St Michael’s Hospice enhances care with mobile clinical management system
Crosscare to increase patient time by up to 20% and cut 150,000 paper records
St Michael’s Hospice in East Sussex is to achieve major efficiencies by implementing a mobile clinical management solution from Advanced Health & Care.
The Crosscare solution will go live in March 2016 and will enable the organisation to increase the time its workers can spend with patients by up to 20% through automating manual processes.
Elaine McDonough, head of clinical services at St Michael’s Hospice, said: “We are modernising our services and sought a solution that would reduce inefficient administration. We considered several systems, but many lacked the necessary functionality and user-friendliness that we required.
“In contrast, Crosscare has been specifically developed for the hospice environment and met our specialised needs. The system’s flexibility, ease of use, and integrated mobile technology will provide a safer and more effective means of documenting an individual’s care.”
Crosscare will streamline the management of a patient’s initial referral and multiple, concurrent episodes of care from beginning to end, eliminating time-consuming administrative processes. The system will electronically store full patient records including individual care plans, assessments and reviews. Statistical graphs can also be tailored to automatically calculate risk scores and effectively monitor progress to aid decision-making.
In addition, Crosscare will assist St Michael’s to prepare for the Palliative Care Funding Review and comply with the Outcome Assessment and Complexity Collaborative (OACC) initiative. Information relating to the organisation’s performance measures will be incorporated into Crosscare for reporting purposes.
McDonough said: “Being able to easily record, track and report on a patient’s entire journey will allow us to deliver enhanced standards of care. Crosscare will also eliminate the need to store and maintain approximately 150,000 paper records each year, dramatically improving the accuracy and speed of which we can access contemporaneous clinical information.”
The mobile functionality will enable St Michael’s doctors, nurses and healthcare assistants to spend more time with patients in their own homes. Authorised staff can securely access patient information and care schedules using tablet devices electronically at the point of care. All updates are imported into the centrally-deployed system, relieving the burden of time-consuming administration.
McDonough said: “Introducing leading mobile technology will allow our staff to remain out in the community for longer. We estimate the solution will save them between one and two hours a day as they can update patient notes and records immediately instead of having to return to the office.”