Electronic records’ £1.4m annual saving

 With the purchase of three Kodak high-speed document scanners, which digitise the files, and a tailored version of C Cube Solutions’ electronic document management software (EDMS), all 27 hospital departments at the Trust’s two main acute hospitals have now “gone live” with the radical new system for medical records, and, as HEJ editor Jonathan Baillie reports, preparations are in hand to convert other important patient documentation into electronic form.

Discussing at a meeting in London the background to, and current progress with, the St Helens & Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust’s bold initiative which, to the best of its knowledge, is the first of its kind to be undertaken by such an organisation anywhere in the UK, Neil Darvill, the Trust’s director of health informatics, explained that, in addition to maximising the chances of patient records being at the desired location, at the right time, and in complete form, more patients can be seen, promptly treated, and discharged first time. By greatly enhancing patient data access for nursing staff and clinicians, the migration from paper to electronic records will considerably enhance both patient safety and clinical effectiveness, and, the Trust estimates, save it at least £1.4 million annually, thanks to the planned closure of its existing paper records library by 2014. The vast mountain of paper records held by the Trust, in common, no doubt, with many of its counterparts countrywide, has, until recently, required two whole floors of a modular building at the St Helen’s Hospital site to accommodate them. Explaining that this “landmark initiative” had the full support of all users at the Trust, with over 500 clinicians and 130 medical secretaries already trained to use the new system, Neil Darvill explained that, alongside the invaluable patient safety, patient and staff convenience, and clinical efficiency benefits, the £1.4 m annual financial saving expected to be generated over the next four years is, in fact, significantly higher than envisaged when the scheme was conceived some 3-4 years ago. In its original business case the Trust had forecast a saving of over £3.2 m over a five-year period from an initial investment of some £1.2 m. Based, the Trust emphasises, on standards-based, rather than proprietary technology, which also provides future expandability, the overall project goal is to achieve “100% records availability”. Neil Darvill elaborated: “Prior to the project starting we were already achieving around 98-99% patient record availability, which sounds quite impressive.

Risk of turning patients away