A two-month pilot project started this month on two wards at the Staffordshire General Hospital. Roll-out of i.CM to around 60 areas including wards, outpatient departments and clinics at the Staffordshire General and Cannock Chase Hospitals is scheduled to begin in September. i.CM allows doctors, nurses and other clinical staff to order pathology tests and radiology examinations online and get the results quickly.
Once this phase is completed, the trust and iSOFT will begin implementing other i.CM modules for care pathways and multi-disciplinary records.
David Haycox, the trust's head of Information Management and Technology, said: "The improved efficiency in ordering and receiving results electronically will help to improve the care to patients by speeding up the process for diagnosis and treatment.
As nursing and medical staff become familiar with the technology, it will ultimately mean patients benefiting from shorter stays in hospital."
He says that staff are finding the system is easy to use and report that the process of requesting tests and x-rays and receiving the results is much faster and efficient.
Mid Staffordshire is a long-standing iSOFT customer and uses a number of its applications including i.Patient Manager for patient administration and its Ormis theatres management system.
The contract with iSOFT pre-dates the National Programme for IT, so Mid Staffordshire remains outside the programme.
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