University Hospital Southampton has this week gone live with a new system ‘Badgernet Maternity’, for pregnant women to access their records online or via the app.
A joint project spanning maternity services across Hampshire, Isle of Wight and Portsmouth, the app will replace paper notes, and provide a centralised platform. The system is an extension of the BadgerNet electronic patient record system initially introduced on neonatal units at the trust.
As well as providing access to maternity records, women will be able to self-refer online, download maternity information leaflets, set up appointment reminders and send questions to their midwife or maternity care team for non-urgent support.
Alison Hopkins, labour ward co-ordinator and high dependency unit midwife from the digital maternity team at UHS said: “This exciting new app follows on from the successful BadgerNet system which has been used in our neonatal department for more than ten years.
“Rolling out this extension of the platform to our maternity service will not only enhance care for women and their families but also support the recommendations from the Okenden Report and Saving Babies Lives.
“The advancement is really important and will empower expectant mums to have more control in their maternity care planning and have direct access to their personal records in an instant – all from a secure app.
“It is great news for our Trust as we continue to go digital. Personal information is protected and cannot be accessed without the appropriate login details, similar to that of internet banking.”
Dr Freya Pearson, deputy chief medical officer and consultant neonatologist UHS, added: “We have been using BadgerNet in our neonatal department for many years now and it has been an absolutely amazing asset for us.
“Extending this new version out to our maternity service will not only improve the maternity experience for expectant mums – from antenatal care to delivery of baby to postnatal care – but will also streamline the service by helping staff to work more efficiently as notes will be uploaded and available instantly.”
HTN also recently reported on a new system developed by a digital midwife at Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, an allocation system for use in the event of an emergency on its maternity unit. Caroline Lacy, is building the system – known as an ‘Emergency Role Allocation (ERA) System’ – to help clinicians declare emergencies and allocate roles to the responding team, before reaching the patient’s bedside. Taking inspiration from the way the trust’s emergency department responds to incoming trauma patients, Caroline has been developing a new interactive system to help coordinate teams quickly, when needed.
