In Conversation: Joe Rouse on how Shared Care Records are changing ambulance care

At the Shared Care Record Summit, Steph Colborne, TVS Partnership Programme Lead, and Joss Palmer, Programme Director for the One London Care Record, spoke with Joe Rouse, Digital Clinical Lead, Clinical Application Specialist and Registered Children’s Nurse at South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS), about the practical impact Shared Care Records are having on frontline ambulance services.

Here are some of the highlights from that conversation.

Steph: Ambulance services are very different from planned care. Why are Shared Care Records so important in your world?

Joe:

The difference it’s made is humongous because it’s changed the way we interact with our patients. Before Shared Care Records, the patient was the historian. If you’re with a 94-year-old patient at two in the morning, they’re understandably trying to tell you everything that’s happened over their lifetime while you’re trying to understand why you’ve been called today. Now we can start by saying, I can see this diagnosis… I can see these allergies… is that still correct?

It gives us a much stronger starting point and takes some of the pressure off the patient at what’s often a frightening time.

Steph: Has that changed how your colleagues feel about using Shared Care Records?

Joe:

One of my favourites involved a gentleman with chest pain who was so distressed he struggled to explain what was happening. We carried out an ECG, but by looking at the Shared Care Record we could also see previous attendances and earlier ECG recordings. That gave us valuable context and helped us assess whether anything had changed clinically.

Steph: Is there another example that has stayed with you?

Joe:

A lady in her 80s had fallen at home late one evening. She couldn’t really explain what had happened, and her husband was profoundly hard of hearing, so we had very little information. Before getting the lifting cushion out, I checked the Shared Care Record and discovered she’d had a hip replacement around two weeks earlier. When I asked about it, she simply said, “Yes, I forgot to tell you.” That immediately changed the clinical plan. We requested additional support and arranged further imaging. Without that information, things could have turned out very differently.

Steph: What is it about ambulance services that makes Shared Care Records particularly valuable?

Joe:

Our systems are incident-based rather than patient-based. A single incident might involve one patient or a coachload of patients, so we don’t always have that broader clinical context available. That’s where the Shared Care Record makes such a difference. It gives us the bigger picture when we need it most. and it happened very quickly.

Steph: At last year’s Summit you said access to ReSPECT Care Plans would make things even better. Has that become a reality?

Joe:

Yes. Thames Valley has now started rolling out electronic ReSPECT Care Plans within the Shared Care Record, giving ambulance clinicians access to even more important information to support decision-making at the point of care.