Experiences of implementing remote monitoring in care homes in south west London

Academic Health Science Networks play an important role in promoting the spread of innovation across health and social care.

The HIN’s Healthy Ageing team interviewed staff involved in introducing remote monitoring technologies to care homes across south west London.

Introduction

In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic challenged care home staff and their residents in new ways. One of the struggles was how to recognise deterioration in care home residents earlier and access the most appropriate healthcare services for this vulnerable group while having reduced direct face to face contact with healthcare providers.

Remote monitoring systems had begun to be used in some care homes in England since 2016. Use of these tools was accelerated in 2020 which also helped to meet the challenges of the pandemic. Central funding was provided, and London’s Integrated Care Systems came together with NHS England’s London team and local Academic Health Science Networks to implement increased use of remote monitoring systems in care homes across the capital.  

South West London (SWL) Integrated Care System (ICS) set out a ‘Digital Integration Roadmap’ showing how it would support care homes to advance their digital capability. As part of this work two remote monitoring systems – VCare (now Camascope) and Whzan – have been introduced in care homes across South West London.

These remote monitoring technologies utilise Bluetooth enabled care technology and a digital dashboard to allow care home staff to take, record and monitor vital signs (blood pressure, heart rate and temperature of residents).  Information is then stored digitally, and, with the care home’s permission, can be accessed by healthcare professionals, such as the GP. The systems automatically calculate a NEWS2 score (National Early Warning Score) which alerts care home staff to follow their local escalation plan. Having access to clinical information allows care homes to spot signs earlier that a resident is becoming unwell and escalate to healthcare services.

Here, members of the ICS project team, and managers from four care homes share their experience of implementing remote monitoring equipment.

The ICS Project Team

Jenny Freeman, Programme Manager, SWL Integrated Care Board

Jenny Freeman joined South West London’s Digital Integration in Care Homes Team in the Autumn of 2020, with responsibility for remote monitoring.

Tell us about your plan to implement remote monitoring in care homes?

Jenny described the significant task she took on to mobilise remote monitoring for SWL, an ICS with over 350 care homes. She recalls: “I’d managed change projects before but not on this scale or under these circumstances – we really did start from scratch and were unsure what we would encounter”.

While procurement processes for the remote monitoring services took place, Jenny devised a delivery plan based on using a newly formed team of Digital Integration Support and Liaison Officers (DISLOs), described below.

This approach was based on experience gained earlier during the pandemic when the ICS had to rapidly roll out NHS mail to care homes using redeployed NHS workers.

Building relationships with care homes, holding good conversations, being consistent and following up with clear information was considered key to the delivery model. The team began to develop and describe individual stages of implementation, which were supported by shared guidance, scripts and FAQs ensuring all care homes received the same message.

How far has the programme progressed?

Since the journey began, more than 107 care homes have digitally transitioned to use either Camascope or Whzan Remote Monitoring equipment.

We were all working remotely and learning at pace. We had to develop our approach and implement this new technology at the same time as familiarising ourselves with how the technology could improve the care home resident’s health outcomes. I’m pleased to say that we were successful.

Jenny Freeman

Reports from care homes are positive including increasing staff confidence in clinically assessing residents, escalating cases of deterioration, and building better connections with some GPs and other parts of the health system.

Jenny acknowledges however: “We’re still on the journey to full digital integration between the NHS and care homes.  What we have learned and our successes put us in a good position to go forward”.

Successes

Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT) – The gateway to all things digital

Jenny felt a key success in the remote monitoring implementation was the support the Care Homes Digital Integration team provided in helping care homes to prepare for and complete the Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT).  Even though data regulation requirements were relaxed slightly during the pandemic, SWL ICS set robust expectations for Information Governance checks. Jenny reflected: “although challenging at the time, it was the right thing to do. SWL planned for the long-term by preparing homes for when data regulations resumed and as a result is now one of the leading ICS for DSPT compliance, with 82.4% of care homes attaining DSPT ‘standards met’ level.”

Recruitment, Training & Development of Digital Integration Support & Liaison Officers (DISLOs)

In order to implement remote monitoring, Jenny recruited nine Digital Integration Support & Liaison Officers (DISLOs) on 6-month fixed term contracts in Autumn 2020. The team went through recruitment, induction and training remotely. No-one met in person for another six months. Employing considerate, engaging people with great interpersonal and communication skills was a priority. Jenny said positively: “I often thought of the team as great people who would have been working in other roles but couldn’t because of Covid-19 restrictions. We employed people from the travel industry, hospitality and film industry as well as new graduates who were out of work and we truly benefitted from this diverse and highly skilled workforce. I feel very proud of how we worked and learned together under very challenging circumstances.”

