Orion Senior Marketing Manager Katy Brooks writes about how sharing patient data can support direct care, highlighting the work being carried out with the Northern Ireland Electronic Care Record and the North of Scotland Care Portal. Orion Health are the technical partner of the Dorset Care Record.
With the launch of LHCREs in England, the focus on sharing patient data to support direct care and regional population health management has never been so strong. As these programs get underway, including the Wessex LHCRE which will enable the sharing of patient information across Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of White, what can be learnt from other regions in the UK?
The North of Scotland
Spurred on by the remote geography of the region and resulting patient travel across boundaries, four boards came together to create a North of Scotland Care Portal. Going live in February this year, this provides a single view of patient information held in different IT systems. The Portal also links to and is accessible from NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s Clinical Portal, to facilitate the movement of patients for specialist treatment.
Today, clinicians can see if a patient has an Emergency Care Summary (including KIS and Palliative Care data) and how complete it is before accessing the ECS, saving time that would be wasted if the information was not there. The North of Scotland Care Portal displays, in the same patient view, radiology reports and lab results conducted at one hospital alongside radiology reports and lab results conducted at another hospital in another NHS Board area, for the first time anywhere in Scotland. Clinicians can access documents started at a service in one board and add to them, and any additions can be seen when patients return to their home board.
Following the early success of the Portal, further Scottish health boards are looking to join up with it. Iain Ross, Head of eHealth, NHS Highland said at the Portal’s launch event, “our patients flow across the region, but sometimes their data can be slow to follow them. By linking systems across primary, secondary and social care for the first time our clinicians will have the complete picture of a patient, ensuring they can make the most informed decisions. It’s about ensuring that the patient stays at the heart of everything that we do.”
Northern Ireland
The Northern Ireland Electronic Care Record went live in 2013 and provides a single system for the sharing of patient information across the country. Many innovations have been added over the years but of particular note is the Diabetes Care Pathway, recently shortlisted for two HSJ awards. This enables multi-disciplinary teams to more effectively manage the care for the c. 100,000 adults and children living with diabetes in the country.
According to Diabetes UK, the prevalence of diabetes in Northern Ireland has risen 62.5% in ten years.* Unsurprisingly, this places a heavy burden on resources, with diabetes accounting for over £400m in treatment costs annually. With the Diabetes Care Pathway speeding up information sharing between care providers, digitising transfers of care and therefore improving patient care, “remarkable,” “significant,” “helpful,” “efficient” and “effective” are just some of the words stakeholders have used to describe the Pathway. Subsequently further pathways have been developed for cardiology, asthma, and mortality and morbidity.
Dr Roy Harper, Senior Endocrinologist at South Eastern Health & Social Care Trust said, “the new Diabetes Care Pathway provides clinicians such as myself with this level of information allowing us to be proactive in our care and provide a much better journey for patients, increase their confidence in the treatment plan and improved outcomes in the long run.”
As the benefits of using care pathways to manage specific patient cohorts are now established, we are seeing more of them coming into play. For example, the upcoming maternity pathway in Dorset and a dedicated pathway for trauma patients in the North of Scotland.
Though the prospect of tackling information sharing across regions can be daunting, not least due to the need for organisations who may have never worked together before to form trusted relationships, there are pockets of innovation we can look to for inspiration. Through the LHCREs, we now have the opportunity to deliver meaningful change for the better.
*source:https://www.diabetes.org.uk/In_Your_Area/N_Ireland/News/number-of-people-living-with-diabetes-jumps