St George's deploys cradle-to-grave cardiothoracic solution

St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust has selected the McKesson cardiovascular imaging and information system (CVIS) to replace its legacy cardiothoracic solution of eight years.

CVIS provides a single platform that includes haemodynamics and presents the entire patient history from foetal to adulthood and will help the trust bring together the clinical information required for better and safer decisions in patient care.

Users will immediately be able to see updates to patient records made by other care providers from anywhere in the hospital, in addition to simultaneously reviewing previous and current studies of any modality. This capability is achieved through a single database that stores all cardiovascular images, reports and waveforms in one location, from modalities such as echocardiography, vascular ultrasound, cardiac and vascular catheterisation, nuclear cardiology and ECGs.

“As a major cardiac centre for London, it is imperative that we have the systems in place to support the highest standards of clinical excellence,” said James Moggridge, medical physicist at the trust. “Our existing cardiothoracic system is more than eight years old and reaching the end of its life both in terms of hardware and software. The time was therefore right to look at an alternative solution.”

Once the new technology is deployed, the trust will have a fully integrated solution for haemodynamic monitoring, cardiovascular imaging and reporting of all patients in its catheter suite

Once the new technology is deployed, the trust will have a fully integrated solution for haemodynamic monitoring, cardiovascular imaging and reporting of all patients in its catheter suite. It will enable clinicians to send measurements from ECG scanners directly into the system and will provide concise procedure reports, which cardiologists can copy to GPs while providing information to help ensure that procedures are captured and coded appropriately.

“At St George’s, patient care is already at a very high standard,” said Moggridge. “With the new system in place, our clinicians will get the benefit of improved workflow and more streamlined processes, which will allow them to focus less on paperwork and more on further improving patient care.”

Over the next few years, CVIS will also serve as the foundation for the trust’s Integrated Clinical Information Programme, a technology initiative designed to bring more patient safety into the care process, including automated printing of wristbands to help reduce transcribing errors, and bar code technology to provide safer blood and drug administration.