The first two weeks of virtual training included trust-building activities and the team developed their own set of values. Jenny facilitated these sessions and recalls: “I was constantly thinking what I would have done if we were all ‘in person’ and then converting the activity to work virtually. Online ice-breaking activities were a great way of developing trust and breaking down barriers.”

Skill mix and peer support

The team set up three working groups focused on communications, continuous improvement and data and analytics. As the programme of digital work expanded, dedicated posts were recruited to support some of these functions.  Peer support was essential and MS Teams was used to set up shared channels to aid communication and file sharing, as well as a private DISLO team peer support channel.

The team values ensured that everyone had a voice, any concerns were able to be shared and resolved quickly and ideas for doing something differently were always welcomed.

Challenges

Implementation Model

The model for implementation was developed from scratch with help from the Remote Monitoring suppliers. The implementation cycle involved the DISLOs first engaging the care home and signing them up to the project then putting training in place, equipping the care home with the technology, and following up to ensure things were running smoothly.

Jenny said: “Implementation was complex and took time, there were lots of elements to the process and limited time to follow up to ensure remote monitoring was embedded, which meant homes didn’t always continue to monitor residents regularly.” These variable outcomes led to the development of the Digital Implementation Support Advisor (DISA) role. This role was less technical than the DISLO and could engage prior to and post implementation to support the homes.

A new process was established with updated documentation and guidance. Jenny said: “It feels like our approach to implementation and the toolkit used could now be taken and used by any other ICS wishing to introduce remote monitoring in care homes.”

Embedding

Jenny reiterated one of their key principles: “We were working with care homes not ‘doing to’ care homes.”  Some care homes were able to implement remote monitoring more easily than others, but this varied from borough to borough and was influenced by a variety of factors e.g. staffing availability, attitudes, culture or the type of care home.

The message was clear from Jenny: “Don’t expect care homes to turn up to a meeting just because it’s in their diary – their work place is unpredictable and extremely pressured. Always be prepared, ‘phone them beforehand, check everything is ok, be understanding and always be prepared to rearrange and start again. Maintaining supportive relationships with the care homes is key to the embedding of remote monitoring. System users have continued to increase month on month showing how successful this model of implementation is in sustaining change in care homes.”

The Future

 NHS SWL plans to implement remote monitoring in 162 care homes, which is 47% of care homes across the system. Jenny remarked that there remains some uncertainty amongst the wider health and care system about the use of this technology in care homes and suggested that further work will be needed to understand the impact of this for partner organisations such as GPs and community services. This, plus wider digital integration with the health and social care record, needs to take place in order for remote monitoring to deliver its full potential for care homes.

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Lisa Atik, Project Manager, SWL Integrated Care Board

Summary of challenge

Lisa began work on Remote Monitoring in March 2022, having led the roll out of RESTORE2 in care homes previously. Lisa’s role was to manage the project from an operational perspective and she was tasked with simplifying processes where possible, as well as taking an overview of other digital transformation projects in care homes

It was perfect timing for me to come in because people had been doing things in a particular way and were ready to hear about ideas regarding making things easier.

Lisa Atik

At the time, care homes were being offered lots of different digital opportunities, without a coordinated approach. For example, DISLOs were tasked with implementing and embedding Remoting Monitoring, while DISAs were working on implementation of eRedBag – a digital emergency information pack – and supporting care homes to complete annual digital readiness survey to assess appetite for regarding digital technology.

A review took place, and one of the outcomes was an agreement that a new approach should be taken where a DISA role would work alongside the DISLO role.

Process of change

Over the following six months, Lisa worked with the team to streamline and simplify the process of taking care homes from not having Remote Monitoring to being fully functional and embedded. The team engaged with staff at all levels and looked at the whole cycle of change. It was quickly understood that updated, clearer and interlinked resources such as process guidance, training and communication were required.

