Electronic Palliative Care Coordinating Systems (EPaCCS)
Why is information sharing important?
Electronic Palliative Care Coordination Systems (EPaCCS) is a means to capture and share information electronically from people’s discussions about their care. The aim of this is to ensure that any professional involved in that person’s care has access to the most up to date information, including any changes to their preferences and wishes and personalised care plans.
The core record is usually kept by the General Practitioner in their electronic system and information sharing agreements put into place to allow relevant professionals involved in the person’s care to view and therefore be aware of the individual’s palliative and end of life personalised care plan.
This link demonstrates the importance of EPaCCS as a means to sharing PEoLC information across relevant services which individuals may access.
What support is there for professionals?
Using standard codes to record EPaCCS: Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT) is a clinical vocabulary readable by computers. Used in electronic health records, SNOMED CT is the most comprehensive and precise terminology product. SNOMED CT gives clinical IT systems a single shared language, which makes exchanging information between systems easier, safer and more accurate. It contains all the clinical terms needed for the whole NHS, from procedures and symptoms through to clinical measurements, diagnoses and medications.
Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB) has updated the SCCI 1580 standard for palliative and end of life care coordination to ensure that professionals and individuals have access to appropriate information to support decision making for those with palliative care needs and those who are approaching the end of their lives. The standard supports the Universal Principles for Advance Care Planning.
Share2Care e-Xchange
The Share2Care e-Xchange Programme aims to join up digital services across Cheshire and Merseyside, Lancashire and South Cumbria to improve communication between health and care organisations. Share2Care works by allowing the authorised health and care professionals that use it, to have controlled access to view certain types of patient information that is held by different health and care organisations located across the region. With e-Xchange being the viewing platform that Share2Care utilises within Cheshire and Merseyside to display this information.
What is the network doing to support professionals?
In the North West Coast localities are working in collaboration to strengthen their access to information sharing via EPaCCS with the ultimate aim to have a full EPaCCS system in place in all care settings. The network facilitates quarterly meetings to bring together the leads for each area to ensure peer support, problem solving, finding solutions and providing some data to measure improvements. The Network also links in with the National End of Life Care Team for NHS England to ensure we are fully updated with the national digital programme.
A webinar recorded in November 2021, by Dr Sinead Clarke, GP and Associate Medical Director for System Quality and Improvement NHS Cheshire and Merseyside, informs us why EPaCCS is so important.
For the Public
EPaCCS Patient Information Leaflet *
*Leaflet currently under review
People’s Voice is a group of lay people with lived experience of, or an interest in, palliative and end of life care. If you would like to join our People’s Voice you can find more information here.