Customer stories
Minor injuries unit saw half of all patients within an hour
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Urgent care clinicians in South Gloucestershire saw half of all patients within one hour in January. It's all thanks to record sharing with local GPs using EMIS Web® and the Patient Tracking module.
Yate Minor Injuries Unit, run by not-for-profit social enterprise Sirona care & health, is saving hours of time after implementing record sharing via EMIS Web. The service is only the second service in the UK to use the Patient Tracking module. In January, 99% of people were seen and treated within four hours, exceeding the Government’s target of 95%. Half of all patients were seen within one hour. The system offers an at-a-glance update of how long people have been in the unit, making it easy to monitor waiting times.
Offering treatment for a wide range of minor injuries, the unit sees between 60 and 80 ‘walk-in’ patients every day. Before record sharing was introduced, staff would have to take each patient’s medical history. Now, the team has secure access to the GP record held by 28 local practices, meaning they can see recent episodes of care and their current medication.
Improving safeguarding
Record sharing via EMIS Web has also made a huge improvement to safeguarding procedures to protect vulnerable adults and children. Unit matron Jason Broadley explains: “A large part of what we do involves ensuring that we protect children and adults from emotional, physical and financial abuse. This system has streamlined the process as it ensures all the information about an individual is joined-up, they only need to tell their story once and we know the other professionals involved in their care quickly. In some cases, it has halved the time needed.”
In some cases, it has halved the time needed."
Introducing Patient Tracking
Since last year, the team has been using Patient Tracking, a triage module that offers a number of benefits including:
- A timeline providing a clear overview of an individual’s journey within the service
- Simple and consistent data entry for accurate records
- Record sharing to provide teams with a complete picture of care across providers
Jason explains: “The new module also brought together the different flow charts we need to follow for the various actions we may need to take which ensures an accurate process.”
The team has also developed triage templates, allowing them to discharge people where appropriate to do so. Notes can be easily added to the system, rather than handwritten.
Jason concludes: “The system has also standardised the paperwork which means we can treat people more quickly as the information is in front of us when we need it and it is up-to-date and accurate.
We are really pleased with EMIS Web and the Patient Tracking module."