Having new DISLOs join the team gave a great opportunity for new processes to be tried, tested and further refined following feedback.  The result was a toolkit which defined six stages of remote monitoring implementation, developed with the intention that anyone starting a role without any prior knowledge could pick up what to do from the toolkit. All the documents needed for each stage were included in the toolkit so everything was at the DISLO’s fingertips:  

Stage 1 and 2: Engagement and Service Agreement

Stage 3: Configuration Form

Stage 4: Personal Confidential Information Form and Training

Stage 5: Baselining and Go Live

Stage 6: Embedding

Interaction between DISAs, DISLOs and CDEs

The implementation model then focused on recruiting Digital Implementation Support Advisors (DISAs) and Digital Information, Support and Liaison Officers (DISLO) to work together in particular geographical areas. The DISAs and DISLOs shared their soft intelligence and knowledge of the care homes to improve relationships which in turn enabled the team to more effectively bring multiple digital projects into one large integrated programme.

The DISAs revised role was to engage with individual care homes and develop staff interest in digital integration. Once a care home has been identified as being ready to start remote monitoring, the DISA would hand that care home over to the DISLO, the remote monitoring experts, who would implement and embed the vitals monitoring kit (the remote monitoring technology). Once the care home had been fully embedded (usually defined as 8 weeks post “go live”) and was using the kit, the DISLO would hand the care home back to the DISA for ongoing check-ins and support.

If the care home required further technical support, then the DISA would ask the DISLO to re-engage with the care home until the care home felt confident and able to continue.

A training programme is in place to support the continual development of the DISA and DISLO roles.

Lisa was also instrumental in developing the Clinical Digital Educator (CDE) role, an outreach role providing digital and clinical training to care home staff, to increase their skills and confidence in the use of health-related digital equipment. The CDEs are also competent with RESTORE2 – a tool used by care home staff to identify early signs of deterioration in a resident’s health – which care home staff had been trained on during 2020/21. The role of the CDE is to support the care homes and the staff to be able to use the vitals monitoring kit, understand the benefit of it and to provide all the necessary training associated to use it. This includes NEWS2, RESTORE2 ‘refresher’ and new starter training as well as the technical training associated with the kit.  

To provide assurance and governance, meetings between DISAs, DISLOs and CDEs take place at Place level, to monitor progress against the plan and agree next steps. The soft intelligence gathered at these meetings is then fed into future digital planning.

Lisa also stated that bringing all levels of the project together to understand what worked and what didn’t was essential, whilst continually testing the changes made to ensure systematic improvement.

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Paula Green, Senior DISLO (Kingston & Richmond), SWL Integrated Care Board

Paula works as Senior DISLO in Kingston & Richmond, having previously worked in Macmillan Cancer Support, and the Department of Health and Social Care.  She reflected on her experiences supporting care homes with remote monitoring.

Understanding care homes at ‘place’ level

Paula said that the introduction of fortnightly Place meetings brought together all of the digital projects and personnel working with care homes in that Borough and this supported a joined-up collaborative digital approach to each home.

Following on from this, Paula noticed improvements in staff confidence and more effective working relationships. “By working together, we removed duplication and identified issues whilst instilling a ‘one size does not fit all’ ethos, which meant digital offers to care homes are now tailored to the home’s capacity and needs”.

By working together, we removed duplication and identified issues whilst instilling a ‘one size does not fit all’ ethos, which meant digital offers to care homes are now tailored to the home’s capacity and needs.

Paula Green

Increasing the spread and adoption of digital projects in care homes

Paula felt that having dedicated DISAs, DISLOs and CDEs in each borough has helped stimulate the spread and adoption of remote monitoring. Paula said: “You get to know your patch and they know who to contact for support”. The training model offered, which was once only virtual, have been adapted depending on the care homes’ size, type and complexity. For example, larger care homes are now trained face-to-face and in phases, allowing for more time to ensure embedding takes place, alongside support from the Clinical Digital Educator.

Continuing challenges

Paula mentioned that there is sometimes an assumption that everyone is digitally aware and familiar with the some of the terminology/jargon in use, but that this wasn’t always true for some care homes. Paula said: “We needed to be clear with the language we used and not assume care home staff are familiar with and confident to use IT. For example, not everyone knows what a Mi-Fi dongle is and how it works so we had to provide clear information about these solutions and encourage questions to ensure understanding.

There were also language barriers, and the merging of systems to consider.

Maintaining contact with care homes was also a challenge, and with regular staff turnover and the continuous presence of Covid-19, there was always a risk that homes disengaged. Some small care homes posed even greater challenges, as Paula described: “Some homes only have 1 or 2 beds and have always used paper, and do not plan to invest in anything digital. Some very small homes don’t even have Wi-Fi at the moment.” 

What might the future look like?

