Bedford Hospital NHS Trust upgrades diabetes care management system
Hicom’s Diomond.NET provides real-time data management for adult diabetes patients
Bedford Hospital NHS Trust has upgraded its adult diabetes care management system to Diamond.NET, from software and consultancy provider Hicom, giving access to patient records wherever and whenever there is patient interaction. The diabetes centre at Bedford Hospital provides both in- and outpatient services to patients with diabetes and endocrine conditions.
Diamond.NET, a web-based upgrade of Hicom’s previous Access-based version of the software, has been integrated with the hospital's laboratory system and Master Patient Index, and interfaces with its Patient Administration System (PAS). Any patient details that are updated on the hospital’s main system are automatically incorporated within Diamond.NET.
The solution is used by everyone in Bedford’s multidisciplinary team: doctors, diabetes specialist nurses, dietitiansn and podiatrists, as well as secretaries and administrative staff. Each user is able to log into Diamond.Net and see a complete record of all diabetes-related consultations that have taken place, whether they have been in the hospital, in an outpatient centre or via the phone.
The upgrade to Diamond.NET also ensures that the hospital automatically receives regular software updates.
'Since our initial implementation of Diamond in 1997, it has become the backbone of our diabetes service. We have noticed a significant impact in the organisation of the diabetes department,' said Dr Nick Morrish, Consultant Diabetologist at Bedford Hospital NHS Trust. 'For example, if one of the multidisciplinary team receives abnormal lab results, they are able to see which clinic that lab result has come from and get a better understanding of what could have caused the abnormal result. Additionally, communication within the team has improved as having all of a patient's information in one place gives us a complete story of what is happening with their diabetes.'
Diamond.NET also has the facility to enable the Trust to extract all of the information that it needs to submit to the National Diabetes Audit (NDA).
Dr Morrish concluded: 'Having immediate access to the information at the point of care ensures we are able to make better informed decisions on patient management. Diamond has given us the ability to quickly search for information and audit data in a way, which would be impossible with paper records.'