BT helps clinicians connect up healcare

DC13-171 30 May 2013

BT helps clinicians connect up healthcare

Community and Mental Health Trusts across London and the South of England can now quickly and securely get a more comprehensive view of a patient's electronic patient record, helping them deliver more effective, appropriate and safer care.

Using RiO, the electronic patient record system for Community and Mental Health Trusts provided by BT and CSE Healthcare, clinicians can securely share patient information across organisational boundaries, enabling delivery of a more seamless service and better care.

The introduction of the new feature, called RiO2RiO, allows healthcare professionals with the correct permissions, to view a patient's relevant medical history even if that record is held by another trust. This means that, subject to rigorous security and privacy controls, they have the right information they need to treat patients, when they need it.

London and the South of England, with around 21 million residents, has a highly mobile population. If a patient has recently moved, RiO2RiO means they can be seen the first time they arrive for an appointment, rather than having to wait for their medical records to be transferred.

RiO2RiO was piloted by North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT) and then extended to more than 1.5 million patients across Waltham Forest, Redbridge and the neighbouring boroughs of Havering and Barking and Dagenham. Other London and Southern NHS Community Care and Mental Health organisations are now implementing the service, helping to improve the healthcare of those patients in London and the South.

Lee Griffin, child health manager at NELFT, said: RiO2RiO has been extremely positive from both a clinical and patient point of view. For example, at a glance we are able to see what immunisations, health checks or blood spots have been given to a child and if necessary add these to our local record at a click of a button. This not only cuts down on duplication of work, such as scheduling immunisations that have previously been carried out with a neighbouring GP, but also improves the accuracy of the child's health record.

Andrew Gooding, head of community mental health at the NHS London Programme for IT in the Health and Social Care Information Centre, said: The positive feedback from clinical staff on this ground breaking new service has been overwhelming. The dedicated NELFT team worked tirelessly together with ourselves and BT to deliver this latest key strategic milestone for the London and Southern RiO programmes which has delivered benefits for patients and the NHS.

Ian Dalton, president, BT Global Health, added: To serve such a highly transient population, health and social care organisations need to come together to ensure that vital information can be shared quickly and easily to improve the care of service users. RiO2RiO demonstrates that it is possible and ensures that organisations in London and the South are at the forefront of a paperless NHS.

Developed by CSE Healthcare, RiO is an electronic patient record system designed specifically to meet the needs of Community and Mental Health Trusts. It has been rolled out by BT to 62 sites and is used by 110,000 healthcare professionals across London and the South of England, as well those at 25 other organisations nationwide.

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