Paula feels the spread of remote monitoring will continue and offers great benefits for staff and care home residents. Mental Health and Learning Disability homes are now beginning to transition to remote monitoring alongside Residential and Nursing homes. These homes would typically provide care to younger cohorts and conduct fewer vital signs checks, but Covid-19 has led to some homes embedding a culture of routinely measuring residents’ temperatures, as they came to see the potential benefits. Paula explained: “it was identified through the regular monitoring of a resident in one mental health care home, who suffered regular seizures, that their temperature would go up just prior to a seizure.”

A future improvement would be greater integration between IT systems used in care homes. For example, remote monitoring suppliers are progressing integration with two widely used Digital Social Care Records (DSCRs) systems as well as with the primary care software provider.

Daniel McNamara – DISLO (Croydon), SWL Integrated Care Board

Daniel works as a Digital Integration Support and Liaison Officer (DISLO) in the south London borough of Croydon. He said “I’ve really enjoyed the role and the training and development has been brilliant.”

He remarked that his role changed substantially in a short space of time from initially working in isolation, to working in a coordinated way with DISAs.

His tasks involved on-boarding the care home throughout the 6 stages of remote monitoring including organising induction training, and then refresher training and/or train the trainer sessions when required.

Reflecting on his time in the role, he said that a vital component was liaison work between the different stakeholders when complications, issues, or concerns were raised by care home staff or the digital team. He recalled an example where a care home stopped using remote monitoring and returned to using manual, paper recordings as they were experiencing difficulties with certain aspects of the digital system. Daniel was able to trouble-shoot and after further liaison and training with the staff, the home returned to using the remote monitoring technology.

Ongoing monitoring

Daniel said that a dashboard had been set up so that DISLOs could identify trends in the use of the remote monitoring technology. Vital sign readings were also reviewed regularly by the programme and project managers, DISLOs, DISAs and CDEs to monitor whether the equipment was being used and to identify homes who might be having issues.

The future

Daniel remarked: “Care homes are amazing and digital is the future for this sector”. He felt enthusiastic about his prospects in the role, as well as the future of digital technology in Care Homes in general, citing a new Sensor-based Falls Prevention and Detection pilot that was underway.

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The Care Home Managers

Rikesh Halkoree, Manager – Grange Cottage Residential Home, Sutton

About the Care Home

Grange Cottage is a 33-bed residential home in Sutton providing care for older people.

The home ‘went live’ with Remote Monitoring in July 2022 and have carried out monthly observations for residents since then. The home’s GP has access to view the data captured by care home staff using remote monitoring technology.

Benefits of remote monitoring for residents and staff

Rikesh said that staff felt that the Camascope App, system and equipment were easy to use, despite initial challenges. Staff like how the system automatically calculates the NEWS2 score (National Early Warning Score used to standardise the assessment and response to acute illness) and provides a risk level with colour recognition as this provides reassurance to the staff.

The efficiency and clarity of the Camascope system when staff are taking physical observations has facilitated the communication of risk internally with senior staff and management.

It has helped embed a clear escalation plan. Staffing confidence levels and decision-making capabilities have notably improved, [along] with resident care.

Rikesh Halkoree

The availability of the Clinical Digital Educator to help answer any questions related to the remote monitoring tool as helped them use the tool effectively.

Furthermore, the simplicity of the App and Camascope equipment means that experienced users are able to provide peer training to new colleagues.

Early challenges

Rikesh mentioned some initial difficulties during the first training session when the technology was being introduced to staff but that a second training session, and some additional embedding support from the DISLO, ensured the home got back on track.

Some early technical issues were also experienced e.g. the blood pressure monitor did not always sync with the tablet, but this was soon rectified.

Early on, GPs could not see readings via the web portal function, so residents’ readings needed to be conveyed via email or phone temporarily. However, this did not deter the GP surgery who worked with Camascope to resolve the difficulty.

Added benefits

Rikesh also highlighted the impact the technology had had on staff motivation: “My staff members have developed more confidence in communicating with healthcare professionals outside of the organisation and this has enhanced employee motivation. In addition, sharing knowledge and skills of using the Remote Monitoring System with new staff has instilled positive feelings of autonomy and responsibility within individual job roles.”

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Irshad Maudarbacus, Manager – Roselands Residential Care Home, Norbury

About the Care Home

Roselands is an 18-bedded residential care home looking after people predominantly over 65 years of age. It specialises in the care of people with Alzheimer’s, Bipolar Affective Disorder, Dementia, and Schizophrenia.

