Graphnet Health News

Event: Health in4matics Expo 2012

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 09:00:00 +0100

Graphnet Health Ltd will be exhibiting at the health in4matics Expo at the ICC, Birmingham on the 9-10 May 2012.

Come and visit us at stand 67.

See you there!

For more information on the event or to register, please visit www.in4matics.co.uk.

Graphnet and TPP announce integration

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 09:00:00 +0100

Graphnet and TPP announce integration

Graphnet and TPP are delighted to announce an integration enabling data transfer between their systems, SystmOne and Care-Centric. The collaboration will utilise the extensive experience and knowledge of both companies to assist clinicians to access essential patient data exactly at the point of care.

Andy Bratt, Managing Director of Graphnet said “We’re excited to be working with TPP. We’ve realised that interoperability is often at the heart of all good practice and sharing information amongst those delivering care will help to create a real community, uniting all those involved.”

The integration, utilising a ‘single-sign on’ process, will allow current users of Graphnet software, in any healthcare setting, to securely access the full SystmOne record of a patient via a SystmOne viewer. SystmOne users will also be able to view the record, with relevant consent, for any patient cared for at a healthcare organisation currently using Graphnet. In addition the integration will provide users with the full data to meet business intelligence requirements.

Dr John Parry, Clinical Director of TPP said “This is yet another way that TPP is helping clinicians provide integrated care. Particularly in areas of high SystmOne coverage, this latest integration will provide essential and accurate information from the detailed care record, enabling clinicians to make quicker and safer medical decisions.”

There are several organisations already interested in taking advantage of this integration including two GP practices in Trafford PCT who are due to deploy SystmOne in Summer 2012.

Graphnet Health & Plumtree Group partners with NHS Dumfries & Galloway

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 09:00:00 Z

Graphnet Health is delighted to announce their joint partnership with Plumtree Group to provide an electronic document and records management system to NHS Dumfries and Galloway. The project will serve as the platform for a full electronic medical record.

Graphnet will provide the organisation with an integrated viewer to access both scanned paper and electronic documents. Over the next 5 years, Plumtree’s dart E-casenote solution will be used to scan all acute and mental health records in anticipation of the move to a new hospital facility. The primary aim of this project is to provide a clear, intuitive access to complex clinical information via a web based solution.

In addition, the organisation will also be receiving a real time feed of admissions from their PAS (Topaz) solution, which is supported by clinical diagnosis and treatment information for their patients.

Using the latest technology, Graphnet uses an interface feed to pull information from the trusts PAS system. This information is the source for patient demographics.

The integrated system includes workflow to manage discharge summaries. Historically, hand-written discharge summaries have been found to be poorly written and contain inaccurate information. An electronic discharge summary is available to the clinical user immediately and contains a far more comprehensive view of the patients’ journey so far.

Currently in the deployment stages, clinicians will be using the e-casenote application to capture information electronically which will eventually replace over 500 paper forms currently in place. Patient records will be accessed securely by the clinical user at the point of care.

By eliminating the need to manage and transport the paper records around the hospital and to clinics, the board will create an electronic medical record platform for other systems to integrate with.

Andy Bratt, Managing Director at Graphnet Health said; “we’re excited to be working with Dumfries and Galloway, in improving the clinical process through access to the right information at the point of care”.

A Collaborative Approach Improves Patient Care at NHS Stockport

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 09:00:00 Z

Joined up thinking allows for better care

Graphnet’s customer, NHS Stockport, held a ‘first of its kind’ event showcasing IT in Healthcare implemented throughout the Trust. Graphnet were delighted to help the Trust showcase the high profile Stockport Health Record (SHR), a Graphnet integrated health record solution enabling the sharing of GP, Acute and Social Care (CAF) data across the Stockport health economy. This is currently utilised by Out of Hours clinicians, A&E and the Medical Admissions Unit. NHS Stockport are actively in the process of looking to expand access and the use of the SHR to other groups of community workers in the near future.

At the Showcase, Ian Curr, the Information Director of Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, feels there is a “new mood in IT in the NHS for more connectivity, more joined-up working, more collaboration.”

The Stockport Health Record went live 18 months ago. With NHS Stockport leading the project, 50 of 52 GP practices in the area have agreed to share their data. Stockport Health Record Programme Manager Paul Gaskin updated the conference on the latest developments for this integrated care portal, which combines primary and secondary care information and is soon to include real-time community data.

The full story can be found by following this link to the E-Health Insider website http://www.ehi.co.uk/insight/analysis/828/ehi-focus-on:-stockport.

