A tool aimed at assessing care needs for the elderly has just completed a successful six month pilo...
A tool aimed at assessing care needs for the elderly has just completed a successful six month pilot by health provider BUPA in conjunction with Bristol University.
The scheme, which has been tested on 500 elderly residents in five of BUPA's care homes, hopes to work towards providing a method of distinguishing between nursing care and personal care following the Government's decision to provide free nursing care from October this year.
The Minimum Data Set (MDS) produces data on residents' health and care needs after care staff input responses from and observations about residents.
In addition to alerting staff to potential problems in residents' health, the data can then be used to track how well changes in care patterns work.
Ian Ireland, head of quality assurance at BUPA, explained: "Literally at the click of a button a manager can have a wealth of information about issues such as dependency levels of residents, staffing levels and costs in one home, or across a group of homes. This allows managers to plan more effectively at national, regional and home level."
The MDS system, which was pioneered in the US, is currently used in the US, Japan, Canada, Denmark, Sweden and Germany.
According to Mark Ellerby, managing director of BUPA Care Homes, the new system could prove to be a vital tool in the Government's search to find a reliable method of defining nursing care and personal care. He said: "The NHS national plan called for a more efficient way of assessing the care needs of the elderly. "There has been a lot of criticism of the inadequacies of the different assessment systems that are currently being used. BUPA hopes that its pilot will add to the debate."
