December 2014

PACS arrives in Velindre

Trust connects to All Wales imaging system

Velindre is now the latest NHS site in Wales to go live with the all-Wales Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS).

The trust joins four other health boards Betsi Cadwaladr University, Hywel Dda University, Cwm Taf University and Aneurin Bevan University using Fujifilm's Synapse PACS to manage the storage, retrieval, distribution and presentation of radiology images such as x-rays and ultrasound scans.

Clinicians can access images via a Canisc link to a fully functioning Synapse client workstation client or staff can have the client installed on their PC.

"Everything works and everyone seems happy. It is an intuitive and easy to navigate sytem. This new PACS is of critical importance to Velindre as more than 40% of our PACS database is other hospital imaging used for comparisons and MDTs (multidisciplinary teams)."

Simon Lawrence
Senior Radiographer, Velindre NHS Trust

Viewing privilege verification is based on the NADEX log in of the user, ensuring only authorised personnel have access to patient identifiable data. Imaging sent from other hospitals is instantly viewable and allows out of hours access without the need to call staff in or compromise the security of the live database.

Velindre will be the first site hooked up to a centralised Vendor Neutral Archive (VNA) that standardises images. PACS is now scheduled to go live in Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board sometime in the new year.

The national PACS is being rolled out as part of a Ł20 million framework contract with Fujifilm.

BCU begins MTeD pilot

WCP module will improve patient safety

The Medicine Transcription and Electronic Discharge module (MTeD) of the Welsh Clinical Portal was launched on Ward 12 at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board's Ysbyty Glan Clwyd Hospital in November.

Recently piloted in Cardiff's University Hospital of Wales, MTeD is an electronic way of recording a list of medications for a patient and adding them to an electronic discharge advice letter (e-DAL). The e-DAL is then sent to the patient's GP as soon as they leave the ward, via the Welsh Clinical Communications Gateway.

Previously it could take several weeks for a typed or hand written discharge letter or summary to reach the GP, long after the patient had been discharged from hospital.

The e-DAL includes the medicines prescribed in hospital as well as other information the GP needs to know, such as diagnosis, medical progress, advice to GP, follow-up action and test results.

Because MTeD establishes consistency and timeliness of discharge communication from secondary care teams to GP practices, it will improve patient safety and support a more positive patient experience.

The feedback so far from Betsi Cadwaladr is much the same as the feedback received from Cardiff and Vale University Health Board's pilot - that the functionality of MTeD was good but that it was more time consuming especially in terms of transcribing medications. Clinicians add that access to the Individual Health Record will offset this as it will have the potential to significantly reduce the time taken by obtaining drug histories from GPs.

Test Requesting takes off in North Wales

New pilot ensures more accurate data

A new GP Test Requesting pilot is now live in two GP practices in North Wales.

Betsi Cadwaladr's Clarence Medical Centre and Pendyffryn Medical Group are using GP Test Requesting to place pathology test requests for patients. GP Test Requesting is accessed via the Welsh Clinical Communications Gateway electronic referral system and acquires accurate information from the GP patient record. Data such as a patient's name, address, DOB, NHS number, clinical information and current and past medication are extracted from the GP system and used to populate the test request while avoiding duplicate test requests.

"All in all, the system for me seems to be much better," says Pendyffyn's Health Care Assistant Darryn Thomas. "The results page is great. It easily allows bloods to be checked and prevents unnecessary requests. The simple connection between primary and secondary care requests helps a great deal."

"It enables clinicians to follow things up quicker as they do not have to wait until the following day to view all results," says Pendyffryn Medical Group GP, Dr Eamonn Jessup but he adds Test Requesting will require further enhancement before any general release.

Hywel Dda University Health Board recently was the first to pilot the GPTR. However, the pilot has been extended to GP practices in BCU to allow the project to evaluate all printing approaches and implementation across both InPS and EMIS GP systems.

After an evaluation of the current pilot, a decision will be made as to whether to GP Test Requesting is available for other Health Boards.

Applying Pilot Power

A word of thanks

The NHS Wales Informatics Service is very grateful to all the staff who have assisted in pilots, and for their constructive comments and commitment to helping making systems as good as they can be for Wales.

Pilots have a key role to play, allowing us to identify what can be improved before roll out.

The pilots for GP Test Requesting and MTeD have succeeded in identifying a number of areas where the clinician experience can be enhanced and these are being explored.

Season's Greetings

. . .and a very joyous New Year

NHS Wales Informatics Service would like to wish you and your family a very happy holiday.

LIMS anchors in C&V

Cardiff and Vale latest port of call for new national pathology system

The new Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) successfully went live at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board's Blood Sciences laboratories in late November with no major issues reported.

Early feedback has been positive.

The new national system will allow health professionals to see all previous tests conducted for a patient, and request new tests, no matter where they are in Wales.

It will reduce the number of duplicated tests and will mean that, no matter where a patient receives care, the results of tests will be readily available.

LIMS is scheduled to go live in Abertawe Bro Morgannwg's Microbiology and Blood Science labs early in 2015.

Informatics @ Events

Andrew Griffiths to speak at Open Innovation Conference

NHS Wales Informatics Service Chief Information Officer, Andrew Griffiths will be a guest speaker at Digital Health Assembly's Open Innovation Conference in Cardiff's Swalec Stadium on Tuesday 10th February.

The conference, covering three days, welcomes digital health professionals from around the world united in a common goal to accelerate developments in digital healthcare through innovation.

To learn more or to register, please visit the Digital Health Assembly website.

Informatics in Numbers

2,000,000

ServicePoint, the NHS Wales system used to manage calls from staff needing IT help or advice has logged its two millionth call.

The call, a standard request from a member of staff at Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board on November 26th, comes only two years after ServicePoint dealt with its one millionth call.

ServicePoint is used by all Health Boards in NHS Wales as well as other NHS organisations and they rely on it to manage their support operations.

On average Servicepoint handles around 40,000 calls a month.

Informatics in Words

A profound impact

"This is a very exciting moment for health informatics. Today, technology has an immense and profound impact on the health and wellbeing of people. It's time for the profession to mature to meet the increasing demand on our skills and capability."

Wendy Dearing, NHS Wales Informatics Service Head of Workforce and Organisational Development at a BCS Conference last month of the Chartered Institute for IT to raise awareness and help develop the future of health informatics.

Moving House

Ty time

Just a reminder, we've moved our Brunel House offices in Cardiff across town to a new renovated and more affordable location closer to the River Taff across from Cardiff Castle and Sophia Gardens.

The new address is:

Ty Glan-yr-Afon
21 Cowbridge Road East
Cardiff CF11 9AD

Our main telephone number for Cardiff will remain 02920 500500, or 01790 0500 when dialled from an NHS Wales telephone.

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NHS Wales Informatics Service | | informatics@wales.nhs.uk | http://www.wales.nhs.uk/informatics