Roselands Care Home started using Camascope in September 2020.

Benefits of remote monitoring for residents and staff

Irshad explained that prior to the introduction of the Camascope equipment, staff would take and record observations manually, then use these to calculate the National Early Warning Score (NEWS2), and record this in the residents’ electronic records. However, vital signs were not always being taken, and Camascope helps with this as it tells me when observations are taken and at what time. Plus, because the tool automatically calculates NEWS2 scores, iit potentially eradicates errors that could arise when calculating manually, meaning staff get time back to focus on their clinical duties. I now know physical health vital signs are not being missed.”

Staff like the way that Camascope can be used to generate reports, so clinical information can be printed off and shared with residents, their family members, and healthcare staff. He highlighted how the reporting function also enables him to demonstrate to partnering organisations and stakeholders how quality and safety standards are being met.

Practically, strong Wi-Fi access is essential to support the implementation of Camascope, and Irshad said that portable Wi-Fi devices provided by the South West London Digital Integration in Care Homes Team had been very helpful in ensuring that Wi-Fi was available across the home.

Regarding the ease of implementation, Irshad said that staff welcomed the introduction of Camascope, and that it took off from day 1. Shift leaders were trained first, and then they trained their staff at a convenient time.

Important success factors

Irshad stressed the importance of providing an easy ‘how-to’ guide for staff at all levels and keeping access to the Camascope system as simple as possible, as some staff had reported problems remembering their passwords.  

Thoughts about the future of remote monitoring in care homes

Irshad said he would recommend remote monitoring equipment to other care home organisations, Irshad said: “For a smaller care home like Roselands, it can make a big difference to the quality of care and the experience of providing care for the staff members involved.”

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Grace Nabus, Manager – Coombe Hill Manor Nursing and Residential Care Home, Kingston-Upon-Thames

About the Care Home

Coombe Hill Manor Residential Care Home in Kingston-Upon-Thames is a four-storey care home with 94 beds, caring for older people.

The home started using Camascope in June 2022.

Benefits of remote monitoring for residents and staff

Grace said that staff found the monitoring kit very easy to use and to transport between different areas and floors in the home. The way it automatically calculates NEWS2 scores was also welcomed as this can be challenging when done manually. Staff also like how the system centrally stores and analyses the information, and the way readings are clearly displayed as a baseline for each resident.

Grace said: “The readings on the apparatus are great for sharing with other internal and external professionals.”

Grace also mentioned that Camascope’s alert system was a reassuring feature for staff as it warns them of a potential

deterioration in a resident’s condition and acts as a prompt to seek further advice from the GP.

A further benefit is that the care home’s GP can access the residents’ observations via the Camascope web portal which could enable a remote review of the resident if clinically appropriate, thereby saving time for everyone.

Grace said it has been helpful to have clinical staff on hand to help support implementation of remote monitoring tools.

Implementation challenges

Another technology (vital sign monitoring equipment) had been put in place in the home prior to Camascope and it was proposed that this could be used alongside the Camascope kit. Grace felt that this had reduced the enthusiasm amongst staff as they required additional training. In hindsight, Grace felt that it would have been helpful for Camascope equipment to have totally replaced previously used equipment and training to be in place prior to the introduction of Camascope. She said: “Some staff needed to be sold the benefits, because when they realised what it can do, they were supportive.”

Grace highlighted potential issues in relation to implementation in larger care homes that had multiple units for both physical and mental health. She said: “We have had to train the home floor by floor which has led to confusion and delays in the estimated time to embed a more digital way of working.” She felt her staff and those at other large care homes would benefit from greater time and support during the implementation stages, and a staggered approach was suggested to support staff when being trained to use the equipment and software.

Grace also commented that having a longer battery life on the Camascope Monitoring Kits would be a helpful improvement.

Grace stressed that good Wi-Fi is essential. She had appreciated support from South West London’s Digital Integration in Care Homes Team who had provided portable Wi-Fi equipment.

Thoughts about the future of remote monitoring in care homes

Overall, Grace said that her staff felt positive about the benefits of remote monitoring. In summary, Grace said: “It’s very easy to use. The future is digital.”

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Marie Bannister, Manager, Sutton Court Care Home, Sutton

About the Care Home

Sutton Court Care Home is a 63 bed residential care home, caring for residents with a range of conditions including dementia, general mental health conditions, palliative care needs, cancer and Parkinson’s Disease. 

