Pushing forward patient records

As part of the National Programme for IT, NHS Stockport has implemented a Lorenzo electronic patient record system. National Health Executive magazine spoke to Howard Gray to find out more

Before NHS Stockport implemented the new Lorenzo system, they were simply using a standard patient administration system.

“As the name suggests this is a basic administrative system, whereas the Lorenzo system is based more around information for the clinicians themselves,” says director of IM&T Howard Gray.

“This is in the shape of clinical documentation, such as referral and assessment forms. This is something which we had never had in a digital format before we had the Lorenzo system.”

The PCT has only introduced the Lorenzo system in one service at the moment, the community rehabilitation team, but there are plans for further roll out.

“We intend to upgrade our current patient administration system, which is known as iPM, to an upgraded system known as LRC Release 1.9. Once we have introduced that system fully, we will then be in a position to roll out the clinical aspects of the system to a wider range of services.

“The CRT is using clinical aspects of the system but we intend to fully upgrade to the patient administration system in March 2011. This will allow us the facility to roll out the clinical aspects of the patient record system to a wider range of clinical staff.”

There have been a few issues during implementation but nothing more serious than the issues normally associated with any new software.

“There are always challenges when introducing IT which aims to support a different way of working but, equally, there are opportunities particularly when we are able to equip clinicians in the field with mobile technology. For the CRT staff we have provided a range of devices (laptops/ toughbooks) which will enable clinicians to record information at the point where they are delivering the care and also to access previously recorded details about the patient.

“There are some issues for staff together with some security issues around the devices themselves. We have also encountered some performance issues but these are being addressed.”

This facility, to access and input data whilst out in the field, will give the CRT a great advantage whilst ensuring that community healthcare in Stockport is being delivered through the use of state-of-the-art technology.

As with the introduction of any technology into the healthcare system, Howard thinks there might be a few cultural issues with regards to the patient perception of the new system.

“Some patients won’t be used to the idea of community healthcare staff using computers to record data and although this won’t be that prevalent, it is still something we are aware of. Of course the advantages of this system far outweigh the challenges we face in introducing these new technologies.”

The introduction of remote access has already shown itself to be incredibly useful during the recent spell of extremely bad weather in the region.

“The weather had meant that there were quite a few staff, including clinicians, who were unable to reach their usual work base. However, due to the technology, they could still access their records, so were able to carry on working without having to come into the central office to access information. This has been a real boon to the service.”