First NHS North Yorkshire and York GP Practice Pilots SystmOne Electronic Discharge Summaries

East Parade Surgery in Harrogate is the first SystmOne practice in NHS North Yorkshire and York to link with an acute trust to receive electronic discharge summaries directly into their clinical system.

The practice, which only made the switch to SystmOne in August this year, has been working closely with Harrogate NHS Foundation Trust to establish the interoperability required for discharge summaries to flow electronically from trust to practice. 

Elaine Turner, Practice Manager at East Parade Surgery said: “Whilst it’s early days in the pilot, the benefits from being able to receive discharge summaries and correspondence from hospital consultants directly into our system are already apparent. As any practice will tell you, managing paper discharge summaries and hospital letters is a particularly time consuming process. Receiving them electronically means our reception staff no longer need to scan them and they are automatically linked to the patient’s electronic record.
 
“We’ve tried a number of different options in the past but none have shown the potential that SystmOne has. Our GPs are now receiving discharge summaries and letters from some consultants electronically and the hospital is encouraging all its consultants and medical secretaries to use the new system. I’m confident that once this happens, the amount of paperwork we have to deal with will reduce significantly.”

Reception Manager, Gail McLellan, demonstrates how discharge summaries were scanned into the clinical system prior to the pilot

The benefits of electronic discharge summaries not only include saving time and reducing administrative burden, but also reduce the chances of information being misplaced.

Practices have had similar systems in place for many years for Pathology results, with data being sent overnight into all clinical systems. Receiving hospital correspondence directly enables GPs to consult confidently in the knowledge that they are making decisions on the widest clinical data available.

Ms Turner continues: “It’s far easier and quicker for GPs to access information when they need it. Information governance is also a key aspect as a complete audit trail is available for each discharge summary.”

NHS North Yorkshire and York is now preparing to integrate community and children’s services with SystmOne which will bring even more benefits to the practice and, in the longer term, patients themselves.

Ms Turner said: “When health visitors and district nurses start using SystmOne fully it will massively improve communication - bringing significant benefits for patients. All the health workers involved in a patients care will be using and updating the same patient information. As different clinical teams are based at different sites, access to the most up to date information is important, especially as we are caring for increasingly more complex patients in the community.”

Angela Wood, Assistant Director of Information Management & Technology at NHS North Yorkshire and York, added: “This is a significant development which will enhance the use of SystmOne across primary care settings and facilitate effective information sharing where appropriate.  A rollout of SystmOne to community services is currently in the planning stage, but as those services start to use SystmOne the benefits of being able to view electronic discharge summaries within the patient’s record will not only improve communication but will also support the delivery of quality care.

“I would like to thank Elaine Turner and the staff at East Parade Surgery and Harrogate NHS Foundation Trust for the effort and commitment they have shown during this pilot phase. I’m sure it will pay dividends for both patient care and clinical workflow once wider rollout commences. ”