IT news: News round-up

Published: 28-Apr-2011


Isle of Wight leads they way

LOGICA has been selected to support the delivery of one of the most-advanced integrated patient care record systems. As a result of the deployment, NHS Isle of Wight will now be able to integrate all the information held in 10 different core systems to support emergency and urgent care patient information requirements as patients move through the different stages and areas of care. Built using Logica's e-CareLogic solution, it is hoped the rollout will lead to improvements in care as well as making better use of existing assets and patient data.NHS Isle of Wight chief executive, Kevin Flynn, said: "We believe that this new partnership and solution will position NHS Isle of Wight as a beacon of urgent care best practice within the NHS community. I am confident that we will see improvements not just in how our services operate, but in the level of care we are able to deliver to patients."

Top award for procurement site

AN ONLINE ICT procurement site that has a track record of saving public services millions of pounds has won a Queen's Award for continuous innovation. Probrand's CIPS-accredited www.theitindex.co.uk is believed to be Europe's largest automated ICT catalogue, providing daily updates on more than 150,000 products and services from around 2,500 manufacturers ranked by best price and stock availability. The technology was developed in partnership with Mercato Solutions and was recognised for helping secure efficiencies. Peter Robbins, Probrand managing director, said: "Our platform is changing the face of how public and private sector communities drive down the cost of buying ICT."

Roll out of Docman completed in Croydon

The main drivers behind the project were to improve the efficiency of the workflow within practices by reducing the paper trail in the surgeries in line with paper-light working

PCTI has announced the completed roll-out of its Docman electronic document management, workflow and document transfer solution to all GP practices in Croydon. Following deployment in the remaining 28 practices, all GPs now have access to the solution and will also receive Intellisense advanced Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to automate the electronic patient letter filing process and capture important diagnosis and procedure read codes. This will ensure documents are received instantly from hospitals, filed quickly and efficiently with minimal user intervention, before entering the GP's electronic workflow. Dave Gunner, Croydon PCT's primary care regulatory affairs and IT projects manager, said: "The main drivers behind the project were to improve the efficiency of the workflow within practices by reducing the paper trail in the surgeries in line with paper-light working. I expect there will be both efficiency savings that will arise from the receiving and processing of secondary/community data electronically and reducing the need to print documents. This will subsequently reduce the amount of time required to physically scan hard copies as well as save costs, particularly in respect of consumables such as paper and printer cartridges, which will kick in sooner than actual staff cost savings."

Scarborough procures groundbreaking system

A GROUNDBREAKING mobile computer system is now in use in all inpatient areas at Scarborough and Bridlington hospitals. VitalPAC, developed by The Learning Clinic, has now been rolled out on all wards, electronically capturing patient observations and ensuring they are taken in full and on time. The system will help ward staff to measure and recognise the importance of worsening vital signs, enabling them to respond quickly and ultimately avoiding adverse events such as cardiac arrests, intensive care admissions and deaths from venous thromboembolism. Rowena Smith, clinical standards co-ordinator, has been the nursing lead for the rollout across the trust, with Dr John Mensah, a consultant anaesthetist. She said: "We began the roll out of VitalPAC in mid January and are delighted that we are now at the stage where it has been introduced onto every ward. Once staff have learnt about the benefits of the device; how it can not only improve patient care, but also reduce the amount of paperwork, they have welcomed its introduction." Under the system nurses use a handheld VitalPAC device to enter a patient's vital signs and other clinical observations at the bedside. VitalPAC then calculates a risk score, alerts staff immediately if there is any deterioration in the patient and advises if action is required according to hospital protocols. Nursing and medical staff then use computer screens to view the information that would previously have been viewed on paper charts.

Millennium deployed at London trust

SOUTH London Healthcare NHS Trust has announced plans to implement the patient administration and electronic patient record system, Cerner Millennium, across all its hospitals over the next two years. Together with improving data confidentiality and security, the new system will enable patients' records and details of their treatment across the trust to be stored on one system. It will also provide better and more accessible services for patients, including getting blood test results sooner. The new installation is being carried out by BT in partnership with Cerner and will build on the current system installed at Queen Mary's. It will also replace the existing patient administration systems at both Queen Elizabeth and the Princess Royal hospitals. Acting chief operating officer, Jennie Hall, said "Our staff have so far been working with three different patient record systems. Installing one for all sites will make everyone's life much easier. Patients can be reassured that their records can be appropriately accessed by any doctor they might see at any of our hospitals."

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