Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust rolls out new electronic medical records system to improve the quality of patient care

Abstract

Summary of speech: o In the context of the Government’s QIPP agenda and Jeremy Hunt’s challenge to the NHS to be paperless by 2018, scanning paper medical records has gained in popularity as Trusts seek to solve seemingly mutually exclusive challenges – remove a unsustainable paper process, improve the quality of patient care, enhance operational productivity while reducing cost. o A variety of approaches have been taken to try to achieve this: o Some Trusts have invested heavily creating in-house scanning bureaus; o Others have digitised the whole record but paid little attention to navigation so clinicians are faced with hundreds of pages of notes in an unwieldy PDF. o With 86,000 emergency admissions every year, 330,000 outpatient visits and 77,000 inpatient day cases – some 4,200 paper files moved daily Aintree University Hospital couldn’t 100% guarantee availability with clinicians complaining that finding information took too long. o To address this, the Trust has implemented an electronic medical records system to provide clinicians instant access to patient information, guarantee notes availability, improve efficiency, and reduce the costs, risks and space associated with paper handling and storage. o The EDMS solution cost £1.5 million, with the Trust realising annual savings of £1 million. o Professor Mike Pearson, consultant physician and the clinical lead on the project, will talk about the project – its goals, the solution deployed, what has been achieved, and how the project was successfully managed so that others both clinicians and operational staff can benefit from Aintree’s experience. o Ultimately it is not the actual software or the underlying technologies which have ensured success, but the careful application of them along with an understanding of the accompanying organisational and medical processes. This mandates a partnership between the suppliers and the Trust as all have to deliver which has been the case on this project. o Outlined below is comprehensive detail which it is hoped the King’s Fund will find useful as it selects speakers for the International Digital Health and Care Congress 2014 [Innovations in technology category]. International Digital Health and Care Congress, The King’s Fund, London, September 10-12 2014. International Journal of Integrated Care – Volume 14, 01 November – URN:NBN:NL:UI:10-1-116504– http://www.ijic.org/