Hillingdon gets SRC discharge summaries

The Hillingdon Hospital NHS Trust has signed a deal with SRC to implement the company’s electronic discharge summary.

The web-based clinical information management system will give doctors and pharmacists the ability to send accurate, legible discharge summaries and prescriptions to a GP within 24 hours of a patient leaving hospital.

The trust selected SRC following a competitive tender that determined it could provide integration with the trust’s Silverlink patient administration system and allow pharmacists to manage and approve drug prescriptions using electronic signatures.

The trust also wanted a workflow that would allow managers to manage the production of discharge summaries and to have the option to add-on modules such as drug decision support.

Geoff Geaves, eDS project manager at the trust, said: “We discharge 800 patients a week and every one of them needs a discharge summary within 24 hours. We needed a solution that would enable us to deliver that and give us the tools to ensure quality and efficiency.”

Since April 2010, all acute NHS trusts have been required to deliver discharge summaries to GPs containing information about a patient’s diagnosis, treatment and prescribed medications within 24 hours of the patient leaving hospital.

Geaves added: “At all stages of the project, SRC have been there with help and guidance as we integrated eDS with our PAS, developed the templates and carried out the training for staff to use the system.

"We are really looking forward to going live and expect to have all wards using eDS by the middle of August.”

The system, which has been developed by SRC and Bluewire Technologies, allows discharge summaries to be transmitted electronically, either directly to GP primary care systems or to the NHS fax system supported by NHSmail.

The eDS will be rolled out trust wide over the next two months and has been tailored to also make historic discharge summaries, from the trust’s legacy system, available within the new system.