Coordinate My Care has publicly launched its new service, myCMC, powered by InterSystems HealthShare, which enables patients in London to create their own urgent care plans and share them with health professionals.
Coordinate My Care is an NHS service, hosted by The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, that records important information about patients who have long-term conditions or are approaching the end of their lives and shares it with the doctors, nurses, ambulance staff and others who look after them.
Until recently, the plan had to be started by a hospital doctor or GP, but this week Coordinate My Care has publicly launched myCMC so that patients can start their own plans to take more control of their care and how they wish to be treated in an emergency.
David Hancock, healthcare executive advisor at InterSystems said: “HealthShare was created to bring together the information that matters to patients and providers, and Coordinate My Care is an outstanding example of what can be achieved when that happens.
“The public launch of myCMC will take the service to the next level, giving patients even more autonomy, choice and control at some of the most difficult times in their lives. We are delighted to see the public launch of myCMC and look forward to supporting it in the future.”
Any plan initiated by a patient will first be authorised by their GP before it can be shared with health and care professionals. Plans are made accessible through a web browser, using desk or mobile devices and patients can view and amend their own plans at any time. A reminder system also encourages GPs and other professionals to review the plans periodically to make sure they still reflect a patient’s wishes.
The myCMC patient portal launched quietly in 2018 and has been rigorously evaluated by both clinicians and patients ahead of its public launch. Already, more than 70,000 plans have been created across London.
The service doesn’t just deliver benefits to patients – by giving professionals access to information about a patient’s condition, how, and where, people want to be treated, Coordinate My Care helps avoid disruptive trips to A&E along with expensive hospital admissions.
Research has suggested that Coordinate My Care, on average, saves the NHS £2,100 per patient who dies with a CMC plan, equating to an annual saving of £16.8m in London. If implemented across England, annual savings could be more than £556 million.
Professor Julia Riley, clinical lead at Coordinate My Care, added: “By working with patients and clinicians, Coordinate My Care have been able to develop and deliver a digitally enabled service that helps to provide the best possible care at what is often the worst possible time.
“This is in line with the NHS Long Term Plan’s ambition to deliver more integrated, person-centred care to all those who need it”.