EHI focus on: Stockport

EHI Primary Care reporter Rebecca Todd attends an IT conference in Stockport, where local health and social care organisations are working on projects to share records and other information.

Ian Curr, the Information Director of Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, feels there is a “new mood in IT in the NHS for more connectivity, more joined-up working, more collaboration.”

There was certainly enthusiasm at the first NHS IT conference held in the town, where doctors, managers and IT specialists networked over a buffet lunch and cups of tea.

Stockport’s health and social care providers are working on a number of projects aimed at ensuring medical information is available to all those caring for a patient, and to patients themselves. The most high profile of these is probably the Stockport Health Record.

Adding to the Stockport Health Record

Stockport Health Record Programme Manager Paul Gaskin updated the conference on the latest developments for this integrated care portal, which combines primary and secondary care information and is soon to include real-time community data.

The Stockport Health Record went live 18 months ago. With NHS Stockport leading the project, 50 of 52 GP practices in the area have agreed to share their data in the portal made available in view-only form to out-of-hours doctors, A&E departments and medical admissions units.

In contrast with the national Summary Care Record, the Stockport Health Record gives access to a full clinical record for the patient, with Read-coded information. It contains about 10m items of data covering 280,000 patients.

Clinicians in the units that have access have to ask a patient directly if they can view their record when they come into contact with them; and data can be anonymised for research purposes.

Last month, a tentative step was taken towards sending information in the other direction – from hospitals to GPs – when an acute admission and discharge feed was added.

“The real prize from the hospital is to get all their documentation via the Stockport Health Record, especially things like electronic discharges,” Gaskin told EHI Primary Care. “We are currently in negotiation with them to do that phase of work.

“The holy grail would be all providers that provide a service to our Stockport patients would share their data through the repository.”

Plans are already firmly in place for Stockport Council’s continuing healthcare team – which deals with complex needs patients - to be integrated into the shared record from early next year.

The first community workers to use it will be district nurses, who will input referral and assessment information directly into the record, which can then be viewed and shared by other clinicians.

Gaskin said the primary care trust’s supplier, Graphnet, and council supplier, OLM, had worked together on the interface between the two systems, which is now being tested.

As other groups of community workers came on board, their view of information will be tailored to their clinical need, said Gaskin. He added that only the source provider of information would be able to change it on the record.

Issues for patients

GPs and practice managers in the sessions were enthusiastic about getting hospital information speedily and electronically into their records.

However, conversations around giving patients access to records highlighted concerns about confidentiality - and why patients were not pushing for access themselves.

NHS Stockport’s Deputy Head of IM&T, Paul Fleming, has carried out research on four GP practices giving patients access to their records in Stockport, Tameside and Glossop.

He told the audience that doctors reported that patients with records access became more engaged with their own healthcare. They also reported that practice time was saved by patients booking appointments and checking test results online.

Fleming, who organised the conference, said the shifting organisational landscape meant it was a particularly important time to be developing and maintaining “joined-up thinking and robust relationships.”

“Technology underpins much of what we do as organisations and we have the opportunity to build relationships between those who provide (and commission) care, ultimately for the benefit of local people,” he said. “If we act in silos, the only loser will be the patient.”

Lessons from an IT success- Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 09:00:00 +0100

Lessons from an IT success- Trafford Healthcare NHSTrust

Four lessons from an IT success

Trafford General Hospital’s IT makes patients saferand is liked by clinicians. Why is it a success?

Laura Slatcher dreams of forms - reducing the number of them.

She works with a small IM&T team at Trafford General Hospital that is trying to standardise and reduce the number of paper forms doctors and nurses use in the care and treatment of patients.

As is typical for a hospital of its size there are up to 70 - mostly different - paper forms on every ward. Slatcher is working with clinicians to define ways of switching from paper to electronic records - which they are doing with alacrity.

“We have to standardise here,” says Steve Parsons, Head of IM&T at Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust in Manchester. “The doctors and nurses welcome that. They want to work better and more efficiently because they are underpressure themselves to do that.”

Clinical support

Trafford General bought its main systems outside of the £11.4bn the National Programme for IT [NPfIT]. The hospital, though, is one of the most technologically-advanced in the UK says Peter Large, Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust’s Director of Planning.

There has been no risky “Big Bang” implementation of a Whitehall-bought patient administration system. Rather, Parsons’ approach has been step by step progress over 10years: implementing systems, learning from what went well and not so well, and integrating hardware and software from a range of suppliers.This strategy could help to explain why the clinical staff we spoke to at Trafford hold the small IM&T team in high regard.

