Achieving interoperability
The UK population is both growing and living longer, and while this is a testimony to the excellent healthcare and medicine available in Britain, it also leaves the NHS with a problem: how can the public healthcare system handle increased demand without throwing billions of pounds at the problem?
NHS Interoperability may sound like a buzzword but, as the quote above shows, it’s a crucial part of modernising healthcare. By optimising the way NHS and partner systems communicate and share information, the NHS can save hundreds if not thousands of hours – time that can be used to treat patients, study, or rest.
The Access Group is keen to support NHS Digital in enacting these changes in the NHS and beyond. Rio Integration Hub is our solution to bridge the gap between the NHS and third-party solutions, such as our own Rio EPR. The Rio Integration Hub is accredited by NHS Digital for the following:
- NHS Digital GP Connect programme
- Assessment, Discharge and Withdrawal (ADW)
With new models of care emerging and evolving, there is a clear need for more effective information sharing between care settings, organisations and geographies, as well as between professionals and citizens, to optimise patient outcomes and quality of care.
This is reliant on the ability of IT systems across health and care to be interoperable with one another and is key to the delivery of the future vision of care.
Helping NHS Trusts
The objective is to reach a point where a mental health patient can present anywhere in the country – not necessarily in the region where they are receiving care – and their MHCP can still be accessed by those taking care of them.
Somerset NHS Foundation Trust (SFT) aims to empower ambulance services to be able to access these mental health crisis plans (MHCP) at the point of care. This gives them greater capacity to assess a patient and evaluate a situation, which then helps the paramedics decide on the most appropriate care setting. In the words of Steve Wightman, Commercial Director at The Access Group
Rather than potentially end up in a setting which is inappropriate or aggravates their condition – like police custody or A+E – professionals can refer to the MHCP for the best course of action to take and the patient receives the right treatment.
Rio Interoperability Hub was ideal for SFT because it not only works with Access’ own solutions but can also integrate with the software of other providers; saving the trust from the disruption of major software upgrades or the cost of changing provider to a solution that can connect.
We’re very proud to have worked hand-in-hand with NHSD on these programmes, through which patients stand to benefit from better care across settings and improved coordination between the staff caring for them as a direct result.
The ability to provide timely and accurate information at the point of care is vital, particularly in mental health where access to a joined-up view of the patient truly enables better clinical decision making, a better experience for patients and, most importantly, better outcomes. To achieve this, information needs to flow with the patient, between different organisations, often using different systems.
Partnering with companies like Access who are driving innovation in this space will help turn our vision to drive interoperability across the health and care system into reality. We’re proud to be the first to launch the NRL MHCP and know it will make a real difference to patients in Somerset.
The Access Group also assisted both East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT) and North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT) to implement the NRL. Both trusts provide mental health care as part of their remit, and working in partnership with NHS Digital, both integrated Rio EPR to help with MHCPs.
Just like with Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, the aim was to support ambulance crews to access the most up-to-date mental health crisis plans via the Summary Care Record application when they are called on to help somebody in need. By sharing the patient data at the point of care, paramedics are able to more quickly triage and halt the mental health crisis.
Paramedics will be pointed to the appropriate details, which will then generate a simple PDF to show the mental health crisis plan and the crucial information about safe places and key contacts for patients, allowing paramedics to contact the right people and make the patient feel as safe as possible and mitigate as much of the incident as possible.
Evolving your healthcare
Our solution, the Rio Integration Hub, has been through a rigorous approval process before earning accreditation from NHS Digital. It has had to demonstrate the basics of reliability and functionality, but more importantly things such as clinical safety, digital security, and quality reviews have all confirmed that it meets or surpasses NHS standards.
The Hub supports the latest Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) standards – in line with NHS recommendations that services are FHIR compatible. We will continue to support it and adapt to any changes, as well as pursuing our own avenues of improvement in both user interface and data handling.
We’re proud of all of our work in the healthcare sector, but Access takes special pride in this interoperability platform. We know that this state-of-the-art solution is enabling better healthcare for the public, which is what matters most. The Access Group is already partnered with numerous NHS trusts and other software providers to ensure that we all work for the common good: improving health and saving lives.
We’re now working on the extended phases and look forward to building on our work with NHSD to set the standard – in line with our ambition to be the most interoperable vendor on the market.
