Ninety-two per cent of staff say the MIG from Healthcare Gateway has helped them to improve overall patient care, an independent benefit analysis conducted by NHIS direct with clinical staff using the MIG has found.
GP Dr Anita Bloor, Senior Medical Advisor at out-of-hours and urgent primary care provider NEMS, said: “Access to live primary care records via the MIG gives our doctors and other out-of-hours clinical staff the vital information they need to make safe, effective and appropriate decisions.”
“We now look at the patient’s GP record in almost every case we manage and, if it’s not available for some reason, it’s like having one arm tied behind your back. Immediate access to GP records can also prevent unnecessary hospital admissions, which is particularly important with frail elderly people.”
The portal is being used across Nottinghamshire to provide real-time information from 143 GP practices across 6 CCGs available. Andy Evans, Programme Director at Connected Nottinghamshire said “We wanted to improve health and social care data sharing. After extensive research, we chose the MIG in 2014 as a low cost, high value tactical solution that we could deploy easily. We can summarise complex data from any source and share it widely to other systems via the MIG very quickly. We are now making information from over 90% of GP patient records available, compared to 15% in 2015.”
The system is sharing information such as medications, medical histories, datasets around end of life care and treatment, patient preferences and core GP system information.
Its now providing access to data sets for out-of-hours services, multiple hospitals, 111 staff, GPs, community carers, mental health workers and others. Leanne Alder, Research Radiographer at Nottingham University Hospital said “The MIG saves time otherwise spent contacting GPs and other trusts to obtain information. We can more easily check which other medications patients are taking for any potential drug interactions and it also stops patients getting annoyed that GPs and hospitals don’t talk to each other.”