In 2000 the hospital had rudimentary technology - isolated systems insome departments. Now the IM&T team is able to give clinicians what they have asked for; and at Trafford it’s the doctors and nurses who say what they want. Systems are not imposed on them. Here the technologists are in the background, not centre-stage as in the NPfIT.

Trafford and the NPfIT

Says Large “We found ourselves in the position of being ahead of the game. When we were asked to commit to the National Programme we held back because we needed to know we would be committing to a better solution than was already available to us."

Parsons adds “Some trusts didn’t really have anything at all so were desperate to be in the first wave. From their perspective the national programme was a brilliant step forward. But the right products never arrived.”

Integrated systems

One reason for Trafford’s success is the integration of the hospital main and departmental systems. Before electronic patient records, patients could come into hospital without their paper notes being available. Now doctors across the hospital’s departments and clinics can access at the hospital’s XML-based electronic patient records at any time, day or night - and from home if they have remote access.

Doctors can view x-rays and assessments of them from the patient record; and from system alerts and patient tracking, operational managers can see how well individual doctors and nurses are coping with the numbers of patients on their daily lists.

No black-box technology

The hospital’s three main systems are an electronic patient record from Graphnet, software to schedule and manage appointments from Ultragenda, owned by iSoft (now acquired by CSC), and the “Ensemble” integration engine from InterSystems.

What sets these and the hospital’s other systems apart is that they are not black boxes, impenetrable to Trafford’s technologists. Parsons insists that Trafford’s suppliers make their software transparent so that it can be understood by the hospital’s IM&T staff and integrated with other systems, at database “field” level if necessary. That way Parsons can produce any report clinicians need and usually in real-time.

When a supplier keeps its software opaque for reasons of proprietary and commercial confidentiality, Parsons is restricted in the type of medical and administrative reports he can ask the company to supply - and may have to wait hours or a day to get them. He wants none of that.

It’s this level of control that Parsons believes he has a right to expect - and he seems a little surprised that CIOs don’t always require openness from their software suppliers.

There again Parsons is a civil engineer. It's a world in which openness is allied to safety. Parsons designed buildings and pumping stations in the water industry where managers don’t tolerate unnecessary secrecy from their suppliers. From there he became involved in managing IT-led change and came to Trafford General Hospital in 2000.

It’s having an analytical questioning mind, not just accepting what people say. I will ask all the questions that can make me seem a pain. You want to know why it [a supplier’s software] is going to work," he says. “If they don’t give me the confidence that their product is going to work undercertain conditions I will not want it. I will not take a black box without knowing what is going to happen with it. I am not having that dependency. I want to strip it down to its basics. It has to be practical. Where else is it working? What is the underlying database?”

Patient data and suppliers

He says that hospital data belongs to the hospital, not the supplier.“There are people working in the health service who will say: ‘we are the system supplier. It is our data.’ But ours is patient data. This is client’s data, not the supplier’s.”

To an outsider – one who doesn’t work in the NHS - the most surprising thing about seeing the IM&T engine rooms at Trafford General is the complexity and the different ways each ward works. These complexities have to be managed to give doctors and nurses a seamless view of what is happening with each patient.

Could the NPfIT ever have worked?

It’s remarkable, given these complexities, that anyone thought anational system - the National Programme for IT in the NHS - could ever have worked. It’s hard enough to integrate IM&T within a single hospital let alone on a regional or national scale.

Parsons and Large consider it lucky that Trafford went live with the Graphnet patient record technology as early as 2003, several months before the tenders for the NPfIT systems were awarded.

It meant that, while some in the NHS were waiting in eager anticipation for NPfIT systems that never arrived, Trafford’s technical staff were learning in precise terms what clinicians wanted and converting this knowledge into working systems. At no point did the promised national systems offer more than Trafford’s.

How patients benefit from Trafford’s IM&T

In a room close to each ward is a 46” screen known as the “whiteboard” which shows lists of every patient, whether in a bed or visiting outpatients. Allied to the patient’s name are relevant details including colour-coded alerts to warn if a VTE [thrombosis] check hasn’t yet been done, an observation is overdue or an x-ray has not been assessed. In A&E the icon turns red if a patient has waited for three hours, and purple if more than four hours.

Also on the whiteboards, breaches of Department of Health guidelines on waiting times are shown clearly for each patient. The screen also shows which doctor is responsible for any breaches of waiting times.

If nothing else, these system alerts and icons - which include ticking clocks - show how technology can make treatment and care safer for patients.

Why doctors keep their smartcards at all times

Clinical staff must use smartcards to access the system, and they are unlikely to forget them because they also allow access to the car park.

