Archive for the ‘IT’ Category

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NHS called to invest in IT for integrated care

Monday, January 23rd, 2012

The director of Care Informatics Consulting has urged the NHS to invest in IT systems, stating that information sharing has the potential to greatly improve patient care, but this can only come as a result of co-ordination and data access.

Julian Todd asserts that an integrated care model is generally believed to lead to better patient outcomes, satisfaction and cost efficiency. He states however that much debate arises when discussing how to fund, organise and commission IT systems.

Todd states that “lean thinking” states that in order to eliminate waste, managers must look at the overall system and understand the processes which deliver value. For care services, that means understanding care pathways, service user experiences, causes of demand on the system and options for ways of meeting those needs.

Long term conditions (LTCs) are thought to be the most significant factor in driving IT need as they cause a disproportionate demand for care services. “Case management” has often been cited as a method to potentially improve the delivery of care for patients with LTCs.

Effective case management, Todd says, requires shared information about risk, assessments and care plans. Patients and their carers need easy access to their records and their plan, plus information on self care, support groups, entitlement, service options and quality.

Todd states that one of the cheapest, quicker and most effective ways to allow access to patient information is to have a robust recording system supplemented by portal technology to encourage patients to actively participate in and contribute towards their care.

“GP-led commissioning has the potential to shift attention and perspective away from large care organisations like NHS Trusts and councils towards a whole systems view centred on service users and communities. Information is the glue to bind all the pieces of integrated care” Todd said.

If the focus is to be shifted out of acute settings and into the community, Trusts must take the initiative to implement systems that will best support this change. Therapy Manager is an Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system which enables clinicians to create secure offline databases of patient records for easy community travel. Patient data and activity can be recorded on-the-go and quickly uploaded back to the main database when the clinicians are back on site. The “Therapies Viewer” also enables staff from all specialties to view the information contained within the system, ensuring clarity around treatment.

Original Source The Guardian

About Pathway Software

Pathway Software (www.pathwaysoftware.com) specialises in the design and development of patient information systems for Allied Health professionals.

Its flagship product, Therapy Manager, is an Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system specifically designed for Therapy Services to provide decision makers with the ability to track and manage clinical activity and analyse cost of care by patient, episode or service. The system also demonstrably reduces administration time and the costs of managing Therapy Services.

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Future Forum calls to appoint IT “champion” clinicians

Tuesday, January 17th, 2012

The NHS Future Forum has recommended that every NHS organisation identify and appoint a clinician responsible for gathering and using information to support better patient care.

A second phase report was published by the forum on Tuesday which outlined the progression of an “information revolution”. The report cited a number of barriers standing in the way of this being a reality, stating they they were “much more cultural than they are technological.”

The forum believe that by identifying a suitable clinician to organise information, they will act as a “champion” to drive a level of cultural change needed in every organisation.

It is believed that the majority of Trusts have already identified clinicians who are “leaders” with regards to IT in an informal setting. These individuals should be praised for their skills and encouraged to pursue IT in the interests of patient safety and the quality of care.

A further recommendation made in the report is that Trusts invest in the development of IT and informatics skills in their staff. These skills should be included in education, training and continued development programmes so that all NHS staff can begin to understand and use informatics appropriately in their working processes.

Former NHS chief executive Anthony McKeever stated that in order to be effective, information systems needed to address the issues that mattered to those working on the ground and for that to happen, clinicians had to be involved from the start of the process. He states a need to use information in a way that makes sense for both staff and patients, and believes that clinicians are best placed to make this happen.

The Department of Health responded to the report, says that many of the issues highlighted will require a significant cultural change. They reported that the steps for overcoming these barriers will be outlined in the forthcoming information strategy.

Original Source eHealth Insider

About Pathway Software

Pathway Software (www.pathwaysoftware.com) specialises in the design and development of patient information systems for Allied Health professionals.

Its flagship product, Therapy Manager, is an Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system specifically designed for Therapy Services to provide decision makers with the ability to track and manage clinical activity and analyse cost of care by patient, episode or service. The system also demonstrably reduces administration time and the costs of managing Therapy Services.

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DoH and Intellect to create “healthy and vibrant” IT market

Friday, January 6th, 2012

The Department of Health Informatics Directorate (DHID) and Intellect have published a formal outline of their plans to reconfigure IT in the NHS, stating how they intend to create a “healthy and vibrant” IT market.

The outline was published following consultation on a draft plan that was published in November. It states that during the consultation phase, the response was “very positive”, with the draft plan being downloaded more than 600 times.

Organisations that responded to the plan stated that they wanted clear, measurable objectives. The DoH and Intellect responded to say they were in the process of creating a team to put together these criteria. They state that they will also consider building an evidence base of good information and technology programmes to support an evaluation framework.

One of the primary focuses of the plan is to improve the perception of healthcare IT so it can be viewed as a fundamental element in transforming the health service. Failed large-scale implementations such as the National Programme for IT (NPfIT) have led in many cases to a negative perception of IT systems, with many Trusts losing confidence in their abilities and believing that “starting from scratch” and procuring outside of the NPfIT to be too difficult.

The Department of Health (DoH) and Intellect have stated their intent to create a desire in the NHS for IT systems and look towards creating a new information strategy. The draft plan also proposes three separate work streams to:

  1. Identify better models of information flow
  2. Establish standards, requirements and accreditation of systems
  3. Improve the ‘sub-optimal’ procurement process

The plan however states that the objectives of each work stream have not yet been determined. Instead, the DoH and Intellect assert that their current focus is to appoint recognised leaders from the NHS and industry to jointly agree and progress work as part of the overall plan.

