Leeds first to embed Criteria Led Discharge pathway into EPR

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has embedded the Criteria Led Discharge (CLD) pathway into its electronic health record system, PPM+.

CLD will have an important role to play in supporting patient flow and freeing up capacity with the aim of helping the trust to better manage operational pressures over the challenging winter period. The news also means that Leeds has become the first trust to embed the Criteria Led Discharge (CLD) pathway into its Electronic Health Record (EHR).

The pathway will give patients established criteria to meet before they can be discharged. This criteria is set by a senior medical decision maker and will be agreed in advance with the patient. Ahead of discharge, the multidisciplinary team at Leeds must verify that the criteria has been met satisfactorily. Once it has been confirmed, the patient can be discharged without the need for a final review by on-call medical teams.

The trust’s EHR, PPM+, has been in development since 2003 and is developed and managed in-house. As a result the development team were able to quickly and effectively embed the new pathway into it.

Paul Jones, chief digital information officer at the trust, said: “One of the many benefits of this approach is that our development team is integrated into the trust, working closely alongside our clinicians. This means we can prioritise our development activities around the needs of our clinical community, enabling us to respond quickly and deliver the functionality that matters the most.

“Embedding the CLD pathway functionality into PPM+ ensures all information can be easily and quickly accessed by clinical colleagues across the organisation, using a system they are already familiar with, so this really is a fantastic achievement.”

Native functionality in the PPM+ supports the CLD process, including a new dashboard with several widgets of useful information and a timeline view which gives users an audit trail. Additionally, an eWhiteboard column and tasks gives clinicians at Leeds Teaching Hospitals automatic reminders of what need to be actioned.

The embedding of CLD is part of a wider programme within the trust which was developed to optimise discharge processes. Recently the Leeds Children’s Hospital – part of the trust – introduced a new height and weight e-form for paediatric patients within PPM+, and also launched ePAWS, a system to monitor young patients and alert staff if they’re at risk of deterioration.