In trials of NPfIT systems, some doctors were reluctant to use smartcards because of the time taken to log on each time they returned to the computer. At Trafford log-on takes a few seconds, and Imprivata’s single sign-on means that holders of smartcards do not have to remember different passwords. Takeout the smartcard and the screen goes blank.

Says Parsons “We are dependent on the EPR now. A year ago one or two consultants refused to look at the EPR. Their secretaries had to print off the last letter from outpatients because they would rather not look at it on ascreen. That’s changed.”

Patients give their details only once

In parts of the NHS patients give their name and address every time they visit a different part of the hospital. At Trafford General Hospital a new patient has a file created at, say, A&E. It is then available to all parts of the hospital, ready for staff to order electronically a blood test or x-ray,or book an appointment.

Links to GPs

Through Sunquest's Anglia order communications system and using the HL7 messaging standard, GPs can from their desks order hospital blood tests and x-rays, and get the results in their inboxes. The orders and test results are recorded in the hospital’s Graphnet EPR.

If the local GP has authorised it - and so far about half in Trafford’s catchment area have - A&E doctors will soon be able to see a synopsis of the GP-held patient record which would show any treatments outside the Manchester area as well as medications and significant medical events. The synopsis comes into a hospital server that is controlled by GPs, using their local Emis or Vision systems. In return, GPs have access to their own patients within the hospital-based EPR where they can see all the records related to a patient’s episodes of treatment.

Real-time view of free beds

On the whiteboard, staff can see when beds are due to become vacant,doctors having given the system an estimated time and date of departure foreach inpatient. If a doctor fails to give an estimate the system shows analert.

Says Slatcher “ Doctors are restricted with what they can do with the patient’s record -cannot make referrals, cannot update whiteboards - unless the estimated discharge date is kept up to date. Doctors will complain that they cannot get on because clerks or nurses haven’t kept this administrative information up to date.”

The estimated discharge date is also useful to ensure that the systemhas alerted district nurses if the patient, after leaving hospital, needs physiotherapy, dietary monitoring or help from social services.

Bed management is a module now removed from the “Lorenzo” system as part of the Department of Health’s plans to cut the costs of NPfIT contracts.

Duplicated patient records are rare

Parsons and his team have done much to tackle the bane of hospital administration: duplicate patient records. Says Parsons “We have a central patient index which is updated nightly from all GP practices. If you say your name we check date of birth and previous addresses, maybe from the GP - you may still get two people with the same name living in the same house.

“Once we have updated John Jone to John Jones, the central system will update all other related systems to the new spelling. One single ID for everyone avoids having duplicates which could end up with patients having the wrong records. That’s critical to get right.”

Medical Director Dr. Simon Musgrave says “Duplicates are a fairly rare event now.”

Staff in A&E can create duplicates very easily from patient provided information but “we have systems in place to track those in the following 24hours and merge them back to the correct record", says Parsons.

The hospital’s old iSoft patient administration system had 150,000 duplicate files in a database of 460,000 patients. That was typical for an acute hospital says Parsons.

Trafford dispensed with its patient administration system - it doesn’thave one, having replaced it with the Graphnet's EPR and Ultragenda from iSoft [now owned by CSC].

EPR goes beyond Trafford

Many doctors are sceptical of the need to make electronic patient records available across England, which was one of the main - and ultimately unsuccessful - aims of the NPfIT. The sceptics say it is very rare for patients to need treatment outside their locality.

Trafford has 250,000 patients in its catchment area but its EPR has 1.4million records which includes most people in Manchester.

Board support

Trafford adopted the Department of Health’s pre-NPfIT strategy in the late 1990s which called for hospitals to install, incrementally, six levels of EPR - electronic patient records. Level one was a patient administration system and departmental systems. The highest, level six, was a full multi-media EPR online.

Says Parsons “I have been fortunate of having the support of the Trust Board throughout the 10-year period of staying on a strategy that said: ‘we will continue to build that six-level EPR and all that went with it until an equivalent and better came from the National Programme for IM&T through Connecting for Health’.”

Reporting, accountability and safety

Trafford publishes hundreds of reports to operational managers: how long patients have been in their bed or how have they waited, how many patients have had certain types of forms filled in such as VTE forms. Every morning emails to consultants tell them the number of patients they had admitted the day before and how many have not had, say, thrombosis assessments.

Standard reports from some suppliers to the NHS may be too limited for Trafford’s demands, says Parsons. “Some of the questions we are asking require difficult algorithms. On bed occupancy for example doctors get credits for the numbers of patients they are caring for. The standard unit for care is one day or night in hospital. If somebody is in for six hours, if you work in units of one day, nobody gets credits for that. We want to break IM&T down to parts of days and look at trends.”

