Orion Health has begun a one year pilot of a new proof of concept Electronic Care Record (ECR) in Northern Ireland.
The one year pilot project, begun this month, will see hospitals and GP practices across two of the five Health and Social Care Trusts begin to share medical records and basic social care information using the Concerto Portal from Orion Health.
The pilot project will allow clinicians in Northern Ireland’s acute and primary care services to access a summary of information collected during previous hospital and GP visits.
As exclusively revealed by E-Health Insider in September, Orion Heath will install Concerto Portal for clinicians in Belfast City Hospital, Ulster Hospital, as well as at the designated GP practices.
The first users are expected to go live in December with all identified interfaces up and running by end of March 2010. Concerto Portal will be used in secondary care, unscheduled care and particularly for those with chronic conditions.
Brian McKeown, head of ICT planning, commissioning and performance management with the Health and Social Care Board for Northern Ireland, said: "The development of region-wide electronic health records has been a policy objective in Northern Ireland since 2005."
As well as providing benefits for patients and clinicians across the Belfast and South Eastern Trusts, the project will also give the Northern Ireland project team a basis for evaluating the requirements for further development in deploying shared medical records.
Healthcare integration specialist Orion says the Concerto Portal provides a web-based clinical portal that delivers a unified view of patient data sourced from the many disparate information systems and databases across a typical healthcare organization.
The Concerto Portal product is claimed to offer clinicians a unified view of patient information that enables them to make informed clinical decisions. This is said to help save time and reduces cost, by eliminating the repeating of unnecessary tests and reducing errors resulting in improved patient care and safety.
Concerto Portal will be used in Northern Ireland to deliver benefits to clinical practice, including improved availability of information at the point of care and consequentially a reduction in unnecessary diagnostic testing.
Information will be aggregated in real time from more than ten systems, including Patient Administration Systems, laboratory, radiology, A&E, GP and the health and care index.
Information typically held on a patient record includes referrals, details of hospital and clinic visits, laboratory results, radiology reports, allergies, prescribed drugs and social care information.
Use of the system and access to information within the patient’s record will be strictly controlled, audited and monitored closely.
Orion Health’s president for North America and EMEA, Paul Viskovich said, "Orion Health is delighted to be given the opportunity to implement the Concerto Portal in Northern Ireland. We have proven experience delivering easy-to-use healthcare solutions that improve patient care and clinical decision making and we are looking forward to bringing such improvements to Northern Ireland."
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