EuroKing Miracle has announced that it has successfully installed the latest version of GE’s ViewPoint gynaecological and pre-natal diagnosis systems into three NHS hospital trusts in the last month.
Frimley Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, South Devon Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and Royal Jubilee Maternity Service in Belfast have integrated the system into their obstetric and gynaecology departments. As a result the three hospital trusts can now collect data directly from ultrasound equipment and update their patient database.
ViewPoint is a complete digital documentation system. It provides robust reporting and image archiving functionality, whilst integrating patient scheduling, examination data and lab results into an electronic record. Different system modules can be combined to build up unique solutions for women healthcare and other medical departments.
EuroKing’s managing director, Jonathan Raife, told E-Health Insider: “These trusts will benefit from the fact that they can produce accurate reports from measurements taken by the machines. This will include Nuchal Translucency (NT) scans, which are recommended to all pregnant women and are currently the most accurate means to assess the risk of a particular pregnancy being affected by conditions such as Down’s Syndrome or Edward’s Syndrome.
"Using ViewPoint version 5.0, trusts will be able to deal with demand from mothers to know this information much quicker, with any risks and lab test results issued in quicker times and meeting targets laid down in the national programme for screening.”
The ability to utilise NT scans was one of the key issues that the first trust that deployed the system – The Princess Anne Hospital, Southampton – wanted to resolve. The hospital secured funding from the Fetal Medicine Foundation for a new Down’s Syndrome screening programme, based on NT scans and maternal biochemistry which required a documentation system which would work across both the Fetal Medicine Unit and the main ultrasound department.
Sally Boxall, the hospital’s consultant nurse in prenatal diagnosis and family support, said: “ViewPoint has tremendous benefits. We are able to use the same database through the obstetric department and compare scans. ViewPoint allows us to audit our service far better than we have been able to before, not just the number of scans, but individual sonographers’ work profiles, we can audit the detection rate of anomalies, how many invasive procedures we do, and how well our Down’s screening service runs.”
Raife added: “The requirements for hospitals to collect accurate data for auditing their Down’s screening programme and for individual sonographers’ audit is driving trusts towards seeking a solution that will make life more simple for them. ViewPoint offers a reporting package to trusts which will enable them to better monitor their wards and meet DH targets.
“The system can also be integrated with our E3 maternity information system which helps trusts organise their maternity departments and meet all necessary auditing and the processes for the clinical negligence scheme for trusts.”
Raife told EHI that EuroKing has bid to be a national programme additional supplier and hopes to be able to capitalise on what has so far been a ‘great year’ for the company, which says it has had a total of 70 orders in the first five months of 2007.
The company is also looking at offering IT services in response to the Department of Health’s recent ‘Maternity Matters’ strategy, offering mothers-to-be a guaranteed full range of birthing choices – including home births.
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