Hospitals sign 10-year deal to digitise records

In a £2.7m deal announced yesterday, staff at Doncaster Royal Infirmary, Mexborough’s Montagu Hospital and Bassetlaw Hospital in Worksop will be given instant access to information about their patients in two new electronic systems.

Managers say the new patient administration system and A&E information system will enhance safety and significantly reduce paper form-filling by doctors, nurses and other staff when they are installed next summer.

Doncaster and Bassetlaw Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has signed a 10-year deal with Bolton-based IT firm Ascribe for the new systems, as part of its vision of becoming an “iHospital”. Further developments in coming years will eradicate the need for paper notes altogether.

The patient administration system will give hospital staff key information about inpatients, outpatient waiting lists, correspondence relating to someone’s care, appointment booking and the management of a patient from referral to treatment.

The A&E system will link directly to the PAS so if a patient is admitted to a ward from casualty, all the details automatically transfer into their inpatient notes.

Consultant cardiologist Gill Payne, clinical lead for the programme, said: “When complete, the project will permit instant access to patients’ records, improving the quality of decision-making and patient safety and enabling more time for caring for patients.”

The trust’s deputy IT director Stephen Parsons added: “It may not be possible to get rid of paper altogether but this is a major step towards our ambition of becoming truly ‘paper light’ with electronic systems that are fully integrated with each other and provide authorised members of staff with relevant information such as a patient’s medical history, allergies, test results, and so on.”