New records standards body launched

A major new Professional Records Standards Body has been launched to promote the development of health and care records based on common record keeping standards.

The PRSB, which is intended to become the primary source of knowledge and expertise on health and social care record keeping standards, is backed by nearly all the royal medical colleges.

The new body will be officially launched at a joint Royal College of Physicians / CCIO Leaders Network session at HC2013 in Birmingham on Wednesday.

A central aim of the PRSB will be to make sure that the requirements of those who provide and receive care can be fully expressed in health and social care records.

It will also provide guidance for those working on technical implementation of the standards, and on their maintenance.

Professor Iain Carpenter, the chair of the new body, said: “The creation of PRSB will help organise the structure and content of health and social care records around the needs of patients and the health and social care sectors.”

He added: “Acting as a partnership, it will have direct links to the NHS in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, thus ensuring a joined-up approach to records keeping standards.”

The body will aim to ensure that records reflect the way health and social care professionals work together to deliver care; reflect best practice; and enable good outcomes for patients and service users.

It will also work to make sure that records standards generate aggregate data that are valid and comparable.

The new body was first proposed by a joint working group convened by the Department of Health in 2012.

Founding members of the PRSB include: the Royal College of Physicians, National Voices, the Allied Health Professions Federation, Royal College of Nursing, Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, Royal College of General Practitioners, The BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges, the Royal College of Pathologists, the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Royal College of Surgeons of England, and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health.