The system has been designed as a secure clinical information system to support all aspects of patient administration and medical management and has allowed the clinic to move from paper-based towards paper-free electronic patient records.
Patients can book appointments either through a web-based portal, an automated telephone system or by attending the department on a walk-in basis. All patients are offered an appointment within 48 hours and can choose which clinic they attend, as they are operated at different sites.
On arrival, they self register at a kiosk and answer questions regarding their medical history. The answers are fed into the EPR and the system is able to triage individuals to the most appropriate point of care - either a 'quick test clinic', or to see a doctor.
Dr Kaveh Manavi, Consultant Physician HIV/GUM, Birmingham Whittall Street said: "This feature of the system has revolutionised the current concept of the medical reception. We can now offer a more flexible service and our receptionists can assist patients through their registration if required. Through the triage of patients we have become more efficient and can provide better care. Those presenting with symptoms are seen by a doctor, whilst those requiring a test can do so quickly and confidentially through our quick test clinic."
The Excelicare solution is now used by all members of the healthcare team including doctors, nurses, health advisors, clerical staff and biomedical scientists. Access is limited by staff responsibility to ensure patients' confidentiality. By managing all aspects of patient care, within the patient pathway, the EPR ensures that information is delivered to the right people at the right time at the right location. To date, the demographical and laboratory tests data on more than 170,000 previous patients have been added to the system.
Other features of the system include sophisticated clinical decision support system tools (CDSS), which ensure certain medical conditions are managed appropriately based on clinical protocols, and electronic prescribing to ensure complete accuracy in medicines prescribed by doctors. The benefits include greater standardisation of documentation of patients' information, better patient management, increased efficiency and improved levels of patient safety. Plus, as the system becomes completely paperless, this will enable the trust to make significant cost savings as well as improve its green credentials. By eliminating the need for file storage, precious clinic space will become available.
Another key feature of the system is its ability to generate mandatory activity reports for the Department of Health and local health authorities at a click of a button, making it easier to compile reports which previously could have taken days to produce.
The system improves patients' clinical experience and service accuracy at all levels; booking appointment, testing, diagnosis and treatment. For example, as the EPR automatically codes patients' diagnoses based on their history, physical examination and laboratory findings, the patient can be informed of their results immediately after authorisation of their laboratory results. Patients can choose the method by which they are notified of results in a secure manner including automated text messages or via letter. Previously, patients had to wait for about 14 days to receive their results - this has been reduced to less than a week.
Dr Manavi commented: "We are very enthusiastic about the Excelicare system because it has had a great impact on the way we run the GUM clinic. Future plans include the development of a family planning and Chlamydia screening modules to help us comply with the national strategy for sexual health services to offer integrated services to patients. These developments will improve productivity of the sexual health clinic even further.
"Working with AxSys has been a partnership approach. They have taken time to understand our requirements and specific processes to develop a solution to suit what we needed."
Dr Pradeep Ramayya, CEO, AxSys Technology, concluded: "Birmingham Whittall Street clinic has set the gold standard for GUM with their EPR system, facilitating seamless collaborative care between staff, clinics, specialities and services. This demonstrates that yet again another trust has adopted our Excelicare solution to help improve patient care and efficiency whilst making cost savings."
About AxSys Technology Limited
AxSys Technology Limited specialises in the development and implementation of clinical
solutions to improve the delivery of healthcare. All AxSys solutions are patient-centric and are designed with a clinical perspective to directly benefit patients and healthcare providers. AxSys was set up by experienced doctors who recognised the benefits of the Collaborative Care model in their own clinical practice and realised that a flexible communication oriented clinical information system would be a key element in its successful delivery. The company, registered in Scotland and based in Glasgow, started operations in January 2000.
AxSys' product Excelicare was conceived as a solution for Collaborative Care. It is a powerful toolset-based application that allows the creation of highly tailored clinical systems to reflect the complex working patterns of clinicians across the healthcare spectrum and has the ability to integrate effectively with existing healthcare IT systems. It incorporates advanced telecommunication, multi-media and decision support technologies within a clinician-friendly Electronic Patient Record (EPR) framework.