Tunstall Healthcare took home the ‘Technology in Care Homes’ award at the Leaders in Care Awards for its work with NHS Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group and its Quest for Quality in Care Homes programme.
The award recognises how the growing use of technology in the care home sector is paramount to driving efficiencies and providing person centred care, with the shortlist highlighting the most innovative technology suppliers serving the UK care home industry.
Tunstall’s three times award winning initiative has involved 1300 care home residents across 38 homes since 2013, with a multidisciplinary team and care home staff working to improve care and prevent avoidable emergency hospital attendances and GP visits – typically for urinary tract and respiratory infections, falls and fractures. The programme uses Tunstall’s telecare and telemonitoring systems and technology to support individual care plans for residents, enabling a more preventive and integrated approach.
Evaluation of the first two years of the programme (2014-16) showed:
emergency hospital admissions from care homes reduced by 33 per cent
cost of hospital stays reduced by £1,255,727
GP care home visits reduced by 45 per cent.
The latest results show how telecare is helping to prevent falls in care homes. In the past year (2017/18 to 2018/19), admissions to hospital related to falls as a result of fractures have reduced by 18.6 per cent, resulting in savings of more than £300,000.
Gavin Bashar, UK & Ireland managing director at Tunstall Healthcare, says: “To be recognised as a leader in the care home technology space is a huge honour for our team, alongside NHS Calderdale CCG, who have worked tirelessly to monitor and improve the lives of elderly residents living in care.
“The project has created a new model for care delivery which is replicable and scalable, and addresses the challenge of care home residents being disproportionate users of health services.”
Programme director, Angus Honeysett, says: “We’re delighted to win this award. It recognises the hard work that we do in the industry, but it’s not just about us – it’s about the people we work with on a day to day basis that make our job easier and help us make Quest for Quality in Care Homes one of the most successful services of its kind in the country.
"It has not only generated efficiencies in terms of staff workload and reduced the impact on primary and secondary care, but it has improved the quality of care delivered, changing the lives of thousands of residents for the better.”
