The clinical health psychology team at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust (LHCH) has extended, digitised and integrated its service into its established trust-wide electronic patient records (EPR).
This has enabled a patient’s psychological care to be documented alongside medical care for a fuller record.
Psychology wanted one digital system which could manage a unified patient record. It needed software that was capable of making notes available or confidential to other members of the team.
“With our patient’s psychological notes now managed on the EPR and integrated with the patient’s full medical record, we can set up a team of specific users that have access to view the psychological notes,” said Alexandra Boughey, principal clinical psychologist – cystic fibrosis service and operational lead.
A fuller picture
The Trust decided to use its existing EPR system provided by Altera Digital Health. The service now manages patient questionnaires, appointments, referrals, and discharges and communicates with the team.
With all patient data together in one place, in real time, it provides staff with a fuller picture of a patient.
“Since being able to have Psychology on our EPR system it has helped us improve patient care and communication across professionals. It has streamlined the link between physical health and mental health appointments,” said advanced nurse practitioner Paula Dyce.
Before the psychology digitisation, the EPR was already enabling the trust to be 99.9% paperless and complete all clinical documentation, order communications and prescribing. The Trust has received an “Outstanding” Care Quality Commission rating twice and achieved HIMSS EMRAM Stage 7 in its latest digital maturity assessment.