Challenges remaining

Ensuring patient safety during the transition from paper to computer needs careful management.

Says Musgrave “When you ask for an x-ray [on paper] you fill out a form, get the x-ray done, and the x-ray report is written on a piece of paper which comes back to you so your secretary gets a bit of paper that says “cancer” on it. That’s the end point, the safe point, and you do something about it.

“If you order it on a computer and you do not have a paper record, you have to have some other different system for making it safe. How do you know the x-ray has been ordered, has been done, and been reported? And what is the report? There is no back-stop there unless you invent one via the computer.”

“Will we ever do entirely without paper?” asks Parsons “Hmm”.

Some of Trafford’s further challenges include:

Securing the agreement of all GP's in the area to share a synopsis of their records. About half have agreed so far.

Scanning in all paper notes to the EPR. At present about 50% of patient notes have been scanned and are available to clinical staff as “PDF” files, normally with chapter headings. They include diagrams, charts and handwritten text.

Dealing with any uncertainties that arise when the Trust is acquired - in all probability by Central Manchester Foundation Trust .

Maximising the IM&T opportunities that the acquisition will bring both Trusts in terms of modernising systems and extending the concept of the shared electronic patient record across a wide area of Manchester.

Costs

Trafford has 14 people working on IM&T and IT infrastructure related matters who handle support, infrastructure and integration. The total yearly cost, including salaries, is about £1.5m in capital and revenue which covers the spend with all of Trafford's IM&T suppliers.

This compares with costs of between £23m and £31m for each NPfIT installation at acute trusts in London and the South - and these sums do not include the costs of running a hospital’s IM&T and associated infrastructure. Neither do the NPfIT costs include the salaries for an acute hospital’s IT and IM&T staff.

Says Parsons “This is bargain stuff”.

If Trafford can do so much for so little, can centrally-bought NPfIT systems costing many times more - for less - still be justified? The Department of Health argues that NPfIT systems offer more than non-NPfIT. But how much more could Trafford offer its clinical staff, in terms of proven technologies and integration?

Asked where he’d put Trafford in a league table of UK hospitals with systems that clinicians need and want to use, Large says with a slight smile “Let's be modest - in the top 10%."

He's probably not joking.

Since writing this article Parsons and his team have been short-listed by the eHealth Insider Awards for the trust’s electronic whiteboard project, in the category of “innovation in healthcare interoperability”.

Full story can be foundat http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/the-tony-collins-blog/2011/09/four-lessons-from-an-it-success/index.htm

Event: NHS IT: What's possible?

Tue, 23 Aug 2011 09:00:00 +0100

Confirmed speaker Jon Hoeksma, Editor of EHI, will be talking to the group about the current NHS reforms, the importance of innovative and flexible IT solutions, and the need for strong leadership from clinical champions.

The event will be held on September 29th 2011 in London, showcasing what’s possible with innovative best of breed suppliers working together to push NHS IT into the 21^st Century.

We are all best of breed suppliers with proven solutions who are working together to provide NHS Trusts and consortia with the tools they need to improve healthcare delivery across the UK. Our individual specialities range from EPR/EDM solutions, shared care records, telehealth, bedside vital sign recording /analysis and sophisticated reporting tools. We are all established UK companies with many years of experience who have worked with our clients to build solutions that clinicians want to use. Together we provide an offering which is flexible, seamless and most importantly proven to deliver.

Partners attending will include Ardentia, Docobo, The Learning Clinic and Plumtree Group.

This event is free of charge. To reserve your place at this event or for more information, please contact us on info@graphnethealth.com or 01908 500700.

Graphnet and NHS Kingston create 'Clinical Hub'

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 09:00:00 +0100

NHS Kingston has selected Graphnet Health to create a clinical hub across its local economy.

The hub will be launched next month and start by drawing together information from five GP practices, two pharmacies, two dentists, an optician and the out-of-hours provider.

After four months, the primary care trust plans to expand the project to the rest of Kingston, which covers 190,000 patients in 29 GP practices.

The information that is pulled together will be made available to relevant clinicians via a shared web-based portal. Clinicians will be able to view a summary for their patient from across the disparate healthcare providers, but will also be able to view a more detailed care record as and when it is needed.

NHS Kingston will also be working with Graphnet Health to develop an Integrated Appointment Scheduler. Initially this tool will be used by GPs to create electronic referrals and appointment booking across GP Practices.

