Bolton captures stroke data

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust hopes to save clinicians’ time doing paperwork by deploying a stroke data collection system from Digital Spark.

CaptureStroke allows clinicians to record and monitor data on stroke patients throughout the hospital on handheld or desktop devices.

Bolton plans to go live with the web-based software, which links to its patient administration system, next Monday. It will be the 30th NHS trust to take the system.

Dr Gillian Halstead, clinical lead for stroke services at Bolton, said she was hopeful it would free up time to spend on patient care.

“It is a much more timely way of recording and monitoring the care the patient has received and showing us if further intervention or tests are needed,” she said.

“Currently, senior members of staff spend hours trawling through notes to complete the returns needed. This new system means that at every step in a patient’s care, a doctor, nurse, therapist or others can enter the information at the time it takes place.”

The system, which is interoperability toolkit accredited, flags up incomplete assessments and required procedures and the information can be submitted directly to the quarterly national stroke audits.

At Bolton, the audit is usually done retrospectively where a staff member goes through the patient notes to get the details, which takes about 45 minutes to an hour.

The trust hopes the new system will enable the information to be recorded in half that time and allow clinicians to spend less time doing paperwork.

CaptureStroke was developed in 2010 by Digital Spark in a project jointly funded by the North of England Cardiovascular Network and NHS North East.

North Tees and Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust was the first trust to go live with the system in 2011.