Annual Review 2009 - Sandwell & West Birmingham Hospitals

• Further extension of the clinical letter system
is in progress to incorporate Sandwell and
Rowley Regis sites and to load historical letters.
A new web-based clinical letter system is also in
development.
•Development of a clinical data warehouse
(CDA) which supports the storage and retrieval
of a comprehensive clinical information
database.
In 2009/10 the focus will be on starting to
create a PaperLite environment with the aim
of replacing the paper medical record for
all current patients over time. In addition,
further work will commence on real-time
bed management, further implementation of
Theatre Management functionality and pilot
implementations of electronic prescribing.
GP Homepage
GP Homepage is a web based page which has
been developed to allow practice staff to view
the trusts Clinical Data Archive. They can only
view information about the patients registered
with the practice. The site is password
protected and use is monitored by the trust.
By sharing this information patients should find
there is much less duplication of tests and a more
coordinated approach to their care. Practices
can view Clinical letters, Alerts, Pathology and
Radiology Results, TTO/Discharge Summaries,
ECG Reports and other Cardiology Results,
Endoscopy Reports, Waiting Lists and Referrals.
It also enables the practice to track patients from
their list that have been to Accident & Emergency,
are currently in hospital or have been discharged
in the last Two days.
There are currently 377 practice staff using
GP Homepage regularly, to see which patients
registered at a specific GP practice are in
hospital, which patients have recently been
discharged, letters written by the consultants
following treatment and test results, among other
things. Sandwell GP Practices are currently being
targeted to increase coverage.
Future plans will extend the availability of clinical
results eg Neurophysiology clinical documents
as we progress a PaperLite strategy, as well
as having new pages available, such as a
Choose & Book page to improve and facilitate
communications with GPs.
Enabling Our People
Improving learning and development
opportunities for staff is one of a number
of Trust-wide priorities for the coming
year.
At a Listening into Action staff engagement
event called ‘Enabling Our People’, ‘time to
learn’ was one of seven Trust-wide themes
that were looked at in a bid to create a
more effective organisation.
Among the ideas which came out was a
Learning passport, which would help with
planning time for training, creating an
online database from which equipment
could be ordered quickly, thank you cards
for staff and changes to Team Brief. Plans
are now being made to see if it is possible
to take these forward, along with initiatives
from each of the projects:
1. Customer care
2. Trust-wide communications
3. Leading through engagement
4. Time to learn
5. Valuing our staff
6. Harnessing good ideas
7. Equipment fit for the job
Customer care promises, new name
badges, a ‘Kwik Kit’, an online database
from which equipment could be ordered
quickly, thank you cards for staff and
changes to Team Brief are amongst the
other ideas that are being implemented
this year.
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