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26th October 2021
Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust has chosen System C’s blueprint of clinical software to fulfil a major programme to digitise wards across the Trust.
In a plan to become paperless at the point of care, the Trust is focused on integrating admissions, clinical handovers, electronic observations, alerts and team communications, with key information made available on electronic ward whiteboards using System C’s integrated electronic patient record (EPR).
The foundation Trust is one of only three dedicated children’s hospital trusts in the UK. Last year 244,291 children attended the hospital as inpatients/outpatients and a further 58,721 children visited A&E.
Sheffield Children’s already use System C’s patient administration system and has made a strategic decision to adopt CareFlow as the Trust’s core EPR solution using funding secured from the Health System Led Investment, an initiative brought in by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Matt Hancock, to improve technology in hospitals.
Sheffield Children’s vision for digital wards will involve replacing multiple manual systems used for handover with CareFlow’s care coordination functionality which records handovers electronically and presents relevant up-to-date clinical information in one system.
The app will also facilitate electronic team to team referrals, with accurate records of who referred, when and to whom, removing any ambiguity around the referral. The clinical team member receiving the referral will have access to the patient’s full clinical record, allowing better judgements to be made about urgency.
The use of pagers and phones will be exchanged with CareFlow’s secure mobile messaging functionality, which integrates with the patient record for clinical efficiency and improved communication of patient status between clinical teams.
Finally, the Trust will do away with paper-based e-observations and early warning score calculations. Using CareFlow e-observations, nurses will be able to capture vital signs electronically, at the bedside, on mobile devices. The system will automatically calculate Paediatric Early Warning Scores, removing the need for staff to make manual calculations and freeing up time for patient care.
The Trust will implement automated alerting based on tailored requirements for the new e-observations such as potential sepsis alerts, helping to reduce missed early opportunities to intervene.
All the new clinical functionality will be consolidated and clinically optimised into one single view using CareFlow’s clinical workspace. It will provide comprehensive support for clinicians who will be able to enter information at the point of care, access the information remotely and receive push notifications.
Caroline Kerrison, chief clinical information officer at Sheffield Children’s, explained the intention was to bring all the clinical information together to improve patient flow through the Trust. In clinical areas we are swapping our traditional handwritten whiteboards with digital whiteboards. The whiteboards will be powered by System C’s Patient Flow software which provides a distributed control network for clinical and operational teams across the Trust to make minute-by-minute decisions that help patients progress their journey as safely and as efficiently as possible.
At the same time, it gives up-to-date visibility of exactly what is happening in the Trust at any given moment, helping the senior leadership team identify problems and provide additional and targeted support where it is needed.
Dr Ian Denley, joint chief executive at System C, commented. I’m really pleased we can continue to build our long-standing relationship with Sheffield Children’s. The Trust’s strategy and our blueprint for digital excellence share the same values and we are looking forward to helping the Trust achieve its digital ward ambition.
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