Kent Community Health NHS Trust (KCHT), one of the largest community service providers in the UK employing in the region of 5,400 staff, has selected Advanced Community, a sophisticated community healthcare system from Advanced Health & Care (Advanced). The contract will run for a minimum of three years.
With mobile working at its core, Advanced Community is the first patient management system designed specifically to enable the mobilisation of NHS work forces. The Advanced Community patient management system is set to transform patient care across the UK.
KCHT will be using the system to deliver integrated care in the community, helping to improve patient services and deliver efficiencies. Users will have access to Advanced Community, which will be rolled out in a phased approach across all multidisciplinary services across multiple sites over the next two years.
Advanced Community was one of four systems to be shortlisted by the Trust, and was selected following OJEU procurement. Advanced Community will replace multiple paper and electronic based systems and will be used to deliver a broad range of functionality to deliver integrated care in the community, including referral management, care planning, assessments, patient records, bed management appointment booking and more.
Eldon Macarthur, Head of ICT Operations and Telecommunications from Kent NHS Health Trust says, "Our clinicians are excited about Advanced Community because it will provide a joined-up approach to care. It will also free-up administration time and cut duplication of effort, allowing clinicians to see more patients and spend longer with patients during visits. Quality of care will be improved and we look forward to increasing efficiencies while saving costs."
Advanced Community includes purpose built mobile applications and mobile workforce management solutions, enabling the secure retrieval, recording and reporting of patient information from anywhere and at anytime, even when a mobile signal is unavailable. Clinicians will be able to deliver care assessments and care plans, effectively manage treatment and book in and out of appointments - all via Advanced's iNurse mobile application.
Eldon goes on to say, "Advanced Community is the perfect fit for our needs as it is robust and can enable integrated care in the community. Having seen the system in action at another Trust it was very impressive - slick, fast, intuitive, and most importantly, it links with other systems. Quite simply, it will transform the way we work."
Eldon continues, "We were also impressed with Advanced Health & Care's consultative approach. The company is providing a partnership rather than a supplier approach. This is key as we are embarking upon such a significant change programme."
The mobile functionality from iNurse will minimise clinical risk because staff across different areas will be able to share records across multiple disciplines, giving a holistic view of patients. iNurse will also provide a reduction in return visits to base, allowing for more time to be spent visiting patients, in many cases this will be up to one hour per day, per community clinician.
Jim Chase, Managing Director of Advanced Health & Care says, "Advanced Community is the only system designed specifically for the community healthcare market that has been built around mobile working. We are looking forward to supporting Kent Community NHS Trust every step of the way and I have no doubt that Advanced Community will deliver considerable cost and efficiency benefits for the Trust."
Advanced Community works alongside Advanced's Adastra 111, minor injuries, Single Point of Access, GP out-of-hours and other unscheduled care services. It also enables access to the Advanced End-of-Life Care Register and the Summary Care Record (including mobile access) whilst supporting a wide range of integrations and messaging to primary and secondary healthcare IT systems.
About Kent Community Health NHS Trust
Kent Community Health NHS Trust provides wide-ranging NHS care for people, in their community, in a range of settings including peoples' own homes, nursing homes, health clinics, community hospitals, minor injury units, a walk-in centre, and in mobile units.
We are one of the largest NHS Community Health providers in England, serving a population of about 1.4 million. We employ around 5,400 staff including community nurses, physiotherapists, dietitians and many other healthcare professionals.
We were formed on 1 April 2011 from the merger of Eastern and Coastal Kent Community Services NHS Trust and West Kent Community Health.
Our vision is 'to be the provider of choice by delivering excellent care and improving the health of our communities.'
Our values demonstrate that the Trust acts with integrity and professionalism by:
- Caring with compassion
- Listening, responding and empowering
- Leading through partnerships
- Learning, sharing and innovating
- Striving for excellence.
About Advanced Health & Care
Advanced Health & Care is a leading supplier of IT management systems for urgent & unplanned care, homecare, residential care, hospices, mobile information for community carers and back-office management systems for NHS trusts, local authorities and care providers.
Working with partners in the NHS, local government and the private sector, Advanced Health & Care is delivering IT solutions in support of safe, efficient care delivery with integrated management information. Advanced's unique proposition is its range of integrated care solutions offering visibility of information for both the commissioner and care provider.
The Advanced Health & Care suite of products includes: Adastra, Adastra 111, Advanced Community, Advanced Mobile Communications, CareNotes, Caresys, Crosscare, eFinancials Smart Business Suite, iConnect, iNurse, & StaffPlan.