Aneurin Bevan moves on doc management

One of the biggest health boards in Wales has procured an electronic document and records management system ahead of plans to develop a similar system for the entire country.

Aneurin Bevan Health Board, which delivers acute, community, mental health and child health services to the fifth of the Welsh population living in Gwent, has placed a contract with CCube Solutions and its partner BanTec to deliver the trust-wide system.

The board wants to implement the system at the newly opened Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr hospital in Caerphilly, which was designed to work electronically.

Steven Harding, assistant director of informatics at the health board, said: “We are looking to create ready electronic access to patient records.

“This will reduce the costs and risks currently associated with securely managing and storing our paper health records.”

He also said it would improve clinical support and patient care: “We will increase the accessibility of the patient record for staff, making information available at the click of a mouse which reduces the time spent in clinics and wards locating crucial information.”

The NHS Wales Informatics Service issued an ambitious information services strategy earlier this month that focuses on how to build on existing IT investments to manage demand and improve efficiency at a time of financial austerity.

The strategy wants to turn the 100m documents generated by the NHS in Wales each year into “a usable record” to which specialist systems can contribute, without having to be integrated with each other.

An NWIS spokesperson told eHealth Insider this week that it has been working with all local health boards, including Aneurin Bevan, to develop the requirements for a national document management system.

“The procurement exercise to enable the purchase of this will begin towards the end of the year, with an award of contract for the solution completing in 2013.”

Aneurin Bevan’s first focus will be on scanning and publishing health records before moving on to digitally capture information from additional sources.

The solution will integrate with the trust’s clinical portal, known as the Clinical Work Station and, eventually, with the Welsh Clinical Portal, developed by NWIS.

The system will also interface with Wales’ national patient administration system, Myrddin, which is now live at all boards apart from Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, and with national services, such as the National Active Directory and the national Master Patient Index.

The EDRMS will be administered by the Health Records Service and the installation will be on a new infrastructure and cabling scheme.