Integrated patient management system at Lanarkshire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

Citation

Morris, B. (2001), "Integrated patient management system at Lanarkshire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 14 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhcqa.2001.06214fab.001

Integrated patient management system at Lanarkshire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

Edited by Barbara Morris

Integrated patient management system at Lanarkshire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

Lanarkshire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust (LAHT) has contracted with Northgate Information Solutions to provide a £4.1 million fully integrated patient management system (PMS). The seven-year contract is intended to speed up administration processes, and provide full tracking of all records throughout the care pathway. This will greatly benefit patients who will receive better service and access to information from all clinicians and carers throughout the Trust.

The Northgate Express System will provide a single patient index to link the Trust's Hospitals at Hairmyres, Monklands and Wishaw. The index will provide up-to-date information for patient registration, inpatient and outpatient waiting lists, medical and laboratory tracking, order communications and reporting and electronic communications with general practices. The implementation of the system will achieve efficiencies in the booking of appointments, registration of patients, and allow investigation results to be reported more quickly. Additionally, it will be possible to reduce the time locating patient records through smart searching by name and postcode. It will present information in a clinician-friendly screen design using up to the minute Web technologies, reducing the need for in-depth training and high level technical backup.

The patient management solution will serve over 600,000 patients throughout the central belt of Scotland and will be used by GPs, clinicians, other medical professionals and administration staff. Implementation started in April 2001 with the first stage planned to be completed at Monklands Hospital by November. Ongoing stages will be rolled out throughout 2002 to cover the entire Trust.

The project is part of LAHT's objective to meet the Electronic Clinical Communication Implementation (ECCI) and the Scottish Care Information (SCI) initiatives, set out by the NHS Scotland. It will mean the Trust will be able to fully utilise Neon Ebiz 2000 products, which are used nation-wide to facilitate an interchange of information between community and core hospital departments.

Joe Owens, chief executive at LAHT, said:

This is a major initiative to provide the best patient care available, by establishing reliable communications between the Trust's hospitals and the’community. Doctors will have immediate access to hospital information and can automatically book patient appointments and laboratory tests. By accelerating administration processes we can maximise the time our staff spend caring for patients, which is paramount.

Further information from David Goddard at Northgate Information Solutions. Tel: (+44) (0) 1442 232424, e-mail: david.goddard@northgate-is.com