Rainbows to join the LLR shared care record

Leicester Families at Rainbows are set to benefit from a system that joins up people’s health and care records across the NHS and local authorities.

Our charity is now linked into the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR) Care Record, joining the many existing commissioner and NHS and social care organisations.

This means information recorded about someone’s health and care such as illnesses, medications and hospital admissions can be accessed by different people who are directly involved in their care. Hospitals, GPs and other health and care workers have always tended to have separate records – the LLR Care Record allows the data from these to be seen in one place.

Anne-Marie Rosak, Rainbows’ Head of Hospice and Community Services and Deputy Executive Nurse, said: “The introduction of the LLR Care Record will have huge benefits for the staff and families that access Rainbows’ services. As soon as we were approached and the Care Record explained to us, we knew it would improve many of our processes such as admissions to the hospice. On short-break admission days, staff rely on parents, carers or professionals to provide important documents for the babies, children and young people, like recent hospital discharge letters or prescriptions, sometimes causing delays if they do not have this information readily available. With the LLR Care Record, nursing staff can view the most up-to-date documents and other key information directly.

“Staff often need to contact families or services for updates, and families may be asked to repeat the same information. Key updates and medical history will be included in the LLR Care Record. This reduces stress and frustration for families, and supports a co-ordinated approach across services, allowing professionals to focus on care delivery rather than follow-ups.”

Sandra Taylor, LLR Care Record Benefits and Change Manager, said: “The addition of Rainbows into the Care Record will help improve the care co-ordination and the transfers of care for the babies, children and young people across different provider organisations. As well as helping those receiving care, it will help their families as care will be more joined up, easing the information flow between organisations.

“Being able to quickly pick up on all the latest medical information without always the need for family members to provide details of what’s happened in-between visits, can be really helpful. It should help further improve safety too, with improved access to patient information such as any latest medical appointments, tests, allergies recorded and medication updates.”

A total of 20,000 staff in LLR health and care providers and East Midlands Ambulance Service have access to the LLR Care Record for direct patient care. It has been rolled out across adult social care in Leicester City Council, Leicestershire County Council and Rutland County Council, and rollout is progressing in Leicestershire Partnership Trust, University Hospitals of Leicester, Patient Care Locally CIC, GP practices (Forest House, Ibstock, Inclusion Healthcare and Assist), LOROS hospice and community pharmacies.

To find out more about the LLR Care Record, visit the LLR Integrated Care Board website – https://leicesterleicestershireandrutland.icb.nhs.uk/your-care-record/