Introducing Access Technology Enabled Care (TEC)

2​2 February 2024

This time last year we formally announced the first stage of our technology enabled care journey at Access Health, Support and Care (HSC) by announcing that the Alcuris Technology Enabled Care solution had joined Access and become Access Assure. This year we are delighted to announce we are now one step further into our mission and would like to introduce Access Technology Enabled Care (TEC).

This introduction is very exciting for us as we announce that Oysta Technology has become part of the Access Group’s HSC portfolio as part of our TEC offering to help harness the power of data further, turn knowledge and data into actionable insight, and help better support our customers to enable better-personalised outcomes across the care continuum. We are thrilled to have Oysta Technology as part of our Access TEC portfolio. Established in 2008 in both UK and Spain, Oysta specialises in care technology solutions for use outside the home to promote safe and independent living.

Our vision to shift from a reactive model of care to a proactive and preventative care approach continues. Combining both Access Assure and Oysta allows us to lead the way in the provision of integrated care and support services that engage all stakeholders.

This article will explain the central role that Access Technology Enabled Care (TEC) has within the Access Health, Support, and Care Portfolio and how we are helping to deliver better person-centred care across the care continuum.

What is Access TEC?

The digital technology enabled care market is continuing to grow rapidly and has developed increasingly over the years to help support people to live longer, healthier, and more independent lives.

Here Access TEC addresses a key opportunity within the current social care system to help people who draw on support, the community, and the wider care system, to live more independently for longer and live with the reassurance that timely preventative support will be provided when needed.

Access TEC can deliver the latest step in our integrated care journey which is fully prepared for the analogue to digital transition.

Our Assure and Oysta offerings enable intelligent and integrated care to focus on supporting improved care outcomes to provide a dynamic care delivery tailored to every individual. This allows social care professionals and families alike to be notified of any activity changes before something more critical takes place.

What are Access TEC’s aims?

To deliver better personalised and proactive care, at Access TEC we aim to enable both preventative and sustainable care delivery model that increases independence, provides reassurance, and transforms knowledge and data into actionable insight.

At Access TEC we know that too often providers and carers have to respond to events after they take place. This in turn, can lead to potential injuries and crisis events that were avoidable, more costly outcomes, less choice and control for people, and an increased demand pressure on hospitals and the wider care system.

We aim to change that by enabling data-led decision making that is pre-emptive and preventative to increase independence and wellbeing, as well as ultimately reduce the escalation in demand on the wider care system

To get the data needed we know that it is vital that individuals feel comfortable within their own homes. Our solutions use the most passive and unobtrusive sensors and do not use video or record audio. Both our Assure and Oysta offerings combine a preventative first approach with a reactive alarm safety net to provide digital insight to help commissioners and care providers help individuals reach their independent living goals.

How does Access TEC work?

As discussed above Access TEC embeds both Access Assure and Oysta.

Access Assure works by collecting information across a range of devices including IoT sensors, telecare devices, and smart plugs which the Home Hub delivers to our secure, cloud based, machine learning analytics platform. The resulting insight and data is displayed on both the dashboard and on the Access Assure app. Insight can be also delivered via email and SMS. Increasingly insight will be integrated into other Access systems and third party systems.

Our analytics platform learns activity patterns in a matter of 14 days and then starts to alert to changes in those individual patterns. This enables better proactive care as more insight-led decisions and informed actions can take place. We go one step further at Access TEC by enabling family users to create their own rules which can both reassure and flag worries that are relevant to them.

Oysta has enabled our technology enabled care offering to expand further by providing a way of bridging the gap between health and social care to help individuals live more independently both inside and outside the home.

Combining both at-home support and GPS tracking creates a cloak of support that goes everywhere with the individual and is not dependent on any landlines or Wi-Fi connections. All our data is then brought together in our cloud-based platform and insight dashboard, IntelliCare. Here IntelliCare supports and links to any digital device, home sensor, and wearable to show reflections of activity, locations, and most importantly an individual’s wellbeing.

Transforming the power of technology enabled care integration – How does Access TEC do it?

Joining up data and insight across the care continuum is key to a sustainable future. At Access TEC we have already started our integrated care journey

We recognise that generating insight alone is not enough. We need to be able to share that insight into systems that people already use and avoid the creation of more data silos. Our first step is to be able to deliver insights about clients wellbeing directly into the software used by domiciliary care providers. We are pleased to announce that an integration with the market leading Access Care Planning (ACP) software will become available in March. This means that Carers will be able to see relevant insights about their clients on their ACP app. In addition family members will be able to see care visits displayed in their Assure app. This helps ensure care services are safe, effective, and high quality to deliver better proactive care, reduce risks, and identify issues before something more critical takes place.

We intend to go beyond this by addressing key challenges across social care and provide a two-way integration with Social Care Case Management Systems including Access Mosaic. This will enable the care planning process to incorporate the provision of technology enabled care instead of it being an additional service. This, in turn, will save social workers time as well as avoid the need for additional paperwork. Through this integration information can be fed directly into the client care record making it easier to access information whenever it is needed all in one system. This will enable a more comprehensive holistic view of the person and in turn will enhance the effectiveness and personalisation of care plans and annual care plan reviews, leading a shift from just in case plans to just enough plans.

Through making integrated care one of our top priorities at Access TEC, we help to support a strengths-based approach to care to recognise the strengths of every individual and their wider care circle, including unpaid carers.

Over the last 12 months we have continued to invest and have also grown the size of the customer facing Access TEC team, not only through the Oysta acquisition but new team members too. We are all looking forward to meeting TSA ITEC delegates in March.

If you would like to learn more then please come and speak to us at the TSA ITEC Conference at the ICC, Birmingham on the 18^th and 19^th March. We are delighted to be a headline sponsor this year and we cannot wait to share our additional involvement in the conference this year soon.

If you can’t wait until then, learn more about our technology enabled care by contacting us today and we will look forward to hearing from you and seeing you in person in March.