Moves to introduce a clinical pathway for midwives and health visitors as part of the Dorset Care Record citizen portal will realise a host of benefits for practitioners across the DCR partnership.
Chloe Mackenzie, Dorset County Hospital digital lead midwife, said the pathway, which is currently undergoing testing, will avoid duplication, improve patient safety and help overcome the issue of having to store paper-based documents. Chloe said her first impressions of the pathway, which has been built by the DCR’s tech provider Orion Health, were extremely favourable.
“I’m really excited to see it in action. Having been working on static documents for months, it’s great to see how the pathway brings everything together and I can now fully understand its future potential.”
Chloe is part of the team which will be implementing a pan-Dorset digital maternity system through Dorset’s Better Birth initiative. At present, Dorset’s three acute hospitals run different systems. Dorset County Hospital oversees 1,850 births each year, working with expectant mums from Lyme Regis in the west of the county to the outskirts of Sherborne, Wool and Portland.
She says that through the new pathway midwives and health visitors will have a much greater understanding of the expectant mum’s health and well-being than currently often is the case:
“We will be able to access GP records which will mean that midwives can ensure women have all the support needed to have a healthy, successful pregnancy from the start. Sometimes, information can currently take between two and seven days to get from partners.”
Under the system, mums-to-be will complete online pre-booking forms before they meet their midwife. They will also fill in pre and post-appointment questionnaires, ante-natal care plans, a birth preferences questionnaire about where they would like to have their baby and then antenatal care plans. The pathway also includes a section on goals and actions, covering issues such as weight loss, smoking cessation, healthy eating and alcohol reduction, which Chloe feels will also be particularly useful.
“At Dorset County Hospital we already have specialist teams to support women to give up smoking, maintain a healthy weight and ensure they have support with their mental health. Being able to select these goals at the beginning of pregnancy will help women and their families make a positive start for a healthy, happy pregnancy.”