Kenny Gibson, Associate Director for NHS South West London explained that they had been looking for a system that could reduce risks to patients, improve the patient experience and benefit front line clinicians. “The focus for the PCT was to procure a proven secure system that could provide key patient clinical information at the click of a button. The system needed to be security compliant yet span across the different care providers treating our patients, whilst giving clinicians access to key clinical information when they came in contact with patient, when that information is needed most. We chose to partner with Graphnet Health on this project based on their great experience and track record with similar projects across the UK. After a long evaluation of potential systems we found that they were the only company that provided everything we needed under one roof”. The expertise of Your Healthcare IT Team is being utilised to provide the project management, transformation and support.

One of the major priorities for NHS Kingston is ensuring patient confidentiality and data security. The system will be based on the secure technology currently utilised by Graphnet customers across the country. Role Based Access Controls (RBAC) ensures that access to the system is restricted so that only information relevant to the clinicians’ role or legitimate relationship with the patient is able to be viewed. The system is also based on a consent-to-view model, meaning that at the point of care patients are asked for their permission to access their care record. Audit trail functionality also ensures that every access to the system and any subsequent actions are documented. This can be provided to patients if they wish to view an audit of access to their record.

Andy Bratt, MD of Graphnet Health commented “Graphnet have specialised in pulling together patient information for over 15 years and have seen first-hand the benefits that it offers to both clinicians and patients. We are delighted to be working with NHS Kingston on this exciting project”.

Graphnet starts work with Somerset PCT

Wed, 11 May 2011 09:00:00 +0100

Graphnet are pleased to announce that they have commenced work with Somerset PCT.

More details on this project to follow

Graphnet starts work with Wolverhampton City PCT

Tue, 03 May 2011 09:00:00 +0100

Graphnet are pleased to announce that they have commenced work with Wolverhampton City PCT.

More details on this project to follow.

Graphnet starts work with NHS North East Essex

Tue, 19 Apr 2011 09:00:00 +0100

Graphnet are pleased to announce that they have started work with NHS North East Essex.

NHS North East Essex is using a risk prediction tool developed by Sussex Health Informatics Service that is based on the Combined Predictive Model algorithm created by the King’s Fund, Health Dialog and New York University in 2006.

The algorithm uses a number of sources, including inpatient, outpatient and A&E data and GP electronic patient records, to identify patients at very high risk of emergency hospital admission.

The idea is that providing “intensive case management” of these patients will reduce emergency admissions and improve the quality of their care.

Graphnet are pleased to be taking part in this innovative project by extracting primary care data from practice systems to run the tool.

Event: HC2011, 5th-7th April 2011

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 09:00:00 +0100

Graphnet Health has recenlty returned from a three day exhibition at the ICC in Birmingham.

There were some interesting speeches, particularly Andrew Lansley, Christine Connelly and of course congratulations to Stockport who gave a brilliant presentation on the ongoing CAF project.

Graphnet were showing the new features, functionality and look-and-feel of the new version of the Gateway 2.0, which was very well received.

We received a number of enquiries focusing on interoperability across organisations, specifically to help manage long term conditions. Also, perhaps unsurprisingly, there were numerous enquiries about connectivity with local authorities.

Over the three days we met a number of interesting people, and are looking forward to working with new partners, both suppliers and NHS, on some exciting projects in the near future.

Event: E-Health Insider Live 2010, NEC Birmingham 8-9th November

Thu, 21 Oct 2010 09:00:00 +0100

Graphnet Health Ltd will be exhibiting at the E-Health Insider live exhibition at the NEC, Birmingham on the 8-9^th November.

Graphnet will be showing a preview of Gateway 2.0, the latest version of the Graphnet system, due for release late 2010. The latest version has had major enhancements in functionality, features and user interface design.

Come visit us at stand E12 to have a sneak preview.

See you there.

Graphnet starts work with Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust

Wed, 29 Sep 2010 09:00:00 +0100

Graphnet Health has been awarded a contract with Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust (C&I).

The groundbreaking project is the first of its kind and aims to facilitate integration between the Mental Health Trust and Social Services. Graphnet technology will enable the information entered into the Trust's RiO system to be accessible to Social services via a Data warehouse, through their existing Frameworki system, provided by Corelogic. The trust will also be able to access information from social services.

Health and Social care integration is a key step in providing joined up care for service users, and Graphnet is delighted to partner with Camden and Islington to achieve this aim.

Peter Gooch,Associate Director of ICT at C&I comments:
"Graphnet were chosen due to their experience of CAF projects and their understanding of the service delivery complexities of both the mental health and social care domains. There was also a recognition of their success in NHS Connecting for Health's standards for electronic discharge summaries, part of CfH's Interoperability Toolkit, and how this was highly applicable to our CAF joint agency project."

