At The Care Database, we thrive on making our database more clinically meaningful and helpful for our users. We aim to make care management easier for caregivers – focusing our efforts on continuous evolvement and development. The yearly user group meeting gives us direction for product development goals. At our last meeting, Digital Body Maps were a high priority for our users and voted as a high priority for development. We are delighted to announce that this functionality is now available within the care delivery section of The Care Database.
What are Body Maps?
A body map is a popularly used and easy-to-follow visual tool to pinpoint and record any visible injuries or marks of concern on a patient's body, skin conditions and physical health progression. Adopting the use of body maps is good practice, helping to protect the vulnerable from harm. Recording the dates and appearance of any identifiable problems will allow your team to take the necessary actions using evidence that can prevent abuse, neglect, self-harm or accidental injuries.
Paper Based Vs Digital Body Maps
Digital body maps include authorised access to manage and edit body maps, making them more secure and helping to preserve patient confidentiality. Each edit will create a new version of the body map storing the original version for comparison over time. Risk assessments and associated action plans are performed efficiently if recorded in one place.
The features that can help you get the most out of the visual body map tool:
Complete the body map on a variety of devices.
Create bespoke templates, giving you the flexibility to create your own questions to surround the body map.
UI features include colour coding and drawing shapes or lines to identify different types of marks and zoom in and zoom out making it easier to flag and create the visible mark.
Recording the description and explanation of each mark plays a valuable role in the meticulous recording of any sustained body injuries or ailments.
Detailing the name of both the body map's editor and reviewer helps to maintain data integrity and improve clinical safety.
Create separate body map templates for safeguarding and skin integrity to avoid confusion.
Attachments create a paper trail. Functionality is utilitarian making it easy to upload any relevant information and documents such as consent forms.
Track the progression of marks or injuries using version control.
Close a series of body maps following an episode of care.
Cloning body map templates saves staff's screen time.
Export history can be of significance during audits.
Checklists for action plans act as a guide for care planning.
Top 5 tips for care staff while using body maps:
Add detailed written descriptions and explanations of the mark to present a clear picture of the situation at hand.
Create open-ended questions for better communication between patients and staff members.
Draw attention to a mark, no matter how small it is.
Record the name of the care staff member who created the body map along with the reviewer's name and the time it was completed to protect the integrity of the data.
Assign access on a “need to know” basis to protect very personal and confidential information.
To conclude, Body maps are an essential resource that should form part of any organisation’s child protection and safeguarding toolkit.
If you are considering switching to a more efficient way of body mapping, speak to our experts today!