Tavistock and Portman to use CareNotes

Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust has signed a five-year contract with Advanced Health and Care to roll out its CareNotes electronic patient record from February next year.

The trust selected the EPR following a formal tendering process through the ‘2015 Consortium’, for community and mental health trusts in London and the South that deployed the RiO EPR through the National Programme for IT.

CareNotes will provide clinical staff with access to patient records at the point of care via internet-enabled laptops and tablets, and it will be integrated with the NHS data Spine to allow information sharing with GPs and other health professionals.

Simon Young, the trust’s deputy chief executive and director of finance, told EHI the trust wanted a system that is specifically designed for its services to support clinical and administrative staff in the way they work.

“Some systems can be seen as a burden, and we want to make sure we have a system that is what people want, so they don’t have to use it as an afterthought or as if it is some sort of corporate requirement.”

Young said clinical and administrative staff had been significantly involved in the procurement process, with all scoring the system highly as the one that met their needs best.

He said the system’s mobile working solution is of particular interest to the trust, as it will allow staff to securely access patient records remotely instead of printing out paper records to carry to appointments.

Young said the EPR will also remove duplication between the trust’s existing RiO system, its paper records and a separate system for outcome measures, allowing staff to work more efficiently.

“When we build up a database, we’ll be able to do more assessments of the effectiveness of treatment, and when you’re not duplicating records it frees people’s time up to do something else.”

Young said the system is currently being configured to meet the trust’s requirements, with a “substantial” programme of work to take place afterwards to ensure staff are ready for the new system.

“This is a significant cultural change for us in that we want to make much more extensive use of the system, not just as an administration system but central to the way we work.”

An initial trial by thirty clinical and administrative “early adopters” will take place in February next year, with a full rollout across the trust’s 450 staff to follow in May following feedback from the trial.

The mental health trust provides outpatient treatment to more than 2,000 people in London and the South.

The contract is the fifth win in the last year for Advanced in the NHS community and mental health sector, which is showing signs of increased activity as the NPfIT contracts come to an end.