Home First pilot

A trial of new partnership working arrangements is taking place around intermediate care in Barnsley.

Home First is a collaborative piece of work between Barnsley Hospital, neighbourhood rehabilitation/crisis response team (intermediate care), re-ablement and social services. 

The main aims are to get patients out of hospital quicker and in a better condition as well as freeing up the urgent care therapists time in the acute setting so they can prevent patients who require a longer stay deconditioning.

The urgent care therapists at the hospital have been identifying patients who can go home earlier and carrying out risk assessments, then they send the referrals to intermediate care. Our team then visit the patient in their own home to complete their functional assessments and wrap the appropriate level of care around the patient in their own home.  Some patients may be required to step back up or down the pathway to ensure their safety is maintained.

A tracker of each patient and their outcome  has been collated by the hospital therapy team and once our team has reached capacity for referrals the patients follow the normal procedure within the hospital and assessments will be carried out there.

Progress is being reviewed on a weekly basis and it is hoped that the initiative will continue once the pilot has been evaluated.