CSH has implemented electronic transfer of patient documents generated from the RiO Community System directly into the systems used by GPs without the need of any manual intervention. This covers discharge letters, messages updating the GP on the progress of care for patients, confirmation of referrals being received and medical reports for vulnerable patients.
Central Surrey Health (CSH) provides award winning therapy and community nursing services to the population of central Surrey. It was the first, not for profit, social enterprise to come out of the NHS and is owned and run by the 750 co-owners it employs. Care is delivered at 18 clinic and hospital sites on the fixed network and remotely at schools, patient homes and community locations.
This is completed through the Electronic Document Transfer (EDT) Hub product provided by PCTI which allows for seamless integration between systems. Building on the investment made by NHS Surrey in the Docman Management System for GPs, and using the integration method that is used by acute trusts to transmit discharge letters to GPs in the area, CSH commissioned the developments to RiO and tested the integration with the Docman installations at the Practices. This is the first time that electronic transmission of documents has been enabled from RiO in a community setting.
By implementing the integration, CSH have cut out all of the previous manual printing, mailing and scanning processes that were previously in place. This is saving over £35,000 a year in reduced paper and postage costs together with over 3000 hours of processing time within its services and at the GP Practices. The care for the patient is also enhanced with timely information available at the GP Practice.
Benefits
A detailed cost and benefit analysis has been completed. This has demonstrated direct patient benefits where the GP can access information relating to the care of patients shortly after it has been produced. This allows the GP to be informed and make timely clinical decisions rather than having to wait to receive communications. It has also reduced a frustration for patients where they previously attended their GP Practice before any clinical document had reached the Practice following treatment or discharge in the community.
There are financial savings of over £35,000 a year through not having to print and post the documents. The cost of sending the document electronically was 45p through the manual process.
Efficiency savings are realised both at Central Surrey Health and at the GP Practices. The previous manual process has been replaced by a seamless electronic one where it is known that the document has reached its destination through an audit trail.
The non-financial benefits include a positive impact on the environment by not printing and reducing the road miles for transporting the post. The integration has also made it easier to do business with GPs and this has encouraged thinking around other areas of integration particularly on referral management.
Administrators at the Practices say: “Receiving communication electronically has made the workflow process much more efficient. Documents are received directly into our Docman Filing Manager and are ready to be work-flowed into the GP system at the click of a button.”
How has this improved communication between Healthcare Staff?
The communication between clinicians at Central Surrey Health and GP Practices has significantly improved. GPs now have information about the care of their patients readily available and receive it in a timely manner. Practice staff are engaging more with community clinicians as they can review progress across different services and be proactive in planning care. The results are efficient treatment for the patient with less duplication and repeating of tasks – a major frustration for all healthcare staff involved in the care pathway.
Evidence of how integration can be developed or replicated
The development within RiO that enabled the integration to happen is available to all RiO customers and is available for deployment by them. This means that the technology can be replicated to any other integration solution as it uses a standard method of output.
Within the immediate vicinity, CSH can now use the integration solution with most GPs in Surrey as they already have compatible systems.
CSH are expanding the use of the integration to also cover the transmission to GPs of urgent documents such as test results.
By implementing the integration one way to GPs and proving it works, CSH are now working on information flows in the other direction. CSH are progressing this using the same technology but in reverse to allow GPs to electronically transmit documents directly into the RiO System. This would cover items such as referrals, requests for information and test requests.