Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust has gone live with EuroKing Miracle’s web-based maternity information system, E3, to help achieve better data collection, reporting and audit.
The system has been implemented across Queen’s Hospital and King George Hospital, which between them deliver 10,000 high and low risk births annually.
The trust is using the E3 system to integrate maternity, postnatal/delivery and fetal ultrasound units. Using E3, staff will be able to produce maternity notes in an electronic form, recording the whole pathway from confirmation of pregnancy to discharge to a health visitor for post-natal care.
EuroKing’s managing director, Jonathan Raife, told E-Health Insider: “All data will now be captured electronically and immediately stored on the E3 mother and baby record, giving an up to date snapshot of mother and baby’s health at any time.”
The Healthcare Commission recently published a report on maternity care that urged trusts to invest in maternity systems after identifying a lack of good information as a “major issue.” It found that only 60% of trusts had a MIS that met the requirements of NHS Connecting for Health and 17% had no MIS at all.
Of the systems that existed, more than half covered only labour and birth and just 15% covered the whole patient journey from antenatal to postnatal care. Many staff complained that systems were inadequate or badly maintained.
Raife said the report, Towards Better Births – a review of maternity services in England, has encouraged trusts to look for modern systems.
“More trusts are determined to move ahead with new maternity information systems now. They’ve realised that joined up systems in maternity are essential, as without good information, problems can occur and it increases the risk of something going wrong,” he said.
EuroKing’s E3 system produces a record for mother and baby together, and separately for the baby alone. The company says its Connect2 platform will allow the MIS to be tailored to fit the existing workflow patterns of both hospitals.
Eventually, the system will be accessible to community-based staff, allowing data to be entered in real-time by community midwives and other professionals, such as GPs and health visitors and will integrate with their existing ViewPoint system.
Raife added: “The E3 system we have put in integrates GE’s ViewPoint gynaecological and pre-natal diagnosis systems, supplied by EuroKing a while back. This allows staff to collect data directly from ultrasound equipment and update their patient database. The trust is also considering implementing new CTG monitoring software, which will also integrate with E3.”
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