NHS Fife uses new PAS interface to tackle ward infections

A new interface has been implemented into NHS Fife’s existing Oasis Patient Administration System (PAS) that will warn both hospital and community staff of any potential ‘hospital-acquired infections.’

NHS Fife Operating Division introduced the new system to streamline and improve its surveillance and case management of hospital-acquired infections. The new interface to the hospital’s existing PAS was implemented by its suplier, Capula Healthcare, which uses software from infection control specialists ICNet.

The interface tracks patients with ‘hospital-acquired infections’ offering surveillance information to hospital clinicians. It was designed using Oasis clinical tools sets and will allow ICNet to receive updates as an infected patient changes location within the Trust’s hospitals.

It will also receive an alert as soon as any known carrier of infection is admitted to hospital so that they are not placed in a bed close to other patients. Hospital staff and community nurses in the Fife region will not only receive alerts on personal digital assistants (PDAs) but can also send information on infected patients back to ICNet.

The system will incorporate all information previously recorded by hand and also allows the recording of greater detail, with additional referral details being added – creating the opportunity to track patients as they are transferred between wards as well as after discharge in the community.

A connection to Fife’s PAS will warn users on screen, through email or text messaging, of high-risk ‘alert patient’ re-admissions into specific wards and hospitals, whilst maintaining a real time log of patient locations.

With the ICNet interface, automatic alerts will be flagged up as soon as specific ‘alert organisms’ (and viruses) such as MRSA are detected in the hospital.

The system was developed by Capula Healthcare under the Siemens Medical Managed Service contract with the trust and uses open technologies such as Java and XML.