Testing in care homes “has dramatically increased in the last three weeks”
The proportion of residents tested rose sharply in the last week of May (from 13% on 25 May to 53% now) as the government shipped testing kits to many homes.
Despite this rise, nearly half (47%) of residents have not been tested since 15 May when the government pledged to Covid-19 test “every resident and every member of staff in our elderly care homes in England between now and early June”
It is clear that care homes would benefit from stronger and more consistent local guidance as the failure to achieve universal testing now probably reflects the mixed messages that care homes receive about how to carry out testing, not a shortage of kits.
Just 15% of care homes have not had any residents tested at any stage.
If quoting this data please note: This new research comes from The Data Analysis Bureau and is based on anonymised data from Person Centred Software, one of the leading suppliers of near real time management information systems to the care home sector.
This analysis is conducted by The Data Analysis Bureau (T-DAB)based on anonymised data from Person Centred Software. It can be updated daily and include data on testing for carers in the residential setting, and residents. Updates, interactive dashboards, and additional data can be found here.
Simon Briscoe, Director of T-DAB said: “The rate of testing rose dramatically in the last week of May and into June as the government sent roughly 1 million test kits to care homes. The many links in the chain of testing from care home staff, local health officials, a website and test centres, combined to leave testing rates very low. With barely half of residents having been tested it shows that more than simply issuing testing kits is required to provide care homes with the support and guidance they need.”
Simon Papworth, co-founder and director of Person Centred Software, said: “The government’s test and track initiative is unproven and mixed messages have been received by care homes about the effectiveness of testing. Universal and frequently repeated testing is not yet policy and care homes remain at risk as a result.”
Eric Topham, CEO of T-DAB said: “The dataset that PCS have is incredibly rich and provides a level of detail that does not exist in public health organisations’ own reporting systems. It is collected digitally and in real time, offering an insight view not available to the CQC and ONS. The analytics that can be offered for monitoring and prediction of trends, would provide a vital tool in closely coordinating the response to Covid-19 in care homes, particularly in anticipation of a possible second wave.”
T-DAB is a data science, data analytics, and data engineering innovation agency, based in London’s Shoreditch, specializing in delivering cutting edge data analytics and machine learning driven applications, helping clients to understand their data and discover new insights. T-DAB collaborate extensively with both private and academic partners. T-DAB is driven to further the use of data and AI for good. See more here.
Person Centred Software is one of the leading suppliers of near real time management information systems to the care home sector. Its digital point of care recording system is used for 50,000 service users across more than 1,800 care providers in the UK. There are an average of 50 care actions recorded per service user per day (2.7 million records a day), which evidence the detail of the care people receive. Person Centred Software’s digital care system, Mobile Care Monitoring, reduces paperwork and gives carers more time to care. Person Centred Software’s philosophy is person-centred; providing benefits to everyone involved in care by delivering exceptional tools..
Contact
T-DAB: Dr Eric Topham eric.topham@t-dab.com Simon Briscoe simon.briscoe@t-dab.com
Person Centred Software: Heidi Thomas h.thomas@personcentredsoftware.com
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