Camascope was implemented in the home during the covid pandemic.

The implementation experience

Marie said: “The Covid-19 pandemic devastated the care home and we sadly lost 20 residents. During this time, Sutton Court learnt a lot around digital communication.”

She said that staff had felt that Camascope was very important in logging and sharing information about residents with the healthcare team and that introduction of Camascope allowed staff to have more time delivering care, and less time spent writing and uploading recordings onto a resident’s clinical records.

Training to support the use of Camascope had been cascaded to new staff through a “train the trainer” approach. Senior staff members were initially tasked with supporting less experienced and newly recruited staff, but now the responsibility has cascaded to all staff to ensure usage continues correctly and effectively.

The Clinical Digital Educator in Sutton had supported the home with clinical queries.

Marie reported that the expertise and support from the South West London Digital Integration in Care Homes Team had helped smooth the implementation of Camascope, by ensuring there was effective Wi-Fi throughout the home, as well as using the equipment and troubleshooting issues (such as entering baseline data manually, synchronising the equipment, and accessing the Camascope dashboard).

However, Marie said: “Despite initial challenges, the system is good, and it works.” If a patient deteriorates under Camascope observation, staff are alerted through its internal alert system, which prompts staff to contact the resident’s GP. This allows deterioration to be identified earlier and escalated only when necessary.

This had improved the relationship and communication with the care home’s GP. Marie explained further: “Covid-19 made it even more challenging to see a GP. Liaising via email and telephone quite regularly was extremely time-consuming. Camascope has helped our staff communicate directly with the GP, and raise concerns through its interface, reducing time spent composing emails or conducting telephone calls.”

Challenges

Initial teething issues were experienced, including staff members having difficulties establishing baseline data for some residents. They also had to get used to checking the equipment regularly to ensure it remained charged when it was synchronising with the online web portal to upload data.

The future for remote monitoring in care homes

Marie concluded that she hoped that the use of digital monitoring would continue, and that the technology could also be extended for use with emergency services and hospitals. 

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Key themes identified by Care Home Managers enablers, benefits and future improvements

Enablers

Planning

The importance of robust planning in advance of implementation was stressed by the care home managers.

Training

All the care home managers felt that accessible and high-quality training was essential. They pointed out the importance of factoring in sufficient time for this. It was suggested that the larger the care home, the more time is needed for training.

The method of delivering training varied depending on the needs of each home. It was important to plan the training to maximise attendance and minimise disruption to the service, and to ensure the training suits the skills and capabilities of the staff. A “Train the trainer” model can be useful for sustainability.

Increased capacity during implementation

Being able to “backfill” staff time during the implementation period was seen as important as some homes could not find the additional capacity to release staff for training.

Access to Wi-Fi

Stable Wi-Fi in all areas of the care home was essential. Some of the care homes used portable wi-Fi devices to facilitate this.

Support for culture change

Successful implementation of remote monitoring requires a culture change for many care homes as they transition from paper to digital systems. This can be a challenge for many staff and good leadership, support and encouragement are helpful. 

Provision of external support, which was easy and rapid to access to address any issues or obstacles, was also valued.

One of the ways to increase support for the system could be by highlighting the benefits of the technology to staff and residents.

Benefits

Improved Staff Confidence

Care home managers and staff members reported that the introduction of remote monitoring devices improved staff confidence in handling clinical data as the Camascope device automatically calculates, uploads, and stores NEWS2 scores onto the digital portal.

Time saved

The care home managers felt that once embedded, Camascope was quicker and easier to use than the previous systems – giving staff time back to deliver direct care to residents.

All three care homes agreed that communication with the homes’ GPs improved. The “alert” function helped identify those residents where GP input was needed and there were fewer unnecessary requests to the GP.

Suggestions for improvement

The three care homes in these case studies all used the Camascope remote monitoring technology.

They suggested the following areas for improvement:

• Provide a simple ‘how to’ guide for operating the equipment, viewing, and extracting data, and developing reports.
• Extend the Camascope Monitoring Kit rechargeable battery life.
• Enable the Camascope Monitoring Kit to establish baseline data for all vital sign readings.
• Reduce the delay between recording vital signs and the data appearing on the web portal.

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Acknowledgements

The Health Innovation Network are grateful to South West London Integrated Care System for their contribution to these case studiesFor further information about implementation of Remote Monitoring in Care Homes in South West London, please contact Viccie Nelson, Associate Director of Transformation.