Graphnet are currently working with a number of other Trusts and Social Service agencies on similar projects to provide information to enable efficient cross-agency working.

Dave Garnett, Chairman of Graphnet Health comments:
"We believe in the importance of information technology to provide a seamless service for users. Bringing together information and linking systems, whether they be local systems or national solutions is fundamental to providing the best possible care. That is what we aim to achieve with C&I - to use information technology to help facilitate safe and efficient care across different organisations and agencies."

Event: Improving Quality and Productivity in the NHS, 11th Nov 2010

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 09:00:00 +0100

Graphnet Health is exhibiting at the Improving Quality and Productivity in the NHS conference at the BT Convention Centre, in Liverpool on the 11th November.

This event is sponsored by the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust and endorsed by NHS North West, Department of Health and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.

Graphnet will be demonstrating the benefits of Graphnet systems, giving clinicians the tools they need to make informed decisions at the point of care. We will be exhibiting alongside partners RIM (BlackBerry) and PaperIQ. We hope to see you there.

For further information please visit the event organiser's site:
http://link-gov.org/royalliverpool-linkgov-qualityandproductivity2ndnationalconference/

Blackberry Roadshows; 21st, 23rd, 24th June 2010

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 09:00:00 +0100

Graphnet Health will be attending the Blackberry Roadshows that are being held across the country this month.

We will be demonstrating how Blackberry smartphones can give secure mobile access to Graphnet systems enabling healthcare professionals to access clinical information regardless of the time or their location.

The Roadshows will be held:

Monday 21st June - Birmingham

Hyatt Regency Hotel
2 Bridge Street
Birmingham
B1 2JZ

Wednesday 23rd June - London

The River Room
2nd Floor, Millbank Tower
21 - 24 Millbank
London
SW1P 4QP

Thursday 24th June - Manchester

The Lowry Hotel
50 Dearmans Place
Chapel Wharf
Manchester
M3 5LH

We hope to see you there.

Graphnet consortia completes ITK tests

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +0100

Graphnet has announced that its consortium of IT suppliers has successfully completed proof of concept witness testing for NHS Connecting for Health's standards for electronic discharge summaries.

The standards have been developed as part of CfH's Interoperability Toolkit and were published in January, with the aim of completing proof of concept projects by 31 March.

Graphnet Health, together with Oracle and Sun UK, PCTI and Microtest, was the first of five consortia to undergo witness testing for the proof of concept projects at the end of last week. Four more consortia are due to complete witness testing before 31 March.

Graphnet said that successfully delivering the solution inside the "extremely tight time scales" was a remarkable achievement, which demonstrated how cooperation and collaboration between health IT suppliers could work.

Dave Garnett, Graphnet chairman, added: "There is an urgent need for practical interoperability standards to make the quality, innovation, productivity and prevention agenda a reality".

"I was extremely impressed by the professionalism skill, hard work and dedication of our partners in this consortium and am certain that this collaboration will continue to produce innovative, cost effective IT solutions that will benefit patients and the NHS".

CfH said around 16 suppliers were taking part in the proof of concept consortia, with other consortia including System C, InterSystems, Medisec, BlueSpier, Liquidlogic and INPS.

A CfH spokesperson told EHI Primary Care that after the completion of the proof of concept projects, it would look at the lessons learned and finalise the discharge summary standard definition before it was made available for wider consumption by the supplier community.

She added: "In addition, the feedback from suppliers involved in the proof of concepts, and the extent to which the suppliers have consistently applied CfH standards, will help steer thinking on the accreditation required for Interoperability Toolkit standards in the future, for discharge summaries and other Interoperability Toolkit service definitions".

All NHS trusts are expected to deliver discharge summaries to GP practices within 24 hours of discharge from 1 April, although the target is expected to be missed by the majority of hospitals.

CfH said delivery of discharge summaries within 24 hours was not a target or performance managed by the centre but a contractual requirement managed between commissioner and provider.

It added: "PCT and NHS providers have been working towards the current contract requirement which will be monitored on a regular basis by the PCTs and providers".

It's all about the Patients

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 09:00:00 Z

Heart of Birmingham PCT and Graphnet

Heart of Birmingham PCT has commenced work with Graphnet Health to implement a system designed to improve the treatment of long term conditions and enhance patient safety.

Part of Heart of Birmingham's local 2010 Strategy focuses on delivering care in local community, outside of acute hospitals. To support this programme, the PCT needs to ensure that clinicians have access to accurate patient information from both primary and secondary systems to support them in making informed decisions about treatment.

