IT news: News round-up
The latest deployment and solutions news from the healthcare IT sector
Hospital boss ‘sleeps better at night’
I tell people I sleep better at night for knowing how well we are monitoring and how well I can see what is going on. I would be very reluctant to go back to a trust that did not have this information
UNIVERSITY Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trusts in-house PICS IT system has been praised by the trusts chief executive, saying it helps her ‘sleep better at night’. Julia Moore told a recent conference that the software, which provides real-time information via dashboards, not only provided her with early warning signs of departments that need support, but had also driven up quality of care. She said: “We are driving out errors, making sure vital signs are recorded and making sure patients get the right drugs. I tell people I sleep better at night for knowing how well we are monitoring and how well I can see what is going on. I would be very reluctant to go back to a trust that did not have this information.”
Scotland deploys EDT hub
NHS Scotland has agreed the national deployment of PCTI’s EDT hub in an effort to enable all hospitals to send patient letters and results electronically to GPs. The move will effectively make the process completely paperless, saving hundreds of thousands of pounds and speeding up response times. Andy Robertson, national information systems group director at NHS National Services Scotland, said the deployment of the hub followed the rollout, seven years ago, of PCTI’s electronic document management system in all GP surgeries. He added: “The EDT hub is a natural progression, providing an end-to-end solution to manage electronic correspondence between hospitals and GPs.” The solution will be rolled out to half of all health boards by the end of the year, with the rest going live early next year. Dr Beena Raschkes, GP and joint clinical IT lead for NHS Tayside, said: “We were one of the first boards to start using the hub. We can now be sure that the right patient information is getting to the right place at the right time.”
London trust to deploy EPR
LEWISHAM Healthcare NHS Trust has launched a project that will result in the deployment of a borough-wide electronic patient record. The trust has purchased InterSystem’s Ensemble integration engine and has appointed ReStart Consulting to provide a managed service that will oversee the rollout. Initially, the solution will be rolled out across the PAS, RIS, pathology, clinical portal, web applications, order communications, results service and infection control systems.
Imprivata wins IT security award
As a speciality centre for several different types of treatment, security, confidentially and clinician productivity are essential to the service that we provide to our patients
SINGLE sign-on technology supplier, Imprivata, has been named winner of the Security Project of the Year category at this year's Computing Security Awards. A supplier to a number of NHS trusts, the company scooped the accolade for its work with University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, where it has rolled out its OneSign solution to more than 5,100 users. As well as improving IT and access security at the trust, the system is also helping the IT team to streamline the replacement of the patient administration system; theatre, maternity and accident and emergency systems; pharmacy stock control and future developments including e-Prescribing. Dave Oatway, computer services manager at the trust said: “As a speciality centre for several different types of treatment including oncology services and paediatric care, security, confidentially and clinician productivity are essential to the service that we provide to our patients. Imprivata has allowed us to tackle the common security challenges associated with multiple passwords, improving data security and simplifying day-to-day access for our users and we are delighted those efforts have been acknowledged through this award.”
Foetal monitoring software wins award
A NEW intelligent software system that interprets foetal heart rate monitoring during childbirth has been named winner of the Healthcare Technologies Award at the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) Innovation Awards 2011. INFANT, the first software of its kind, interprets foetal heart rate monitoring in real time and informs medical staff nearby and remotely of any potential problems. To date 7,000 births have been monitored in some of the UK’s leading hospitals, with the technology functioning beyond the level of human experts. The impact of the system is currently being measured in the largest maternity study to ever take place in the UK. Funded by the Health Technology Assessment Board, it involves 46,000 births in 16 centres across the UK and Ireland at a cost of £6m. Developed by K2 Medical Systems, INFANT was primarily developed to reduce the emotional and financial costs associated with human errors in foetal monitoring, and has taken 20 years to develop. Commenting on the award, Robert Keith, managing director of K2 Medical Systems, said: “We applied for the awards as they are seen as industry leading and we are very honoured that 20 years of research has been recognised in this way. We have waited for the right moment to compete at this level and are delighted with the result.”
Essex trust cuts carbon
SOUTH Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust (SEPT) has saved £10,000 on its energy bill by using new energy management software. The technology has reduced the power used by each of SEPT’s PCs by more than 20% and reduced its carbon footprint by around 30 tonnes. Dr Patrick Geoghegan, the trust’s chief executive, said: “This software has clearly shown SEPT can conserve natural resources as well as achieve considerable operational savings. The first phase of the project has given us an even clearer insight into our IT energy usage and we’re now looking for ways to build on these savings and extend our use of the solution in other areas such as networked printers and the trust’s networking hardware.”
ALSO IN THE NEWS:
IMS Maxims has announced the introduction of four new deployment models aimed at helping healthcare trusts to implement clinical applications and electronic patient records.
Royal Philips Electronics has announced the launch of IntelliSpace PACS 4.4, the newest release in the evolution of its iSite picture archiving and communication system (PACS).
Featured companies
- Companies:
- Philips
- IMS Maxims
- South Essex Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust
- Lewisham Healthcare NHS Trust
- University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust
