Southampton to deploy 18-week reporting system

Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust is to deploy a new 18-week wait, data warehouse and patient level costing system from Ardentia, in a bid to meet targets and monitor costs.

The trust will use Ardentia’s Pathway Manager in order to meet national 18-week reporting requirements and manage patient pathways from initial GP referral to acute hospital treatment.

Additionally, the data warehouse and patient level costing functions will help trust managers address the deployment of resources and identify potential risks for future financial modeling.

David Beeson, marketing director at Ardentia, told E-Health Insider: “Southampton, can be confident that using Pathway Manager they will have the information for full RTT compliance, enabling them to continue to provide the highest level of patient care.

“The solutions, which should go-live at the end of the month will reveal where there is a problem, and uniquely, will expose the cause of the problem, allowing clinicians and managers easy access to tackling the issue and planning for these issues financially in the future.”

The trust provides local hospital services to 500,000 people in Southampton and South West Hampshire, as well as specialist services to more than 3m people in central Southern England and the Channel Islands.

Using Pathway Manager, the trust aims to be able to monitor patients’ progress against the 18-week clock and ensure compliance with the new NHS regulations, ahead of the December 2008 deadline.

Information analysts at the trust will ensure compliance with national reporting requirements, and the trust’s own in-house information portal will investigate any issues relating to patient pathways in greater detail.

Adrian Byrne, IM&T director at Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “Improved processes and systems, and access to essential referrals-to-treatment information means a better flow of patients, enabling managers and clinicians to plan and manage their workloads more effectively and deliver an improved level of service, as well as ensuring compliance with national reporting requirements.”

Ardentia hopes that trusts using both Pathway Manager and their patient level costing software will be able to help develop a new costing pathways suite, which will help other NHS trusts identify key areas where a focus on costs and treatments can be identified and budgeted for accordingly.

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