Safe Steps: Covid-19 Core Data Tracker

Project story

At the start of the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown we had a team meeting to discuss what we could do to help our care home users. We were already working with Health Innovation Manchester (HInM) to roll out our falls prevention app in Greater Manchester, so we opened up a dialogue with them to see if there was anything more we could do.

This led to the idea of a Covid-19 symptom tracker. We followed this up with a (fully remote) 1 day design sprint where we engaged with care home managers and clinicians, and mocked-up the first iteration of our tool.

As you can see, there was no time to find a ruler!

I utilised components from our design system to accelerate the process, and ensure that we could build this as rapidly as possible.

We presented our findings and mockups back to HInM the next morning, and from there we worked closely with them, the National Clinical Director for Older People at NHS England (2016–19) and the Clinical director for Frailty at Tameside Integrated Care Foundation Trust.

Over the next two weeks we designed, prototyped, tested, built, and launched the tool into pilot homes in Tameside. This was achieved by myself and one engineer – working with purpose and a teeny bit of overtime.

I worked with the clinicians involved to help to define what data the tool would collect. With the data requirements sorted, I designed the interface to make data input as quick and easy for care home staff as possible. Care homes were absolutely stretched, so it was more important than ever that the tool was quick and easy to use.

Following this we have continued to build on the tool and, at time of writing, it’s now being used in over 100 care homes and has exceeded 100,000 records of resident’s Covid-19 health related data. The product is currently being rolled out to Greater Manchester’s 500+ care homes, enabling local NHS health teams and General Practitioners (GPs) to work more closely and proactively with care homes to support residents.

Following the intial release, successful pilot and wider rollout of our Covid-19 tracker app, we have continued to build functionality, including:

• Clinical dashboard enhancements – allowing advanced filtering of residents to enable clinicians to identify those who are most at risk, and care home overview data to help the local system to prioritise resources
• Clinical dashboard access for GPs and Primary Care Networks (PCNs)
• Development and integration of deterioration tool RESTORE2mini
• Additional data capture tools to help GPs to conduct virtual ward rounds

This is very simple and easy to use, looks great and will enable us to quickly capture the relevant data for our residents” – Care home manager