SmartCare clinics are being run by local authorities across the country, from Scotland to the Isle of Wight. SmartCare clinics offer great savings, reduce waiting lists and produce a high degree of satisfaction with the assessment process among service users. SmartCare clinics can offer savings of as much as 66% over the traditional method of home visits. Lincolnshire County Council, who have been running clinics since 2008, have demonstrated that two people running a SmartCare clinic can assess between 14 to 16 people a day, with a satisfaction rate of 96% amongst their service users. SmartCare is a new way of working that has been built in co-operation with occupational therapists to provide an improved and efficient service to clients and a reduction in costs to councils.

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Case Study: Being SMART in Lincolnshire

ADL Smartcare

The SmartWoundcare system allows Tissue Viability Nurses to remotely assess the status of wounds that are being managed in the community by either district nurses or care home staff and to allow them to intervene only where necessary. This monitoring system should lead to more efficient time management and early detection of wound deterioration. Early indications from the trial are that a number of hospital admissions have already been avoided and more appropriate dressings are being used to accelerate the rate of wound healing.

The other finalists in the Software and Telehealth Category were Steven Wood and his team at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Howard Last from Oakley Medical Practice in Leeds, Alaina Challans and her team from Doncaster and Bassetlaw NHS Foundation Trust and Cathryn James from the Yorkshire Ambulance Service.

The other categories and winners were:

• Medical Devices - Professor Muhammed Imran Aslam and his team from the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust for his work developing a novel blood test for bowel cancer detection and screening.
• Mental Health & Wellbeing - Ian Colpitts and colleagues from Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust have developed a therapeutic package for young children called SMILES.
• GP & Primary Care - Alan Rouane from Prior Campus in Barnsley. Alan and other members of the health team have been involved in implementing a weight management project called Fit Reds.
• Acute & Secondary Care - Michelle Cooke and her team from Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust have developed a novel approach for intravenous iron administration in the community to people with chronic kidney disease.

Richard Clark, CEO of Medipex said of the awards "It's always a pleasure for Medipex to run our innovation competition; there are so many innovative people working within the NHS and these awards help to recognise their achievements as well as highlighting innovations which can be commissioned or adopted by other organisations.  The entries in this year's competition were some of the best we have seen in the last 7 years and all the finalists should be congratulated for the work they have done improving patient care".

Find out more about SmartAssist and SmartCare.

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Equip Yourself Durham

SmartAssist for Surrey

The catalogue includes the most common items of equipment issued through community equipment stores in England. Generic specifications that meet clinical need have been developed to ensure the widest range of equipment items are available in the retail marketplace.

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Residents living within the City of York Council area now have access to SmartAssist (Supported Self Assessment), which is helping the council to provide more choice and more control to residents who wish to find items to help themselves with daily tasks but need professional advice.

The City of York Council are one of several local authorities who are spearheading our rollout of the latest edition of SmartAssist, demonstrating our commitment to continually developing a powerful, modern tool for finding solutions and advice on equipment and services. The rollout of SmartAssist 6 to existing customers should be completed by the end of July 2010.

If you are resident within the City of York council area you can access the service at Equip Yourself York.

See also: Vulnerable residents get online assistance (Yorkshire Post article)

The Changing Age campaign targets preconceptions that say that "the Elderly" are a burden on society or are incapable of further contributions once they hit 65. The campaign is backed by several notable organisations, including Age Concern, Help the Aged and the Alzheimer's Society.

Naturally, we at ADL Smartcare also support this campaign, as we help provide access to services and products that help older people to maintain an independent lifestyle.

For further information about the campaign please visit the Newcastle University Changing Age website.

The case study includes a description of how the 12 clinic locations in the Lincolnshire County Council authority area were set up and run as well as summarising the benefits that the SmartCare system has brought to both service users and the local authority.

The clinics in Lincolnshire see an average of 130 people per month, with a 96% satisfaction rate among service users. The number of people coming to clinics is growing as public awareness of the service increases. By assessing people via the SmartCare clinics the local authority has made a saving of 66% when compared to traditional home visit assessments.

Case Study: Being SMART in Lincolnshire (PDF format, 129KB)

Are you a service manager in a Local Authority?

If you would like to find out more about how ADL Smarcare can help you increase the quality of your service and cut costs please contact us.

ICADI 2010 will focus on approaches to supporting the ageing population in maintaining independent living at home, work and in the community.

For more information please visit the ICADI 2010 homepage (opens in new window).