EMIS links with Tiara9 for appointment booking

EMIS have announced they are to link their GP software to Ethical Technology (Ethitec)’s Tiara9 electronic patient record system for therapists.

The partnership aims to deliver interoperability between the firms’ systems to help reduce waiting times for patients and improve clerical accuracy. Tiara9 is currently used by 30 NHS trusts, and EMIS GP systems by around 55% of GPs in the UK.

Work has already begun on the link to enable GPs or practice clerks to request a list of available therapy slots and subsequently book appointments directly into Tiara9.  The first pilot site at Hinckley in Leicestershire is expected to go live by the end of the year.

Tiara9 offers therapists a patient administration system and treatment record. The company’s reference implementation at Leicestershire and Rutland adult therapy services now sees over 740 appointments per day processed through the system.

Simon Taylor, commercial director for Ethitec, told EHi Primary Care: “This agreement will provide an electronic link between EMIS and Tiara9 so that patient referrals to physiotherapists can be done by electronic submission. They won’t have to re-key the patient information through the usual paperwork methods, but instead we can automatically issue an appointment.

Taylor added: “Patients will benefit from significant improvements in terms of reduced waiting times and increased continuity between healthcare services, reducing all the clerical administration for both GPs and physiotherapy department administrators.”

EMIS managing director Sean Riddell told EHI: “I think this is an example of good interoperability between applications. Clinical functionality using just one system can often make work hard for clinicians or practice clerks, but linking systems can make looking after patient records much easier for all concerned.”

Riddell said that in order to support patient care, IT needed to ensure the right information for the right person was available at the right place and time. He said EMIS believed Tiara9 was the best EPR system for therapists: "We thought it would be the ideal system to link with our LV and PCS systems and reduce unnecessary paperwork for all involved.”

He added that interoperability is the key to the NHS IT’s future, with trusts looking to reduce paperwork and improve patient care. “The best of breeds for all types of software need to be linked together, as long as the appropriate security and consent forms are built in. GP practices can’t run on just one system, 4000 of our members use more than one system.

“PCTs are buying software instead of using the free software NPfIT LSPs [Local Service Providers] are developing hasn’t got the level of richness they want, technology is moving forward at an extremely fast pace and we need to embrace that.”

Ethitec claims that it has seen consistent reductions in waiting times and over 700,000 patient contacts been entered onto the system per annum. Taylor hopes the success of the link will encourage more trusts to buy Tiara9.

“We are delighted to be working with EMIS on this link, which enables effective communication between two systems that are highly regarded by clinicians. In effect, this is our version of Choose and Book for therapy appointments, and we hope that its success will be noted by other EMIS trusts who will want to use Tiara9.”