Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust have stopped tracking notes within Cerner Millennium and have gone live with 6PM’s iFIT tracking solution for tracking paper health records. All health records will be tagged with a radio frequency (RFID) tag. Sensors located in key areas around the hospital will automatically pick up the movement of the record, in real time, as it moves from one place to another. This will allow the Trust to tell where each set of records is quickly and effectively.
More information: www.6pmsolutions.com
Robert Waddup, Health Records Supervisor at Homerton said: “This is an exciting new development and will mean that all records will be tracked using radio frequency identification. The technology will also provide a full audit trail of activity for information governance compliance.”
“Trying to locate notes is an avoidable, time consuming process. iFIT will now help the Trust reduce this to an absolute minimum. Using handheld electronic trackers, the medical records team will be able to find a single set of notes in the libraries or in the offices, where a lot of notes are stored. This is an exciting project using the latest technology which will bring new efficiencies for our staff but more importantly, this will ensure that availability of patient notes will not delay treatment of care to patients.”
The storage of notes within health records will also change as notes will no longer be filed in number sequence. Instead a ‘location based filing’ system will be introduced. When records are returned to the records store, the notes will be tracked with handheld devices and filed in the ‘next available’ slot. This will significantly reduce the amount of time filing clerks will spend re-filing notes. The location will be scanned in to the system and iFIT will know exactly where the record is located for future use. The department has now labelled 9,000 slots.
In the clinic preparation area, all clinic pulling lists and clinic prep forms will be automatically generated. This reduces the amount of time preparing and administering a set of notes for every clinic, improving the service provided to outpatients.
With the RFID sensor infrastructure now in place for medical records, Homerton is now working with 6PM to track medical devices, bed frames, mattresses and wheelchairs.
Steve Wightman, Deputy CEO of 6PM plc commented: “Homerton is now the third Cerner Millennium site to go live with iFIT, with a fourth one pending, and clearly adds significant value to the Cerner Millennium environment or indeed any other similar application used by an NHS Trust. The rollout of the product with Homerton has gone extremely well thanks to some sterling efforts of both 6PM and Trust personnel.”
Further information: Records tracking enters the 21st Century at Homerton University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust – visit http://www.homerton.nhs.uk/media/182622/Homerton-Life-spring-2014.pdf