Civica has agreed a new five-year contract with Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) for its Cito software to support the Patient Record Transition Programme.
BCUHB is the largest health organisation in Wales, with a budget of approximately £1.4billion a year.
The board employs more than 17,000 staff who perform over 1.8 million patient activities per year. And each of these requires access to a patient’s record to support clinical decision-making and ensure better patient outcomes.
Civica’s Cito software will underpin the board’s Patient Record Transition Programme, which aims to deliver a single cohesive view of the acute patient record across all health board sites.
It will use electronic forms to gather information directly from clinicians, patients, and healthcare professionals, alongside drawing information from other key local and national systems, together with scanned information to significantly reduce the reliance on paper.
This ‘born digital’ approach will create a single digital patient case note that can be shared safely and easily with other healthcare professionals in Wales and beyond.
Delivering a paperless NHS at the point of care is critical to improve safety and efficiencies, putting the right tools into clinicians’ hands to make their jobs easier and safer
This will help the health board to improve patient flow, enhance patient safety and confidentiality, and reduce costs.
It also supports the board’s aim to reduce storage costs and become paper-light by 2023.
And, as COVID-19 has seen many outpatient clinics now delivered remotely by phone or video; the solution will also support these virtual clinics, a move critical to continuing patient care during the pandemic by allowing clinicians to access patient case notes digitally and in confidence.
Jo Whitehead, chief executive of the board, said: “We’re committed to continued patient-centric care by ensuring the right patient information is available to clinicians at the point of delivery of care.
“It’s important that patients and their carers can actively participate in their care, with the confidence that their information is safe.
“We selected Civica’s Cito as the best option to provide fast and accurate availability of all patient records and this will support our clinical decision making and ultimately ensure better outcomes for patients.”
We’re committed to continued patient-centric care by ensuring the right patient information is available to clinicians at the point of delivery of care
Steve Brain, executive director of health and care at Civica, added: “Delivering a paperless NHS at the point of care is critical to improve safety and efficiencies, putting the right tools into clinicians’ hands to make their jobs easier and safer.”
BCUHB is the second Welsh health board to select Cito, following Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board, which contracted Civica to support its ‘digital hospital’ agenda in 2019.
Civica now works with three of Wales’s largest health boards by spend, which, in turn, service over 50% of the population.