ELAROS and the C19-YRS recommended by NHS England in newly published NHS Long COVID guidance

NHS England have recently published their July 2022 National guidance for Long Covid services which recommends that clinics use ELAROS’ digital C19-YRS platform for the collection of outcome measures as part of their service, and that clinics use the C19-YRS outcome measure specifically.

This guidance is detailed in two documents:

These documents intend to provide guidance for commissioners and for Long COVID clinics on how they should deliver their Long COVID service, including recommendations on which tools should be used for the delivery of this service.

The priorities laid out in the NHS plan for improving long COVID services are:

Increasing capacity
Prioritising treatment
Transforming the way we provide care
Better information and support for patients

ELAROS’ digital C19-YRS platform helps services to meet all these targets and is designed to reduce the time taken to complete assessments, reduce the burden of staff, and provide a scalable platform to remotely manage large numbers of patients with ease. The system also makes it easy for Long COVID clinics to report progress on their service and patients, and to enable patients to access NHS self-management resources within the app.

This guidance states that using tools such as ELAROS’ digital C19-YRS:

“will enable the post COVID service to audit patient outcomes from assessment to discharge.”.

The National commissioning guidance for post COVID services details which outcome measures should be used for adults with Long-COVID, and states that Patient reported outcome measures:

“help monitor patient progress, facilitate communication between professionals and improve the quality of services.”

It also states that this data helps in developing the national commissioning guidance, and reducing the “unwarranted variation” in Long COVID care. After explaining the importance of PROMS, the guidance recommends that clinics continue to use the COVID-19 Yorkshire Rehabilitation Scale, amongst other outcome measures which are available in ELAROS’ platform.