ICT Digital Platform Open Consultation

There is currently a gap in the connectivity of the East London Patient Record System where the voluntary sector is concerned. This is because there is no mechanism for enabling health and social care workers and social prescribers to share patient / service user referral information with each other. Currently healthcare professionals are able to record, share and use vital information in order to provide more efficient care via EMIS; which is a clinical system for delivering integrated healthcare. However the voluntary sector does not have access to EMIS and as a result there is no record of many of the valuable interactions which occur with patients / service users.

The aim is to provide the voluntary sector, access to a digital platform, which is integrated with the various directory of services (DoS), to populate services automatically as an integrated DoS. This will bridge the connectivity gap and enable the entire path of a patient’s / service user’s referral to be tracked and accessed by all necessary parties via EMIS.

The proposed digital platform will work as a referral pathway tracker between Healthcare services and Social prescription service providers. The referrals will be populated from EMIS and health and wellbeing data which has been input onto the platform by SP providers. This information will update  EMIS, which will in turn update Homerton Health Information Exchange (HIE).

Benefits: The implementation of a digital platform would improve the patient experience, improve communication and collaboration and in general deliver a service that better meets the needs of the patients/ service users in a multitude of ways:

• Patient safety: supporting safer and more informed treatment by providing clinicians with timely access to accurate and up to date information
• Efficiency: reducing the time, effort and resources required to obtain relevant information regarding patient care, e.g. avoiding repeat test requests
• Effectiveness: supporting the delivery of appropriate care to patients
• Patient experience: reducing the need for patients to recall or repeat relevant information which also supports people with communication difficulties
• Access to data for clinical audit and quality improvement.

Register here.