NHS Western Isles uses Cambric’s Morse EPR app for joined-up care

The NHS Western Isles Health Board (NHS Western Isles) continues to expand its use of Cambric Systems’ Morse Electronic Patient Records (EPR) app, which is helping the Board lead the way in joined up patient care in Scotland.

When the Board’s dietetics team deployed Cambric’s Morse EPR in 2016, NHS Western Isles became the first Scottish Health Board to select the automated solution and the first to influence how it has grown and evolved over the years.

NHS Western Isles is responsible for providing healthcare to a population of approximately 26,720, spread over 280 towns and villages.

The Health Board employs over 1,000 staff, has three main hospitals and works in conjunction with mainland Health Boards and other organisations, including local authority and voluntary organisations, to provide a wide range of healthcare services in the region.

However, in a complex environment – comprising multiple service providers and diverse clinical specialties across a wide geographic area – delivering sustainable and safe healthcare can be highly challenging.

These challenges include finding a more efficient and consistent way to access, update and communicate patient records; supplementing existing patient record systems with a digital solution for community and allied health professional (AHP) use; supporting the board’s e-Health Programme; and delivering better patient care through time savings.

A variety of multi-disciplinary teams and AHPs are now using the Morse app to gain easy, instant access to patient information at any time and from anywhere, using their mobile devices. Meanwhile, clinicians can view their own caseloads as well as their colleagues’ to better plan their day or week.

The evolving implementation of the Morse EPR app, which was also deployed by NHS Forth Valley last year, has tangibly supported NHS Western Isles’ e-Health Programme by saving time, making caseload management more efficient and improving patient safety and care quality.

The app has also been particularly beneficial as a remote working tool, giving health providers better access to data, and providing protection to lone workers.

Karen France Macleod, NHS Western Isles nutrition, dietetic and catering services manager, said: “From day one, we have benefitted from the Morse app but particularly during Covid when people were working from home.

“It’s brilliant, it really is mobile and it’s totally changed the way we work – in a positive way.”