Technology provider Orion Health is helping care homes in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight gain access to important demographic and clinical information about their residents.

The move means staff can access the Care and Health Information Exchange website by entering their login details and a one-time access code that is sent to their smart phone or device.  

To support the roll-out to care homes, Orion Health incorporated the Keycloak open source identity and access management solution. The shared care record’s administrators use Keycloak to create user accounts and users download their choice of authentication app to generate the one-time access codes.   

Google Authenticate, OTP Auth, and Microsoft Authenticator are all supported. CHIE access was piloted at 50 care homes and subsequently offered to all the care homes in the region that want it.  

Liliana Macieira, manager of the Woodley Grange care home in Romsey, said the new system has been “a lovely journey.”

She explained: “We used to spend a lot of time on the phone to hospitals, GP surgeries and other professionals to collect information about our patients, but now it is all there for us.  

 “It means we get to spend more time with residents. We can get all the information we need with a single click and get on with providing a better quality service.”  

So far, around 160 care homes have taken up the offer of access to CHIE, and the shared care record project is encouraging more to sign-up.