eHealth Committee Report to Grampian NHS Board
Committee Meeting on 8 November 2013
Recommendation
The Board is asked to note the following key business discussed by the eHealth Committee on 8 November 2013.
- Modernisation Team –Planned Care
There was a discussion on potential interventions which involve streamlining the pathway for patients with COPD using health interventions according to their specific needs.
No Delays postcards are planned (and are being trialled by some Practices) to be delivered to the homes of all sufferers of COPD. They include information on how to manage the condition and advice for learning to understand individual tolerances, using a RAG-style (Red, Amber, Green) system of information.
There are also plans for ensuring access to pulmonary rehabilitation services where appropriate. Again the different scales of requirement (low, medium and high risk) will be identified and managed accordingly, either by postcarding, video conference or face to face interventions in the most serious cases.
It was agreed that assurances must be made that patients are continually reviewed whilst their conditions are being managed in this way to avoid gaps in the pathway of care. It is paramount to ensure consistency throughout. Other Health Boards: Lothian, Lanarkshire and Highland are all planning similar projects and information is being shared through a network system.
- Modernisation Team - Digital Health Update
The national infrastructure is developing with ten Innovation Centres planned in Scotland including three which are already in existence. The Alexander Graham Bell Centre (Lifescience and Education) has now been handed over and will be opened officially in 2014. Work on health innovations has commenced in the Centre. The Living it Up launch is next week and will be attended by key Grampian personnel, who will be interested to see how the tool looks when it is presented. DALLAS work has now extended beyond Moray and forms part of NHS Grampian’s Decision Support work.
- eHealth Update
PMS TracCare - In early 2010, the initial roll out of the TracCare solution began, and it has since been implemented in NHS Borders, NHS Ayrshire & Arran, NHS Grampian and NHS Lanarkshire and it most recently completed implementation in NHS Glasgow. ISC had already been providing the TracCare solution to NHS Lothian for several years. The PMS implementation has been a substantial undertaking by the participating NHS Boards, and its relatively quick completion is a significant achievement.
NHS Highland is the latest NHS Board to have called off from the framework contract and is planning their implementation. NHS Orkney and NHS Shetland are anticipated to call off from the contract in late 2013. The National Waiting Times Centre (NWTC) and NHS
Tayside have expressed interest in calling-off from the PMS Framework. When the framework contract period ends in 2014, NHS Scotland will be in a position where a very significant component of the eHealth portfolio will be largely standardised across the country facilitating future integration and progress.
To complement the Programme Governance already in place to oversee the implementation of TracCare and support supplier management, a PMS Strategic Oversight Group has recently been established. The Group involves representatives of all the NHS Boards outlined above, together with representatives from the Scottish Government and NHS National Services Scotland (NSS). The role of this group is to provide strategic direction around the development and exploitation of TracCare in the short, medium and long term.
To support the Strategic Oversight Group with this work, a strategic review of the TracCare solution was commissioned and a report was prepared by Deloitte’s. This report represents a shift from implementation to focussing on how to maximise the benefits of this position. Boards are now working with Intersystems to establish an NHS Scotland Account delivery plan which sets out the need to create a structured programme of post implementation care for Boards to drive clinical usage and customer satisfaction.
PMS within Grampian - The ED (A&E) Module within PMS has gone live at Dr Grays, ARI, and RACH. This completes the PMS Implementation programme from the perspective of replacing the existing IT systems. We have now replaced PAS, PiMS, PROTOS, EDIS and the Eating Disorders System with TracCare (PMS) and Badgernet (Maternity and NeoNatal). This has been a massive programme of work and the next stage is to complete the current programme rollout to all areas, e.g bed management and order communications to Mental Health in December 2013. Looking forward our prime target is to work on the development of an Electronic Patient Record with a first goal of “paperless” Outpatient clinics.
eHealth Workplan – Common Progress measures - In line with the eHealth Workplan all Boards had submitted their 2nd Quarter Common Progress Measures. These are still very much a “work in progress” as Boards attempt to supply what has been asked of them and keep it in context. A workshop has been arranged for the end of November by SG eHealth to review and discuss the common progress measures based on experience of the first two quarters.
Window XP Replacement – The imminent retirement of Windows XP as a supportable product by Microsoft in April 2014, means that NHS Grampian must embark on a programme of activities to update the operating system environments for all PC and Laptop devices (c 10,000 devices)
Windows XP has been the standard operating system in use within Grampian for the past 5 years. All of NHS Grampian’s PCs and laptops operate using Windows XP. NHS Grampian is therefore forced to adopt a new standard operating system for all new PC assets and migrate existing PCs onto the new platform, ensuring all applications can function on the new operating system. Support for this significant programme of work has been tendered for and work will commence in the New Year with priority being given to clinical areas.
Cllr Bill Howatson
Chairman,eHealth Committee
November2013
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