Interactive Bleep system prioritises workload
Mobile Medic developed by  medical software specialists Edinburgh based ExtraMed, in partnership with East Cheshire NHS Trust, ensures more efficient co-ordination and prioritisation of hospital workloads for out-of-hours staff.  Using an Interactive Bleeping System, this is the first product that enables night staff to prioritise the workload according to clinical need, whilst being supported by an IT Helpdesk

Dr Keith Nicholson, MD of ExtraMed says: “It became apparent through our conversations with clinicians that there is a need for an IT system that will help doctors and nurses working in hospitals at night to prioritise workloads and work more efficiently. We have worked closely with East Cheshire NHS Trust to develop Mobile Medic, which we are confident will help doctors and nurses work more efficiently during out of hours.

East Cheshire NHS Trust recently introduced Mobile Medic to its night staff. Taking Care 24/7 Project Manager, Sara Rathmill, said: “Using the Mobile Medic software has enabled the hospital at night team to work more efficiently, ensuring that in-patients receive quality care from an appropriate person within an acceptable timeframe. The software will really help us to implement European Working Time Directives in a clinically safe manner, and also enable us to provide better support to junior doctors working across all specialisms, throughout the hospital.”

ExtraMed Mobile Medic is accessed through easy-to-use PDAs, and its web-based software is fully compatible with the hospital’s central systems, meaning that out of hours doctors can view and update clinical risks, actions, referrals, locations and notes of each patient electronically.

The Interactive Bleeping system allows staff to prioritise workload to clinical need, enables accurate auditing clinical activity and coordination of medical staff on duty, to ensure quality patient care through a generic team.

ExtraMed Mobile Medic gives hospital staff the ability to manage and allocate out of hours calls by clinical priority; to ensure the most effective use of resources, minimising wasted journeys, unnecessary phone calls and task re-assignment. It has been designed to integrate with current ExtraMed CRIS infrastructures using existing familiar user interfaces.  A web server is needed for the ExtraMed CRIS application and a wireless network for real time PDA communication. All information is web delivered: no data stored on the PDAs.

Mobile Medic has potential to make a valuable contribution to the Taking Care 24/7 project being implemented across the NHS. Hospitals working to coordinate and prioritise the workloads of the out-of-hours hospital teams make sure valuable clinical resources are used efficiently, helping to achieve European Working Time Directives (EWTD) - without compromise to existing levels of patient safety and care. 

Transport mobility
Independent Living Services (ILS), a leading care at home provider based in Alloa, near Stirling has installed GPS fleet management software in all its 27 vehicles to dispatch support more efficiently and promptly from its head offices in Alloa. MD Kevin Scullion said: “ By installing the GPS vehicle fleet management system we will greatly enhance our service standards and increase the efficiency of our front line staff”.
 
ILS pemploys 900 staff from a network of 8 offices across Scotland and enjoyed solid growth since it was bought from its founder in 2005. It provides flexible, responsive and accountable care at home services to enable individuals to live within the community. The organisation works in partnership with 18 local authorities to provide specialist services in three main areas - adults with a disability, older peoples’ services and support for children and families.

The NHS Health Informatics Directorate
The agency Connecting for Health (CfH) in charge of the £12.7bn revamp of NHS National Programme for IT (NPfIT)  is to be overhauled to salvage the t project, its remit reduced to support for a new organisation overseeing health technology, the Department of Health Informatics Directorate.

The COO post at CfH is scrapped, and that of CTO Paul Jones who transfers to the Department of Health (DoH). The restructure of CfH will be completed by April. DoH said the revamp is to speed up the delivery of the NPfIT.

"The changes at NHS Connecting for Health are about increasing its focus on delivery and accelerating the implementation of National Programme systems," said a spokesman.

Under CfH's stewardship cost of the NPfIT doubled from £6.2bn to £12.7bn and rollout of the key Care Records Service - to provide electronic patient records nationwide - dogged by technical problems, is running at least four years late.

Dr Grant Ingrams, (left) chairman of the British Medical Association joint GP IT Committee, criticises the changes, as a further distraction to resolving the real problems with the NPfIT. "I think it is more a case of rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic," he is quoted as saying. "This time would be better spent looking at the goals of the programme, why can the focus not be on rolling out what we know will provide the best healthcare and we know is achievable?

"Take the shared detailed care records, most people now think that sort of record is unworkable and not in the best interest of healthcare."

Sources: ExtraMed
Independent Livings Services
NHS Connecting for Health
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