South Warks ready to put Kainos live

South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust is set to go-live with Kainos Evolve in its first department this week.

The trust signed a contract with Kainos last September for the document management system, which automates the creation, capture, handling and distribution of notes and other records.

Duncan Robinson, associate director of ICT at South Warwickshire, told eHealth Insider the system would be implemented through a “phased in approach”, with the first installation in the dermatology department.

“Rather than a big bang, we’re rolling it out on a speciality by speciality basis,” he said. “This allows us to learn any lessons and to manage capacity.

“The medical records department pull 22,000 sets of notes a month, and if we had to try and scan 22,000 sets of notes a month we would need a much bigger scanning bureau.

“So far it’s going really well and to plan, and as of yet we have had no spillage. We have been very pleased with the supplier and the clinical engagement we have received from doctors and consultants.”

The large number of paper records held by the trust necessitated the development of a second storey on its records store, at the cost of “a number of hundreds of thousands of pounds.”

Evolve was required because there was no possibility of another extension. As the system is rolled out, the trust will “forward scan” documents for patients with upcoming appointments, but will not try to “legacy scan” its records to keep the project manageable.

South Warwickshire runs hospitals in Warwick and Stratford-upon-Avon. It absorbed Warwickshire Community Health from the local primary care trust in April 2011 and currently runs two patient administration systems, both iSoft’s iPM.

Robinson said the Evolve system will “sit on top” of the PAS and staff will be able to access it using iPads. These have already been issued to dermatology staff through a specific £300,000 mobile device budget.

“We have deployed some additional technology in the form of hand held kit, as the dermatologists argued that when they see patients in clinic they tend to see them in multiple clinic rooms.

“With a consultant moving between three rooms, we can’t rely on kit in the room, so we need iPads,” Robinson explained.

“We wanted to make working more efficient, capturing and presenting back information electronically, and the Kainos solution will underpin that.

“It will provide clinicians with a holistic view of the patient, so all the different interdepartmental systems and our two different PAS systems will no longer matter.”

The trust believes Evolve will deliver both financial and clinical benefits, not just in its hospitals but in the community, where it could reduce the number of trips that staff have to make to base, and so increase efficiency.

Read more about EHI reporter Chris Thorne’s recent visit to South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust in Insight. The trust is also involved in significant BI and mobile working projects.