News | New Covid-19 template

Working in collaboration with PRIMIS, we’ve developed a COVID-19 template with supporting protocols to help clinicians to gather rich patient data during consultations with suspected or confirmed coronavirus patients, supporting informed decision-making and delivery of quality care.

With information and guidance changing rapidly in the current pandemic, we’re committed to helping healthcare teams to stay up to date and deliver the best possible outcomes during this crisis. That’s why we’ve created a new suite of templates within EMIS Web to support primary care clinicians to care for patients at this time.

Built onto the FLU-CAT pandemic early response template, we’ve made significant enhancements to ensure our new templates support the speed, ease and quality of consultations. With a choice of consultation type (video, phone or face-to-face), GPs are taken to a tailored template which allows them to gather detailed patient information in line with the latest COVID-19 symptom data. With added functionality, clinicians can access clinical calculators and online guidance to inform their decisions in how best to care for the patient. The templates also support clinicians conducting important conversations around end of life care. This data is then coded and recorded into the patient record within EMIS Web.

Talking about the collaboration Dr Dai Evans, lead clinical advisor at PRIMIS said “The FLU-CAT project has been in place for some years as part of an NIHR funded pandemic preparedness project. It was designed to act as a triage tool for patients in the surge phase of a pandemic where Primary Care is having to take decisions on who can be safely kept at home and who may be at risk of a poorer outcome. It has been activated for the COVID-19 pandemic and the PRIMIS team at the University of Nottingham have been working collaboratively with EMIS Heath to fine tune the template to support health professionals on the front line during this unprecedented event.”

Ian Bailey, senior clinical director at EMIS Heath said, “By collaborating with PRIMIS and building upon the FLU-CAT project, we have been able to provide templates that will support health professionals to provide safe, effective, evidence-based care to patients with, or suspected of having, coronavirus at any point throughout their care pathway. As we learn more about the virus and the advice changes accordingly, the templates will be revised to ensure clinicians can rely upon the support they provide during such challenging times.”

In the face of this relatively new virus, we’ll be regularly reviewing and improving our templates in line with the latest findings and guidance. With a weekly review cycle on care pathways and terminology, we’re equipping clinicians with reliable, up-to-date templates that ensure they can focus on delivering exceptional care.