RCP and CfH launch online standards tool

The Royal College of Physicians and NHS Connecting for Health have launched e-learning modules to support national standards for hospital record keeping drawn up by the RCP's Health Informatics Unit and signed off by the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges.

The online tool allows users to complete training two modules; one covering the principles of good record keeping and one covering the standards fo hospital admission clerking, inpatient handover and hospital discharge.

Users can access the tool from any location, using their NHS email address or a registration process recording which organisation they work for.

The system tests users’ knowledge, provides a reason for each correct or incorrect answer, and awards a certificate. Information governance leads can view a range of reports to see who is using the system and whether they have passed.

Professor John Williams, director of health informatics at the RCP, says the Department of Health has written the majority of the modules but the RCP has contributed specific components, such as why it is important to standardise health records.

Professor Williams told E-Health Insider: “Information governance is becoming increasingly important. What we’re doing at RCP it trying to move the agenda to be more patient focused, whereas CfH provides the infrastructure from an IT point of view that supports the corporate activity of the NHS.”

Professor Williams said the standards are not specifically designed around the use of electronic patient records. However, they have been “developed in such a way that could bridge the transition.” IT suppliers are “being encouraged” to build the standards into their systems.

The launch of the e-learning site follows a survey by the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges into the use of the record keeping standards. It revealed that only half of the respondents had heard of the standards, which were published two years ago.

At launch, Professor Williams hoped that all trusts would be using the standards within a year. “I’m neither dismayed nor excited about the results of the survey," he said.

"We are getting them out there and they are being adopted, but there does need to be more corporate uptake. It is happening and the RCP is completely behind it; we definitely have momentum now."

Despite the relatively slow uptake, the survey also showed that at least a third of those who had heard of the standards had changed their practice as a result of adopting them.

“What was encouraging was that people are changing the way that they practice as a result of these standards and even more gratifying was the amount of uptake overseas.”

Outside the UK, 43% of participants had heard of the standards and 18% had changed their practice.

The RCP is now working with the medical schools’ council, statutory bodies, NHS trusts and Monitor so that the standards are adopted into medical training.

Link: Information Governance training tool