi-media presented format.

They use tablets to engage David in familiar activities, such as reminiscence using his personalised My Story content held within ReMe.

The nurses find engagement with David much easier, and even rewarding since they can communicate using specific topics some of which even resonate with the nurses, since one of them also used to live in Manchester, David’s home town.

He enjoys ReMe’s CST activities, all of which he’s used to participating in at the care home – and by talking to him about topics that are known to interest him, he becomes more relaxed.

Sessions are also held in the wards’ Activities area, where ReMe can display reminiscence sessions on a large screen for groups of patients, as well as in quiet areas where they can assist reduce agitation and achieve engagement between patients with common interests that ReMe has been able to identify.

Medication is not required by David and his wellbeing is better maintained.

When his family visit, they can engage with David using ReMe as a means to present family photos that keep him feeling part of the family and they can discover new content as conversations emerge.

ReMe works for any culture and any age group.

New discoveries are automatically recorded in ReMe and if they are appropriate they can be adopted by the nurses as part of their ongoing engagement acute care strategy.

The family feel reassured that the nurses are getting to know David as a person as well as as a patient and that he is being communicated with on a personal basis. It’s easier for one of them to stay overnight should they wish to do so, since they have entertainment in ReMe that David enjoys, such as music, his favorite radio show ‘The Goons’, and family photo albums.

David’s  health and wellbeing are stable. He is ready for discharge and to return to the care home.

The nurses enter a few key notes into ReMe so that the care home is aware that the nurses have learnt that he loves to talk about furniture and that he used to make chairs when he was very young as a cabinet makers apprentice, useful knowledge for the care home to continue to engage with.