England
Using EPR to eliminate the paper chase
Karen Hill, Head of EPR Services at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust, tells us how the use of Electronic Patient Record (EPR) has delivered better patient records and improved communication between clinical staff.
Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust introduced its EPR as a pilot scheme in 2000. Seven years on, there are over 7,500 users trained and over 4,000 current active users of the system who can access patient records – under strict security measures – from over 2,500 workstations plus 125 wireless carts.
One of the first benefits was an earlier arrival of blood test results on hospital wards. Prior to the EPR, nurses would have to wait for a paper report to return back to the ward. This took time and nurses were often left to chase the result by telephoning through to the hospital laboratories. Now the result of the sample is available electronically as soon as the pathology department authorises the result. This has been a huge success and saves time for everyone: doctors, nurses and laboratory staff alike.
Other benefits include easy access to other test results, nursing documentation such as risk assessments, the ability to make instant referrals to other health care professionals and a huge reduction in duplication of patient information.
My background is in nursing care for older people where referrals may need to be made to numerous disciplines. This would have involved filling in different paper forms which would then have to be delivered by a member of staff to the right person and place. With EPR, the information can be entered just once and sent electronically to the right person, rather than the old way of chasing everything by paper and telephone.
It makes a huge difference, having information readily available where you are working.
Email: karen.hill@srft.nhs.uk