A number of “key initiatives” will be set out to “foster the right conditions to enable a healthy and vibrant healthcare IT market within England for the benefit of patients and the public, as well as the NHS and adult social care staff who care for them”. More details about the initiatives will reportedly be available in March, and initial recommendations from the workstreams will be available in May.

Original Source eHealth Insider

About Pathway Software

Pathway Software (www.pathwaysoftware.com) specialises in the design and development of patient information systems for Allied Health professionals.

Its flagship product, Therapy Manager, is an Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system specifically designed for Therapy Services to provide decision makers with the ability to track and manage clinical activity and analyse cost of care by patient, episode or service. The system also demonstrably reduces administration time and the costs of managing Therapy Services.

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“Clarity” needed for NHS IT in 2012

Tuesday, January 3rd, 2012

A recent survey has revealed that the primary focus of the NHS in 2012 should be on creating “clarity” around the roles and responsibilities of local organisations in order to make the most of the government’s latest round of reforms.

Participants in the eHealth Insider survey felt that in the “chaos” of the current changes, a lack of clarity could mean that the NHS may not focus on smart investments in people and technology.

John Cruikshank, Director of Health ICT Consulting, said clarity was also needed to keep up momentum on IT investment. He warned that some NHS organisations may be unable to respond to the IT agenda with the same scale and pace of others. He also stated that due to the disappearance of strategic health authorities (SHAs), the NHS could potentially return to “the days of the 1990s”, with significant variation in the implementation and use of IT.

One of the greatest barriers to IT adoption in 2012 is thought to have been the failure of the National Programme for IT (NPfIT), which has reportedly lead to some Trusts ”pulling back” from IT projects. Jonathan Edwards, Managing Director of The Advisory Group Company, said that many Trusts think that to “start from scratch” with regards to implementing new IT products will be too difficult due to the harsh financial climate the NHS is operating in.

Edwards asserts that Trusts should focus on the opportunities a new IT implementation could bring a opposed to the difficulties, stating there is a need to build strong business cases around IT procurements and their potential benefits.

Paul Smith, EHI Intelligence Head of Research, agreed the pressure was on for business cases to show a quick financial return, often having to do so within a year. He said the EHI Intelligence Market Forecast Report published in 2011 had shown that some NHS IT directors were worried that this would make it difficult to invest in technologies that might deliver a bigger return over time, particularly for clinicians and patients.

Smith asserted however that 2012 will present plenty of opportunities as people in the NHS and the IT industry “really want to make things happen.”

Pathway Software has a developed a business case builder that takes into account all aspects of clinical, administrative and managerial activity, enabling decision makers to accurately forecast where and how savings could be generated. The model quantifies the cost-savings and ranks the non-financial benefits that should be achieved as a result of deploying Therapy Manager. For more information, click here.

Original Source eHealth Insider

About Pathway Software

Pathway Software (www.pathwaysoftware.com) specialises in the design and development of patient information systems for Allied Health professionals.

Its flagship product, Therapy Manager, is an Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system specifically designed for Therapy Services to provide decision makers with the ability to track and manage clinical activity and analyse cost of care by patient, episode or service. The system also demonstrably reduces administration time and the costs of managing Therapy Services.

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Connecting for Health and Intellect collaborate for NHS IT

Thursday, November 24th, 2011

Representatives from NHS Connecting for Health and Intellect have written to the Guardian stating how they want to establish a collaborative effort between suppliers and NHS IT users in order to improve healthcare.

Peter Dyke, Head of Industry Liaison for NHS Connecting for Health and John Lindberg, Healthcare Programme Manager for ICT trade association Intellect state that as the use of IT becomes an essential part of modern life, healthcare professionals must also be able to be provided with and use information on a daily basis.

Dyke and Lindberg say that the NHS takes clever consumer technology for granted, with many feeling that such technology is “denied” to them. “NHS managers and clinicians lack confidence in using IT to deliver better care, or a universal ability to lead their teams through the changes needed to adopt and use new technology” they state.

The article states that IT has never been a top issue for NHS leaders, focusing instead on frontline patient care. This has been hindered by the fact that successful systems are patchy and replicating these at scale is a challenge which has often failed, in the case of projects such as the National Programme for IT (NPfIT).

Intellect and the Department of Health have come together as a result in a new partnership in an attempt to “unlock the true potential of health IT”. Dyke and Lindberg believe that rather than being competing customer/supplier forces, the two entities have a common interest in making the most of the valuable healthcare IT resources that they both share. They want to help NHS leaders gain confidence in using IT to transform and deliver better care, and to take ownership of the IT-enabled agenda.

It is also reported that the two will focus on making the health IT market more vibrant so that the NHS can have greater choice and access to innovative solutions from a wider range of suppliers. They want to remove unnecessary restrictions on information sharing between systems, streamlining the standards processes that allow the thousands of NHS IT systems to work together safely and remove the procurement barriers that delay the implementation of IT that supports better care.

The new partnership hopes to take advantage of the experience that both the NHS and it’s suppliers have gathered and introduce a “new transparent and trusting working relationship” in which the key focus is to support better patient care.

A draft joint plan was openly published on 7 November which is currently open to feedback, which can be downloaded from the Intellect or Connecting for Health websites.

Original Source The Guardian Healthcare Network

About Pathway Software

Pathway Software (www.pathwaysoftware.com) specialises in the design and development of patient information systems for Allied Health professionals.

Its flagship product, Therapy Manager, is an Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system specifically designed for Therapy Services to provide decision makers with the ability to track and manage clinical activity and analyse cost of care by patient, episode or service. The system also demonstrably reduces administration time and the costs of managing Therapy Services.

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