Herts Valley CCG and Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust have carried out a successful pilot of patient information sharing between the SystmOne and EMIS Web systems, allowing users to view the complete community and GP records across the area.
The project provided nine EMIS Web GP sites with the ability to view and share patient data with 50 SystmOne community services, who in turn, could also view and share with those GP sites.
This allowed clinicians to bring up a patient’s care record embedded within their current clinical system. The pilot was signed off in December 2018 and Herts Valley CCG are keen to roll the interoperability project out to the wider CCG area.
Patrick Thorpe, head of clinical systems at Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust was impressed by the level of detail that was available by sharing information between the two systems during the pilot project. He said, “It’s not just a snapshot, it’s a comprehensive and detailed view of a patient record, and that can only be good for patients.”
“Direct interoperability between EMIS and TPP means that staff can get a comprehensive view of a patient’s record at the point of care with no delay.”
Allowing GP and community clinicians, nurses and admin staff to access, relevant patient information has been a great success in Hertfordshire. Dr Mike Walton, a GP in Herts Valley CCG, found that within just the first day of the project, he was able to use the new interoperability between his own GP record (EMIS Web) and the SystmOne record used by the community trust, in order to help several patients whilst out on call. Dr Mike Walton said “This kind of information sharing can make an enormous amount of difference to care and clinical safety. It is the sort of joined-up care we have been aching to see for a long time.”
Dr John Parry, Clinical Director TPP “By ensuring that our systems interoperate, we are supporting the Department of Health’s recently announced future technology vision, and leading the way towards connected and high-quality care across all sectors.”
