16.04.13
New standards body for health records
A new standards body has been launched for health and social care records, to help structure and maintain records in the NHS.
The Professional Record Standards Body (PRSB) is being launched today at HC2013, to ensure the requirements of those who provide and receive care and support can be fully expressed in the content of health and social care records.
The PRSB will reflect best practice, enable good outcomes and embed safety and security in information systems. It will provide overall governance of the structure and content standards for records, professional assurance of standards and advice for organisations and guidance for those working on the technology implementation of records.
Professor Iain Carpenter, the chair of the PRSB, said: “The creation of the PRSB will help organise the structure and content of health and care records around the needs of patients and the health and care sectors.
“Acting as a partnership, it will have direct links to the NHS in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, thus ensuring a joined-up approach to record standards development. By uniting the development of both health and social care records, it will underpin and support the new commissioning structures and aim to ensure that patients no longer fall between the gaps created by separate record systems.”
Founding members of the PRSB include National Voices; Royal College of Physicians; Allied Health Professions Federation, Royal College of Nursing; Association of Directors of Adult Social Services; Royal College of General Practitioners; The British Computer Society; BCS Health; Academy of Medical Royal Colleges; Royal College of Pathologists; Royal College of Psychiatrists; Royal College of Surgeons of England; Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.
Dr Justin Whatling, chair of BCS Health said: “This is a major step forward in ensuring market-driven standards exist for the way in which information is stored, retrieved and used to improve and integrate healthcare provision.
“There are a number of key challenges ahead for the PRSB as it establishes itself. One of these challenges is how it will integrate with standards implementation within systems. PRSB will need an assurance mechanism to determine that implementers, including IT vendors, have sufficiently robust and reliable processes to realise professional guidance and standards as working solutions.”
More information can be found at www.theprsb.org.uk from April 17.
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