TECHNOLOGY infrastructure specialist, ANS Group, has helped to improve GP productivity within NHS Coventry by implementing Cisco’s Wide Area Application Network Services (WAAS). Serving more than 300,000 people, it was vital that GPs within the PCT could access patient records as quickly and efficiently as possible. By implementing the WAAS solution, the trust can now provide a Local Area Network-like performance, speeding up application delivery and aiding GPs in working quickly and more effectively by offering locally-hosted IT services. Yusuf Bhayat, network services manager at NHS Coventry, said: “We have seen productivity jump at GP sites as due to the quicker server access, doctors can spend more time with their patients and less on IT bureaucracy. Our bandwidth speeds have also been increased by an incredible 50%, meaning critical diagnosis can be made as referrals and acute test results are instantly accessible. You cannot underestimate the difference this makes to a GP.” Paul Sweeney, managing director of ANS Group, added: “With GP access to the central server reduced from a sluggish 25 seconds to just two seconds, the solution has already achieved tangible results that the trust will be able to quantify when measuring efficiency and evaluating patient experience. NHS Coventry can now look at plans to expand its services, knowing that the technology to support its workers is in place.”

Cisco

 

RIM has announced the launch of FREE server software that wirelessly and securely synchronises BlackBerry smartphones with Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Windows Small Business Server. The BlackBerry Enterprise Server Express will be provided free of charge to IT departments to meet the growing demand from employees to connect their personal smartphones to their work email. Key features include wirelessly-synchronised email, calendar, contacts, notes and tasks; the ability to manage email folders and search emails remotely; meetings and appointments booking systems and the ability to check availability; and the chance to edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files. Company spokesman, Mike Lazaridis, said: “In a marketplace where smartphones are becoming ubiquitous, this significantly raises the bar by providing a cost-effective solution that allows companies of all sizes to support enterprise-grade mobile connectivity for all employees without compromising security or manageability.”

 

MEDICAL professionals will be able to access scans, X-rays and patient records via their iPhones following an announcement this week by the iSOFT Group. The company has revealed it is bringing its Lorenzo strategic healthcare solution to Apple’s iPhone via a prototype application due for release later this year. This will mean nurses can also directly register basic patient information like pulse and temperature readings. “We need to bring the patient into the consumer space,” said iSOFT’s chief medical officer, Dr Michael Dahlweid. “At the same time we need to ensure we extend the richness of electronic health records to the fingertips of medical professionals in a hospital or surgery or on-call so they can track a patient’s condition in real-time.” He also stressed the importance of feedback from the medical community, adding: “We are very excited about the potential of an application on both the iPhone and the iPad, but our healthcare customers can rest assured we will be gathering their input before bringing the final version to market.”

 

A DIGITAL dictation system has been deployed across the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust (UHL). SRC provided implementation, project management, training and support services as part of the roll out of the WinScribe solution to more than 2,000 users across three separate sites. The solution has been tailored to the needs of 50 specialities spanning nine clinical directorates and is thought to be the largest single acute hospital implementation of digital dictation technology undertaken in the UK to date. Since the rollout, the trust has reported significant time savings, particularly in the preparation of GP correspondence. The savings have been achieved through the solution’s load-balancing workflow features which enable dictations to be automatically prioritised and made available to the appropriate typing resources. Sarah Morley, ophthalmology operational service manager at UHL, said: “Since going live we have totally eradicated backlogs and are able to produce documents on the same day as they are dictated. We also have the ability to monitor and adjust workflow settings to help boost efficiencies. The solution is quick and easy for clinicians and typists to use and provides comprehensive visibility of workloads so we can tackle priority work first.” With the dictation solution now deployed trust-wide, SRC is currently helping UHL to achieve additional cost and time savings through evolving business processes and the extension of the solution to include features such as voice recognition. Malcolm Lowe-Lauri, chief executive at UHL, said: “Like other hospitals, a key focus for UHL is ensuring the patient pathway is as efficient as possible. SRC has made this a reality for our clerical and administrative staff by implementing a flexible solution that supports users throughout our three separate campus sites.”