Salford Royal deploys paperless anaesthetic records

A new digital system that replaces paper anaesthetic records at Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust has gone live.

Using the GE Healthcare Centricity High Acuity Anaesthesia (CHA-A) Information Management Solution the trust is now able to collect data from each stage of care.

Machines used in preoperative assessment, during surgery and through to the post-anaesthesia recovery unit will send information to the system, enabling clinicians to make decisions in real-time.

It’s hoped the system will improve patient safety and clinical outcomes at the trust – which is one of NHS England’s Global Digital Exemplar (GDE) sites.

Dr John Large, consultant anaesthetist at the trust, said: “Full digitisation of the patient journey in perioperative care will ensure that everything is recorded correctly, in order to fully support clinical decision making.

“We have over 26,000 operations per year in our 22 theatres – some for more than 12 hours, high risk surgery and others which are 20 minute routine procedures.

“By having a system that records all information in real time means that the focus of an anaesthetist is firmly on the patient, not on recording detailed data. This delivers great efficiencies and is also better for the patient.”

The new system aims to improve patient safety and help the department be more efficient by reducing the number of paper documents that need to be scanned by the Trust’s bureau on a daily basis.

Raw data collected by the system, rather than image scans of paper documents, will enable data interrogation and searches for a richer depth of physiological and surgical information for patient care planning and research purposes.

Chris Russell, product segment leader of high acuity care at GE Healthcare, added: “It [the system] will benefit not only the patients, but also the individuals and clinical teams that make up our National Health Service; enhancing even further the excellent care that the teams already provide on a daily basis.”

Other digital projects Salford Royal has undertaken include a smartphone urine test for kidney patients and a digital monitoring system that combines a patient’s vitals.