Heatherwood and Wexham rolls out ICE

Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has implemented an electronic test requesting and reporting system across both primary and secondary care settings.

The order communications software now enables almost all local GPs to request pathology tests electronically, as well as hospital staff.

Pathology and IT systems manager, Lesley Adams, said the trust initially looked into electronic requesting and reporting for pathology following a review of pathology services by Lord Carter of Coles in 2008.

She said the Berkshire hospital foundation trust worked with several others in the strategic health authority to identify the best provider – ultimately selecting on Sunquest and its Integrated Clinical Environment software (ICE). 

“The flexibility of ICE – together with the company’s support network and technical expertise – made Sunquest an obvious choice, and we set up a pilot programme at several local GP surgeries to further develop the system for their needs.”

Now about 95% of local surgeries are using the system to request tests and receive reports.

“We were able to roll out ICE across all our primary care sites very quickly based on the positive experience of these pilot practices,” Adams said.

All wards in the trust’s King Edward VII hospital and St Mark’s hospital are also now using the electronic system, which allowed both GPs and ward staff to view all the pathology test results for a patient, regardless of who requested them, helping to eliminate duplicate testing.

Adams said the individually tailored, mandatory fields for each test had also helped to guide doctors in requesting the most appropriate test for each patient and simultaneously improve the quality and flow of data.

She said the implementation across GP surgeries and hospitals was only “scratching the surface” of what could be achieved with the Sunquest system.

“[We] would like to extend this approach into other areas such as radiology, where GPs can already view radiology reports in ICE.”