NHS Forth Valley deploys Morse EPR app to support mobile community staff as part of its Digital & eHealth Strategy
NHS Forth Valley (NHSFV) is one of 14 regional health boards and serves a population of more than 306,000 in a diverse geographical area which covers the heart of Scotland.
The NHS Board manages an annual budget of over £570 million and employs around 8000 staff. Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert is one of the most advanced and well equipped in Europe. It is supported by a network of four community hospitals, 56 health centres, day centres providing care and support for patients with mental illness and learning disabilities and a wide range of community services.
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NHSFV reviews its systems and services on an ongoing basis as part of its Healthcare Strategy ‘Shaping the Future’. It identified that, although the previous current electronic patient record system MiDIS (Multi-Disciplinary Information System) provided sufficient functionality for most services, it required a mobile solution to support its community staff when visiting patients.
Top challenges:
To enable community healthcare staff to work with patient information both offline and online
To enable staff to share and update healthcare data with colleagues
To reduce travel to and from NHS premises, increasing time with patients
To be able to extract and report on patient data to plan staff deployment and manage performance/delivery of care
To manage and ensure sustainability of electronic health records
To improve the admissions and discharge procedure, saving time while ensuring patient safety
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After considering a variety of different solutions, NHSFV adopted the Morse Electronic Patient Record (EPR) mobile app from Cambric Systems. Today, over 1000 healthcare professionals including Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) and Community Nursing Services use Morse to access the latest patient and clinical data remotely.
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Key highlights
Saves time in busy referral system – NHSFV has seen an 80% reduction in processing
Reduces duplication – workflows have improved as patient intervention is recorded at point of care, with no manual paperwork.
Work efficiencies - mobile working using iPads has significantly reduced travel time and costs
Improved communication and decision making - results and assessments are available and accessible for other Morse users
More responsive service during the day with faster decisions/action and redeployment of staff if required.
Clinical decisions supported - photos can be taken and shared for consultation and advice
Reduces home visits and increases patient safety before discharge by sharing environmental/residential information for assessment
“Each example of the efficiencies gained using Morse really add up across the organisation to make significant time and cost savings.”
Nicola Henderson, AHP eHealth Clinical Lead, Senior Dietitian, Dietetic Department, NHS Forth Valley