One of the biggest NHS occupational health (OH) services in the UK is saving time and improving healthcare for over 25,000 staff and students thanks to EMIS Web. The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is one of the first NHS OH departments in the UK to go entirely paperless with health care for its employees. Using EMIS’ transformational clinical system, the service is able to respond more quickly to health emergencies among staff and has significantly reduced admin time spent in preparing for OH clinics.
The SEQOHS-accredited department is one of the biggest in England, responsible for the occupational health of staff and students across several sites including two major hospitals - Leeds General Infirmary and St James's University Hospital. Before introducing EMIS Web, the department was swamped in paperwork.
Andrea Hildred, business manager for the Occupational Health Service, explained: "We have a multidisciplinary team of consultants, specialist nurse practitioners and advisors, psychiatrists, a psychologist and dedicated administration professionals. An individual member of staff may have interactions with any number of these team members from multiple sites. A paper-based records system was a massive headache as each interaction had to be recorded separately, collated and added to the employee's OH file.
"We desperately wanted a system that would enable authorised team members to access and update an employee's OH file safely, securely and in real-time - EMIS Web was the solution."
"For example, in infection prevention and control, we may have a situation where 50 employees need to be followed up. In these scenarios we need to code, track and monitor employees and update OH records according to developments. With EMIS Web the process is quicker, safer and more accurate than paper records because the templates drive consistency and information gathered is in real-time.
"The system also enables us to react more efficiently in an emergency. For example, we support staff who are inadvertently exposed to blood. In these situations, enabling members across the team to view and update the affected individual’s file immediately is fantastic - the need for speed and accuracy is paramount."
She added: "Preparing clinics is one of our biggest tasks. Getting each attendee's file, ensuring clinicians have the right details and then updating individual employee OH files with notes and actions took a great deal of resource. With EMIS Web, time on this task is reduced because the data is there in a centralised hub - quickly accessible and updateable. The time saved by efficiencies like these mean the new system is effectively self-funding.
"Also, because the system is so adaptable, we've been able to really tailor it to our specific needs - creating bespoke templates and reports. This was a big plus for us."
It's not just the OH team that have been quick to see the benefits of the new system. "In some cases, it used to take several days to release reports for managers but now everything is done electronically on EMIS Web, the process is much quicker."
The OH team is now looking at linking EMIS Web to an on-line health screening programme for assessing the health of student doctors and nurses.
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- EMIS' Profile
About EMIS
EMIS is the UK leader in clinical IT systems for joined-up patient care. Its systems hold 39 million patient records and are used by over 5,000 healthcare organisations - from GP practices to community, child and mental health services. 52.4%* of GP practices in the UK use an EMIS system.
Founded by two forward-thinking GPs, the company's aim is to protect and improve the health of the nation through innovative information technology supporting patients and all those involved in their care.
The company's flagship EMIS Web system enables secure shared access to a patient's whole-life electronic health record. It is the most widely-used GP clinical system in the UK. EMIS owns and operates the leading health information website www.patient.co.uk, which receives more than 6 million unique visitors each month. Alongside GP-authored information, the site also provides secure online patient services including: booking GP appointments; ordering repeat prescriptions; access to individual medical records.
EMIS is part of EMIS Group plc - the UK leader in connected healthcare software and services. Other companies in the Group include: Ascribe - a leading provider of software and IT services to secondary care; Rx Systems, whose software is used by 34.9% of community pharmacies in the UK; Digital Healthcare, a leading provider of diabetic retinopathy screening and other ophthalmology-related solutions; and Egton, who provide IT infrastructure, engineering and support.