The PCT had identified a number of areas where the wealth of information held across primary and acute systems could be used to drive service delivery benefits by bringing this information together.

Graphnet Health have been supplying the NHS with IT solutions for 14 years and have extensive experience in integrating clinical information from Primary and Secondary settings, with over 18,000,000 patients registered within Graphnet systems throughout England, Ireland and Wales.

Nigel Meehan, Senior Project Manager at Heart of Birmingham PCT comments, "We chose the Graphnet long term conditions solution based on their success in similar projects and their proven ability to deliver. The sharing of information across health care can only improve the care pathway for patients, and that's what it's all about. It's about providing the best possible care for patients, and getting the right information to the right people at the right time is paramount to this".

ASCC event follow up events

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 09:00:00 Z

Over the last few days we have had several enquiries from people who were unable to attend the ASCC event last week, asking what it was about and how Graphnet is involved. As a result Graphnet and SCC will be holding a series of events across the south of England to discuss the opportunities that the scheme may present to Trusts in the South.

These forums, held on January 26th, 27th and 28th allow us to share case studies and success stories of Graphnet implementations for NHS Trusts, PCT's and Community Service providers across the UK.

We have prepared a morning agenda which we hope will address some of the common challenges faced when implementing clinical systems.

If would like to attend, please contact Annette or Rebecca on 01908 500700 or email info@graphnethealth.com to guarantee a place.

Hampshire Health Record

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 09:00:00 Z

The largest primary care trust in England has decided not to implement the Summary Care Record in the next 12 months and to expand its own shared care record system instead.

The Hampshire Health Record (HHR) already covers 65% of the Hampshire population and NHS Hampshire plans to roll it out to 90% of residents by the end of March next year.

It also covers Southampton City PCT, where 80% of residents have records, and Portsmouth City PCT, where 35% of residents have records.

NHS Hampshire said the HHR contains more information than the SCR currently holds and already accepts feeds from all GP systems. It also argued that promoting both the SCR and HHR could be confusing.

However, it said it was actively looking at how patients might be able to access the HHR through the national secure health portal, HealthSpace.

In a statement issued to EHI Primary Care, Jenny Nash, chief information officer for NHS Hampshire said: "Since the HHR project began, the national NHS Summary Care Record service has started".

[continue reading] (ext source)

New interoperability partnership

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:00:00 Z

Clinical record specialists Graphnet Health has signed an agreement with electronic document management and messaging provider PCTI.

Graphnet have been working with PCTs and Trusts across the UK for over 15 years to provide a single patient record at the point of care by extracting clinical patient information from existing clinical systems across the local health economy and displaying this aggregated information in a single web-based portal. This new agreement with PCTI will enable information from secondary care settings to be securely transferred back into GP systems.

PCTI's Electronic Document Transfer (EDT) solution provides a simple and secure way to deliver electronic documents to GP surgeries and Primary Care organisations. Documents from existing hospital systems are transferred over N3 to Docman EDT enabled GP practices. Once the documents are received by the practice, they can be associated with the patient's clinical record.

Andy Bratt, Managing Director of Graphnet Health comments:

"Interoperability is key to the future of Healthcare IT. Graphnet have been working for 15 years to help organisations share clinical information between providers to give clinicians the information they need at the point of care. We are very excited about our partnership with PCTI. With our combined experience in healthcare we have solutions that can deliver huge benefits to the NHS and result in a joined up, seamless health service for patients".

Philip Young, Director at PCTI Solutions said:

"PCTI's integration with Graphnet systems provides even more users opportunities to deploy an end-to-end solution with a substantial return on investment. Some of the benefits include improving efficiencies, cost savings, security and ultimately patient care. Bridging the gap between document creation and delivery has been the driving force behind our EDT solution, through integration with Graphnet systems, Trusts and GP surgeries can enhance processes and take another step to becoming paperless".

Expert view: Andy Bratt on Interoperability

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:00:00 Z

To view article please see :

http://www.e-health-insider.com/comment_and_analysis/539/expert_view:_andy_bratt

ASCC Market Awareness Event

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:00:00 Z

On the 24th November Christine Connelly (Director General for Informatics/Chief Information Officer for Health, Department of Health) will open the ASCC market awareness event at the Royal Horticultural Halls in Westminster.

This event, held for the Southern regions, aims to improve market awareness of clinical applications that are available in the Communities, Child Health and Acute sectors in advance of the start of a series of procurements utilising the ASCC framework in January 2010.

Graphnet will be exhibiting with our partner SCC.

If you have received an invitation we hope to see you there.

A Pragmatic Approach to Sharing Clinical Data.