East Kent hospitals empowering pregnant women with Wellbeing Software’s Euroking PHR

East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust has become one of the first trusts to go live with Wellbeing Software’s Personal Health Record (PHR) for maternity.

The PHR platform, which is a customisable module within Wellbeing’s maternity information system (MIS), Euroking, gives women free electronic access to their maternity records throughout their pregnancy.

Through this portal, women are able to, for the first time, interact with their electronic records and even add their own information around clinical, family, and maternity history as well as preferences about their birth plan.

This enhances and supports the focus of ongoing conversations women will have with their midwife and the wider care team.

The ability to view their information online replaces the paper records that they would typically have carried with them on their maternity care journey.

Women can feel confident that, if there is an emergency or complication, their medical team will be able to see up-to-date information on their notes and will be able to guide families to make the best decisions for their babies

And it supports the trust’s ‘paper light’ vision, improves communication and data capture compliance, and introduces more-efficient ways of working.

Crystal McLeod, improvement and transformation manager and programme manager for maternity transformation at the trust, said: “The Euroking software means we can record women’s risk and other details of their care quickly and easily, and they can instantly access it whenever they need it.

“It is helping to improve care because we no longer have to rely on paper versions of a patient’s notes, and it means mums to be can feel more in control of their pregnancy and birth plan.

“Women can feel confident that, if there is an emergency or complication, their medical team will be able to see up-to-date information on their notes and will be able to guide families to make the best decisions for their babies.”

An NHS researcher visited Buckland Hospital at the end of August and interviewed five pregnant women who had access to the Wellbeing PHR, in addition to speaking with four midwives.

During the interviews, women mentioned a series of benefits, including the ‘always on’ approach, with 24/7 access to information on their phones, meaning less chance of misplacing the notes, plus a positive environmental impact and improved data security.

One user said: “I now only carry notes if I know I’ve got an appointment. I can open the app and say here’s my notes in an emergency.”

For the first time we’re delivering a solution that is geared around the needs of the patient, rather than the clinician

And midwives felt the PHR was a good tool for communication between themselves and their patients.

They felt that the birth plan and pre-booking features would focus use of time and facilitate meaningful conversations with women.

In conversation with the NHS researcher, the midwives referenced a series of benefits including increased legibility, easy access to a central source of information, and fewer cases of lost or forgotten notes.

Chris Yeowart, director at Wellbeing Software, said: “For the first time we’re delivering a solution that is geared around the needs of the patient, rather than the clinician.

“It was important for us that the initial pilot site at East Kent had a fully-immersive experience with PHR, and they’re already providing valuable insight into product development to inform updates in the future.”