St Michael's Hospital goes live with ED system from IMS MAXIMS
Digital health ambitions in East Ireland strengthened by deployment of cutting-edge technology at St Michael’s Hospital
St Michael’s Hospital achieved a significant milestone in East Ireland’s journey towards digitally-enabled healthcare last week by going live with an electronic patient management system in its emergency department (ED).
The system effectively made the department paper-lite as the core clinical and administrative processes moved from being paper-based to electronic with no disruption to patient care.
The functionally-rich software introduces new workflow processes that will simplify and speed up core activities.
The hospital’s vision of having a completely-paperless ED also means better-informed clinical decisions and enhanced outcomes for patients.
Following the successful go-live, the ED teams can manage the department’s capacity to treat patients much more effectively as staff have real-time oversight of a person’s journey.
Live tracking of a patient’s condition using alerts and warnings including life-threatening risk factors, means patients are prioritised on their level of urgency, triage priority, and length of stay. Staff are no longer reliant on handwritten notes and a paper-based whiteboard.
Patient safety in the department will be greatly improved by using a single health care record for each patient, which seamlessly integrates into the hospital’s other clinical systems.
Staff can access the digital records from anywhere in the hospital, subsequently avoiding clinical risks associated with paper such as mislaid medical notes and incoherent handwriting.
Switching from a completely-outdated, inadequate ED patient assessment and care documentation paper system to MAXIMS has been a dramatic change management project for staff
Olive Vines, emergency department nurse manager at St Michael’s Hospital, said: “Since the successful go-live, nursing and medical documentation have improved significantly, becoming clearer and more concise.
“Our workflow processes have become more efficient, with the reduction of transcribing patient details into handwritten referral and GP letters.
“Our need for storage of paper notes has also been reduced and the introduction of an electronic version of the Manchester Triage system allows the ED to provide standardised patient priority allocation.
“Switching from a completely-outdated, inadequate ED patient assessment and care documentation paper system to MAXIMS has been a dramatic change management project for the staff of St Michael’s ED.
“The transformation, however, has been a success because of the true partnership approach between us and IMS MAXIMS.”
Healthcare services across East Ireland are also set to benefit from the deployment, as dashboard screens reporting on ED performance can be monitored at a local, regional, and national level.
St Michael’s Hospital can share information on its waiting times and co-ordinate with other hospitals on its capacity to ascertain the quickest and most-effective place for patients to be treated.
In particular, the integration of care between St Michael’s Hospital and St Vincent’s University Hospital will be strengthened now that both EDs are using the same cutting-edge technology.
On-call consultants for example, will be able to access electronic records in both EDs and manage demand remotely.
The next phase of the project will be to make the department completely paperless with the introduction of electronic order communication, assessments for specialist services such as the wound clinic and e-prescribing.
Shane Tickell, chief executive of IMS MAXIMS, said: “We are delighted to be able to support St Michael’s on such a significant project that will benefit patients across East Ireland.
As an Irish health technology company, it’s a real privilege to be such an integral part of the nation’s success in achieving its digital health ambitions
“The ED’s move to become paperless and the integration with St Vincent’s University Hospital will greatly improve patient outcomes and capacity management, which is vitally important given the current pressures on services and specifically, waiting times.
“The St Michael’s go-live is our second urgent care deployment in Ireland in six months and builds on the success reported by our customer St Vincent’s University Hospital Emergency Department, which is part of the same hospital group.
“As an Irish health technology company, it’s a real privilege to be such an integral part of the nation’s success in achieving its digital health ambitions.”
