Piloting of a minimum data set for older people living in care homes in England: protocol for a longitudinal, mixed-methods study

Abstract

IntroductionHealth and care data are routinely collected about care home residents in England, yet there is no way to collate these data to inform benchmarking and improvement. The Developing research resources And minimum data set for Care Homes’ Adoption and use study has developed a prototype minimum data set (MDS) for piloting.Methods and analysisA mixed-methods longitudinal pilot study will be conducted in 60 care homes (approximately 960 residents) in 3 regions of England, using resident data from cloud-based digital care home records at two-time points. These will be linked to resident and care home level data held within routine National Health Service and social care data sets. Two rounds of focus groups with care home staff (n=8–10 per region) and additional interviews with external stakeholders (n=3 per region) will explore implementation and the perceived utility of the MDS. Data will be assessed for completeness and timeliness of completion. Descriptive statistics, including percentage floor and ceiling effects, will establish data quality. For validated scales, construct validity will be assessed by hypothesis testing and exploratory factor analysis will establish structural validity. Internal consistency will be established using Cronbach’s alpha. Longitudinal analysis of the pilot data will demonstrate the value of the MDS to each region. Qualitative data will be analysed inductively using thematic analysis to understand the complexities of implementing an MDS in care homes for older people.Ethics and disseminationThe study has received ethical approval from the London Queen’s Square Research Ethics Committee (22/LO/0250). Informed consent is required for participation. Findings will be disseminated to: academics working on data use and integration in social care, care sector organisations, policy makers and commissioners. Findings will be published in peer-reviewed journals. Partner NIHR Applied Research Collaborations, the National Care Forum and the British Geriatrics Society will disseminate policy briefs.

Measuring quality of life in care homes when self-report is challenging: the construct validity, structural characteristics and internal consistency of the mixed-methods adult social care outcomes toolkit

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Family carers’ experiences of care home visiting restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic: a relational autonomy perspective

“…2 Research should explore the challenges and opportunities for implementing measures such as these more routinely, as well as to prepare for future public health emergencies. The use of digital care records and associated family portals, in particular, is likely to be supported by the national introduction of shared care records (NHS England, 2022;Brown, 2023) and development of a national minimum dataset for care homes (Towers et al, 2023).…”

New horizons in the role of digital data in the healthcare of older people

“…The DACHA study (Developing research resources And Minimum data set for Care Homes’ Adoption and use) aims to synthesise existing evidence and data sources with care home-generated resident data to deliver a minimum data set (MDS) that is usable and authoritative for different stakeholders [ 58 ].…”