Substance misuse patients get PKB record

Delphi Medical has signed a deal with Patients Know Best to give up to 2,000 substance misuse patients control over how their medical record is shared.

Delphi says the deal makes it the first substance misuse services provider in the UK to offer a patient-controlled medical records system.

The independent provider offers drug and alcohol clinical services to communities across Lancashire and Sefton, as well as to eleven prisons in the Midlands and North West of England.

The patient records access portal from Patients Know Best gives patients online access to their medical records and care plans, and allows clinicians and patients to message securely through the site and hold online consultations.

Dr John Richmond, managing director of Delphi Medical, told EHI the system will help to address problems with patients receiving fragmented care, due to a lack of information-sharing between multiple agencies responsible for their treatment.

Richmond said giving patients access to and control over their records will also help to address the lack of trust that many substance misuse patients have towards medical practitioners.

“A lot of the patients we deal with are quite disempowered… they tend to be on the fringes, and thought of as a big problem for society instead of part of society.

“This puts information into their hands so they can see what relationships are going on in terms of their care, because they often think that everyone is working against them.”

Richmond said the provider will use the system to ensure that patients are fully informed about their treatment.

It also has plans to upload training materials and video podcasts for patients to explain why certain treatment plans and courses of action are chosen.

“This gives [clinicians] the opportunity to say this is what we’re doing, this is why we’re doing it, and this is who we’re sharing it with, and patients can have conversations around it – it’s really liberating.”

Richmond said Delphi is still finalising plans for the system with Patients Know Best and is planning to give approximately 1,000 patients access to their records in the first phase of the rollout, expected to be in October.

Up to 2,000 patients should be on the system by the end of the year, he said.

Dr Lloyd Humphreys, in charge of business development at Patients Know Best, said substance misuse services are “ideally suited” to the system due to the large number of agencies that a typical patient deals with.