Worcestershire adopts digital platform for post-hospital care

Worcestershire County Council has adopted a new digital platform intended to help care teams deliver better support for residents recently discharged from hospital.

Totalmobile’s ‘Field First’ platform will help the council better organise the provision of its ‘Home First’ services, which is intended to minimise the amount of time medically stable people spend in hospital by providing them with support - such as short-term domiciliary care - to help them regain independence.

The platform should achieve this by combining scheduling, mobile working and real-time reporting into one integrated system, allowing for more streamlined planning and improving coordination between services.

Morgan Price, Head of Home First at Worcestershire County Council, said the need for an upgraded digital platform arose from the fact that their “previous system wasn’t giving the level of optimisation needed”, with the new tool being more efficient and permitting them to reduce duplication.

He said: “Demand on Home First moves quickly, so the way we organise visits has to keep pace.

“[The Field First platform] means we can make better use of the capacity we already have and focus our time where it matters most - supporting our residents.”

The new system will help support the 250 frontline and office workers who oversee care for the roughly 8,500 residents served annually by Worcestershire's Reablement Service.

Ricky Moore, Managing Director of Public Sector at Totalmobile, said that reablement services like Home First are becoming increasingly important, as more local authorities adopt this approach to recovery.

He said: “When care is organised well in the community, people recover more comfortably at home and hospitals can focus on those who need acute treatment.

“We’re proud to support Worcestershire in strengthening that model and helping their teams deliver the kind of responsive, coordinated care residents deserve.”