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Managing patients: Seeing all the data
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This article is part of a series written by Optum Clinical Director and Consultant Emergency Physician, Dr Haidar Samiei. Read the previous article in the series here.
Different departments work in different ways. The flow needs of a surgical assessment unit (SAU) are different to those of the emergency department (ED) or the frailty area. Symphony’s custom tracking grids reflect this with bespoke configuration. However, shared information between departments must flow freely, even if they are configured differently. Symphony’s clock changes, department transfer improvements, and data visualisation between departmental grids have been key to time saving, clinical workflow and safety.
There is still more we can do as system providers to increase visibility of all pertinent clinical information at the point of care. My vision is that coded data, passed from any system, could facilitate identification of patients potentially suitable for streaming to the right place first time at any point in their journey. For me, the goal is to move beyond using the structured data required for datasets like ECDS for after-the-fact reporting but to drive the effective use of same day emergency care resources in real-time.
One of the most powerful capabilities in Symphony is the ability to show the GP record to authorised users. This includes the latest encounter in full, which often includes the specific ask for many signposted attendances to the ED. I can’t overstate how life changing this is for us as clinicians, but also for patients who don’t have to give their history repeatedly. From a clinical safety perspective, seeing medications and allergies, or problem lists is amazing.
Where I found this helps in the most unexpected way, is as a tool for helping drive professional standards to stream patients to the specialty they should be under from the front desk. It’s invaluable.
GP data is just the start for us. Symphony also surfaces patients 111 referral triage information and will soon be able to consume ambulance handover sheets. We’ll be introducing the ability to transfer patients directly from ambulance service systems to the tracking grid complete with their latest observations and NEWS score, reducing manual workload. This will improve safety whilst saving nursing, receptionist and ambulance staff’s time.
Read the next article in the series where Haidar explores managing departments.