Blackpool deploys new patient journey system

Blackpool, Fylde and Wyre Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has deployed a new Patient Journey Management System (PJMS) from IMS Maxims.

The trust has already hit the NHS 18 week Referral To Treatment target, and is using the system to more closely monitor patient journeys and predict any potential problems in advance of treatment.

Philip Graham, head of IM&T, at the trust told E-Health Insider: “Although we hit our 18 week RTT towards the end of last year, we found that our previous system for monitoring this was resource intensive. Users could only really tell if a patient had been seen within 18 weeks when the treatment had occurred, and not in advance.

“The new Patient Journey Management System enables us to identify potential problems immediately, which means we can improve our processes and any data capture issues are highlighted instantly. The system gives users a clear timetable and using coloured flags means that all users can identify issues much faster than before.”

The system supports the trust with monitoring and management of the patient journey for those patients following an 18 week pathway. It also intends to provide flexibility for the trust to manage pathways where they could exceed the targets.

It gathers details of key patient activities including referral, diagnostic, treatment appointments and events into a single view of the patient journey.

Graham said: “Patients that have a future activity that is beyond the target pathway date and so will cause a breach are identified and patients that do not have a future activity booked and so may be in need of attention are also identified much easier than before.”

Management tools within the PJMS provide the facility to report across all the trust’s patient data, identifying patients whose planned journeys will breach any key performance indicator targets, or whose planned journeys are incomplete and need attention to progress them, ensuring they do not breach relevant targets.

IMS Maxim’s commercial director, Shane Tickell, told EHI: “This system is a continuation from our 18 week RTT PAS reporting application and lets trust not only keep measures of their RTT rate, but also look into the future and see where waits are or could possibly arise – something essential in modern healthcare.”

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