Electronic system to improve patients’ end of life care shared nationally
- 26 November 2020
Details about an electronic system which supports those who are receiving end of life care in the Humber, Coast and Vale Care Partnership area, have been published nationally.
The Electronic Palliative Care Co-ordination System (EPaCCS) is a palliative care shared record which enables different health and care organisations to share information about a patient’s end of life preferences and care plans. The system is now being used by GP practices, hospices, hospitals and other health and care providers across the area.
John Mitchell, associate director of IT for the Humber NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups said: “EPaCCS is a great example of a digital solution that enables clinicians to make the right decisions, based on the most up to date information and honour the choices of patients. This initiative spans the whole geography of the Humber, Coast and Vale, and takes a system wide approach, that includes all of the organisations involved in the delivery of end of life care.
“From a digital perspective, we will be making information from EPaCCS available via the Yorkshire and Humber Care Record (YHCR) to both the Yorkshire Ambulance Service and East Midlands Ambulance Service, which will be a significant milestone both for our region and the YHCR programme.”
The system, provided by software supplier Black Pear, was piloted across Scarborough, Ryedale, Vale of York and North Lincolnshire and is currently being rolled out further across the region, with planning underway to extend access to social care and care homes. There has been a significant uptake of EPaCCS during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The blueprints of the EPaCCS system have been shared online as part of the Global Digital Exemplar (GDE) Blueprinting programme. The blueprint database is currently held on the NHS Futures platform.
2 Comments
Good to hear but the terminology is slightly odd. We have been using the term EPaCCS for some time to mean a generic term for patient records available electronically and shared, of which Co=ordinate My Care (CMC) is the most common example. I would be interested to hear if clinicians in the Humber, Coast and Vale Care Partnership area refer to their system as EPaCCS or by another name.
Whilst they should be congratulated, we were doing this 10 years ago, when CCGs were mandated to commission a register. The benefits to the NHS in terms of money/resources saved, and perhaps more importantly, to those nearing the end of their lives (along with their relatives etc.) is immeasurable. Co-ordinate My Care have done some sterling work in this field.
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