Liverpool trust deploys clinical portal
Rollout cuts clinic times, improves services and saves staff time and resources
The Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust has gone live with a clinical portal that will allow vital patient information to be called up in real-time, improving patient care and making services more efficient .
The portal has been deployed across seven therapeutic areas including orthopaedics, cardiology, diabetes and haematology and is already providing clinicians with instant access to a range of patient data including test results, medical images and correspondence.
The deployment has been led by supplier, CSC, in collaboration with Carefx, who have worked closely with clinicians at the trust to tailor the portal to their exact requirements.
This is already bringing benefits to both the patients and clinicians as it ensures we have access to the correct patient information when we need it, before, during and after a consultation or procedure
Chris Walker, trauma and orthopaedic consultant at the trust, said: “The portal gives clinicians an electronic patient record which provides us with a simple, clear and instant view of the essential information we need, on a single screen.
“This is already bringing benefits to both the patients and clinicians as it ensures we have access to the correct patient information when we need it, before, during and after a consultation or procedure. In addition, less time is wasted trying to sort through and decipher paper notes.
“We are now able to assemble and present the information from the portal in a format that works for us, creating an interface which is clinician-friendly and highly flexible.”
The trust decided to deploy the clinical portal following a successful proof of concept (PoC) evaluation last year, which showed major benefits including an average reduction in the length of clinic times by 30 minutes, improved patient services, safety and savings in staff time and resources.
James Norman, the trust’s IT director, said: “The portal presents data from underlying systems, which the clinicians are familiar with, in an easy iGoogle-style format so training has been quick and simple and uptake by the clinicians has been astonishing.
Never before has there been more focus on the importance of improving patient care while simultaneously making efficiency savings. The clinical portal is the keystone in helping lay solid foundations for the trust’s future, creating an effective and efficient way to reduce costs and administration, while speeding up and increasing the throughput of patients and aiding service transformation
“The PoC exceeded all expectations in terms of the availability, speed, performance of the portal as well as the quality of the data integrity and we are now beginning to see those benefits being realised across the trust.”
In addition to the clinical benefits, the portal has created a bridge between existing applications, which is enabling the trust to extend the life of systems that might otherwise need to be upgraded or replaced. The portal is currently supporting access to data from systems such as orders and results, X-rays, clinical letters, GP referral letters and pre-operative assessments, with more systems being integrated in the next phases.
Tony Bell, the trust’s chief executive, said: “Never before has there been more focus on the importance of improving patient care while simultaneously making efficiency savings. The clinical portal is the keystone in helping lay solid foundations for the trust’s future, creating an effective and efficient way to reduce costs and administration, while speeding up and increasing the throughput of patients and aiding service transformation.
“Not only has the portal allowed us to protect our existing IT investments, but it has enabled us to align ourselves with the government’s interoperability agenda ensuring that our systems are future proofed.”
Over the coming weeks the solution will be extended to the wards and emergency departments. In addition, the trust will provide limited access to the system for GPs to reduce delays in informing family doctors about any interventions.
- Companies:
- Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital
- Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC)
