A new project is underway at Leopardstown Hospital which will help nurses and therapists to keep older people independent for longer. The MAXIMS clinical PAS has already proved a major success among nurses looking after the south Dublin hospital's 170 plus residents - mostly people over 60 with a range of physical and mental health needs and requiring long-term care.
IMS MAXIMS is now working with staff to extend the system (by introducing the MAXIMS Scheduler alongside the existing MAXIMS Nursing module) so it can be used for the real-time monitoring and administration of the 275 patients a week who attend day hospitals. The in-patient solution will also be expanded so it can be used by allied health professionals (AHPs) and social care staff.
Gerard McEntee, Assistant Director of Nursing, said: "MAXIMS has been very popular with our nurses who care for older persons because it's so easy to work with. When I demonstrated the system to allied health professionals they immediately asked to use it. At this point they were all given 'read only' access and very soon after they requested to have MAXIMS as their tool for clinical records.
"A central part of the project will be to introduce MAXIMS for our day hospitals where we provide a range of services, such as occupational and speech therapy and dietetics, for older persons. It will really support our staff in their work to keep people independent for longer, and living in their own homes which is where they want to be."
At present much of the record-keeping completed by AHPs is paper-based, which may cause problems where handwriting is difficult to read. MAXIMS ensures that all relevant information is typed into each person's record and will be easy for colleagues to read and understand.
The system, which is highly secure, will be accessible from any computer terminal in the hospital and will allow the same record to be accessed and updated by several authorised users at the same time. As MAXIMS is real-time, staff can be sure that they are working from up-to-date information. Broadening the range of staff with access to MAXIMS promotes better team working and more holistic care.
One of the benefits for the hospital is that MAXIMS is easy to roll out, and users require little training as it is highly intuitive. This makes it ideal for Leopardstown where two members of staff will manage and implement the project. It is hoped that the expanded system will be up and running by June 2012.
Shane Tickell, IMS MAXIMS CEO, said: "We have been working closely with Leopardstown Hospital for some time now and have been really impressed by its determination to provide the best possible care for older and sometimes very vulnerable people. Our objective is to support the work of its nurses and AHPs to enable older people to lead full and independent lives for as long as possible.
"By extending MAXIMS to the day hospitals, and giving wider staff access to the in-patient system, the hospital is able to provide more integrated services without the time delays and potential errors that come with paper-based systems. What's especially rewarding about this new project is that we will be providing care staff with a solution they have seen, used, liked and asked for."
About IMS MAXIMS
IMS MAXIMS is the company behind the widely-used MAXIMS clinical PAS. It is a specialist in developing clinical and administrative software solutions and currently supports more than 150 organisations, 1.9 million patient records in Ireland and 8 million patient records in the UK, as well as 10,000 users of IMS MAXIMS products.
To find out more about IMS MAXIMS and its products visit www.imsmaxims.com.