Herts Urgent Care enables access to real-time patient data

Advanced Health & Care (Advanced) is working with Herts Urgent Care to enable it to access real-time patient data from three different GP primary care systems through the class-leading patient management system, Adastra.

By connecting to Healthcare Gateway’s Medical Interoperability Gateway (MIG) via Adastra, Herts Urgent Care GPs will benefit from having immediate visibility of patient information 24 hours a day. The information will include medical summaries together with up-to-date details of medication from within the organisation’s urgent care services. Clinicians will be able to use this information to improve the care they offer to 620,000 patients in 60 GP practices across Hertfordshire.

By linking together three GP systems via Adastra we can now provide the clinicians that run our services with instant access to a deeper level of patient information which wasn’t possible before

Herts Urgent Care has been using Adastra in its out-of-hours services since 2007 and selected Advanced as its preferred MIG partner after using its Adastra 111 solution from 2012 to successfully manage more than 370,000 NHS 111 calls from its main call centre in Welwyn Garden City.

Eleven GP practices in Hertfordshire are initially taking part in a pilot scheme lasting until March 2015 which aims to deliver approximately 240 out-of-hours patient consultations per week. Another 49 additional practices in Hertfordshire will then follow as part of a phased rollout of the MIG.

Paul Gauld, head of IT at Herts Urgent Care, said: “We have a longstanding relationship with Advanced Health & Care and had no hesitation in selecting the company as our trusted MIG partner. By linking together three GP systems via Adastra we can now provide the clinicians that run our services with instant access to a deeper level of patient information which wasn’t possible before.

“This access will assist them to increase efficiency and make better-informed decisions to improve patient care and reduce the knock-on effect of unnecessary repeat admissions.”

Clinicians, once they have obtained the patient’s permission to view the record, will also be able to view details relating to historical surgical procedures, blood pressure examinations and test results to provide safer, more-efficient care to patients.

Most healthcare communities see the advantages to patients and the NHS that flow from the integrated care agenda

Gauld said: “By collaborating with Healthcare Gateway and other best-of-breed software providers, Advanced Health & Care is enabling us to participate in the sharing of vital clinical data to significantly enhance our service offering. As a result patients in Hertfordshire can be reassured that they will be dealing with clinicians who have a greater understanding of their needs to ensure they receive the best possible care experience from the outset.”

Jim Chase, managing director of Advanced Health & Care, added: “Most healthcare communities see the advantages to patients and the NHS that flow from the integrated care agenda.

“We can see that the MIG delivers many benefits by delivering a secure and flexible sharing and consent model alongside the open approach to technology, thus solving many practical problems of appropriate access to information in a modern healthcare economy.”