New digital service delivers vital information for renal care

Digital Health and Care Wales and Swansea UHB have developed a digital summary of renal patient care, making vital information accessible where and when it’s needed.

Healthcare clinicians with access to the Welsh Clinical Portal (WCP) can now view a patient’s digital renal care summary.

This includes a patient’s renal diagnosis, a list of medications supplied by the renal unit plus clinical notes from the renal system.

The new service allows health professionals caring for people on dialysis or who have had a transplant to stay-up-to-date with patients’ renal care to ensure they receive the best possible level of care.

Dr James Chess, consultant nephrologist and digital lead for the Welsh Kidney Network, said: “The digital summary allows the relevant information held in Welsh renal electronic patient record to be shared with the wider clinical community and sign-post clinicians on how to get renal advice tailored to the patient’s locality and health status.”

The goal is to support primary care and emergency departments by ensuring all relevant staff have current information about their patients. Not only does it ensure this information is available, where previously it would not be in immediate reach, but it is also improving the patient experience.

The digital summary contains contact details for the patient’s renal physician, surgeon and, where relevant, details of their transplant team. In addition, the renal team has also rolled out the ability for dialysis units to record medication administration. This gives their colleagues the ability to see a list of recent medications issued. 

The digital renal care summary is part of a Welsh Government Transformation Fund project on behalf of the Welsh Renal Clinical Network.

At the end of last year Digital Health and Care Wales was named the best place to work in IT at the British Computer Society’s annual industry awards.