Launch

The platform of Orchid Connect’s launch event at Digital Jersey generated significant interest from all stakeholders in the community. Across the board from individuals with vulnerable family members through the social care team to care providers and those concerned with the sustainability of healthcare delivery to meet the needs of citizens in both hospitals and the community, there was a groundswell of excitement and relief that all the benefits of Orchid Connect are now available for Jersey. Initial case studies in England and Scotland have generated huge savings to primary care and social care costs. Compared to those case studies, Orchid Connect provides an even greater service offering delivering the lifeboat just in time to rescue Jersey’s healthcare costs crisis.

Orchid Connect’s team have two key missions:

  1. Delivering for the community as much as possible immediately; and
  2. Supporting Government to utilise the advent of Orchid Connect to transition healthcare delivery to a sustainable footing.

Delivering for the Community

Initial rollout of the Orchid Connect service is already reaping great rewards for the community.

Adam Chamberlain, Strategy Director at Orchid Connect, explained the base case:

“Some people are simply being kept an eye on and we have far greater certainty now that they are managing to stay safe and well – a greater and much deeper level of reassurance for all of the individual, their family and managers of healthcare budgets that there is not a looming healthcare support demand for such people.

However, the truly transformative effect of Orchid Connect is represented in a particular Jersey case study that exists even at this early stage of rollout.

Vicky Soar, Director of Care at Orchid Care Services, provides the details:

“Our fantastic carers visit our client, who has dementia, twice a day and family members visit them a lot too. In this case, with lots of support already in place, we expected the Orchid Connect insights to support a little bit but be relatively superfluous. The benefits of Orchid Connect are extraordinary. The 24/7 activity insights provided enormous detail and patterns raising, otherwise not apparent, concerns for us about sleep deprivation and hydration.  The Orchid Connect insights have formed the basis for discussions with family and our client’s social worker, who is now completing a reassessment of needs. As a direct result we are making changes to our client’s visit times and care plans to address the areas of concern. There is no doubt in my mind that these changes will significantly reduce the risk of urinary tract infection and, therefore, falling. A fall at our vulnerable client’s age would necessitate hospitalisation and greater levels of care support coming out of hospital. Our client’s dementia symptoms, particularly confusion, are also currently heightened by their low levels of sleep and hydration – I am very confident that the adjustments we will now make as a result of the Orchid Connect insights will materially improve our client’s wellbeing.”

Orchid Connect is available for the whole community. Other advantages for care providers include (with their new ability to monitor safety with technology in collaboration with Orchid Connect) being able to support more vulnerable people with the, preciously finite, number of carers available to any care provider and being able to provide a much more fulfilling experience for such clients and carers with carer time spent supporting outings and companionship rather than all being taken up with monitoring basic safety routines.

Beth Gicquel, Director of Cambrette Care, commented:

“We are delighted to be working with Orchid Connect on this groundbreaking innovation. The care sector needs new solutions. The fact that we can now offer hybrid care in collaboration with Orchid Connect is going to be fantastic for our clients, their families and our carers.”

Cheryl Kenealy, Managing Director of 1:2:1 Care, noted:

“121 Care is one of Jersey’s oldest and established home care providers, and we have embraced technology to deliver care since 2014 using Care Management Systems. Partnering with Orchid Connect for this pilot in “Hybrid Care” is a natural next step in using technology to assist us in delivering the highest quality standards of care to our clients that they have come to expect.”

CI Home Care also now have the opportunity to roll out this technology solution to support care delivery and numerous other care providers are in discussions with Orchid Connect as they seek to improve their clients’ lives, grow the numbers of clients they can reach and use this new solution in a blend of “hybrid care” to ensure the valuable time of talented, compassionate, professional carers is best applied to meaningful interactions with clients. The Orchid Connect service can dovetail with all care providers. Anybody whose care provider doesn’t currently use the service can let Orchid Connect know and Orchid Connect can liaise with the care provider to ensure they have access.

 

Supporting Government

Based on the case studies in England and Scotland, Government of Jersey is aware of the potential that Orchid Connect offers with enormous savings in the budgets for both primary care (alleviating demand on the ambulance service and on bed-blocking in the hospital) and social care.

All the benefits of Orchid Connect are available immediately for those able to pay privately but the Orchid Connect service has always been intended for the whole community.

The team at Orchid Connect believe in the equity that this solution should be accessible by all and are actively supporting Government in the their work towards the new public funding model needed for this innovative solution.

This work will, of course, take some time. In the meantime, Digital Jersey has provided grant funding to support access to Orchid Connect for some of those people who, for care needs support, rely entirely on Long Term Care scheme and income support funding. These criteria are also providing the opportunity for social workers to learn how Orchid Connect provides hard evidence to support their decision making as they allocate funding from the Long Term Care scheme budget.

 

Next Steps

Orchid Connect are building awareness of the support that their service now provides for the community. Examples include attending Age Concern to explain to the vulnerable people at the heart of the service that there are no cameras or microphones and no Wi-Fi is needed.

Adam explained why Orchid Connect are also liaising with the business community:

“Many a vulnerable person is of a very stoic generation who say they know an old person but don’t recognise themselves as such. Whilst family members are delighted that their loved one feels young at heart, they are left with worry and struggle to focus on their other commitments including their work. We are helping employers become aware of the existence of Orchid Connect as a tool their employees can use to feel reassured about their loved one’s safety and wellbeing freeing them up to concentrate on their work and restore their family relationships back to a normal, for example mother/daughter, relationship rather than the pestering carer relationship that they have been forced to evolve to.”

Orchid Connect are also working with housing associations and trusts interested in the potential for the improved wellbeing of their residents; charities keen to signpost Orchid Connect’s services to their beneficiaries and various departments of Health and Care Jersey interested in the potential for integrating vital signs monitoring into the Orchid Connect service in a way that enables patients to leave hospital to the comfort of their own home and managers to prioritise precious nursing resources. Orchid Connect will shortly begin collaborating with Family Nursing & Home Care in relation to their own Impact Jersey supported project involving vital bodily signs monitoring, which is deliberately complementary to the Orchid Connect offering.

More information can be found at www.orchidconnect.je