Customer stories
Enabling seamless working across Staffordshire GP Federation with EMIS Web
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For the last three years, NHS Cannock Chase CCG have been using EMIS Web® to support primary care working across their federation of 26 GP practices. We spoke with Operations Manager, Jo Williams about how we've helped them to transform their service delivery, and why she wouldn’t hesitate to recommend EMIS Web for PCN working.
Extended Primary Care Services from NHS Cannock Chase CCG were established in 2014 with funding from the Prime Minister’s Challenge Fund. In 2018, the CCG chose EMIS Web to support federated working across their local area, where extended access clinics support continued care for their population of over 140,000 patients.
“When I joined, it was working but wasn’t quite where we wanted it to be – so it was about joining all the pieces up and making it work for us" said Jo.
Reaping the benefits of a new clinical system
By implementing EMIS Web across their estate, the federation were quick to see the improvements to their service. Revisiting shared care agreements and ensuring everything was set up correctly, the clinical teams were soon working collaboratively to serve their patient population, with the ability to access patient records for those presenting at their non-registered practice.
EMIS Web is a brilliant vehicle for sharing information about patients."
Using EMIS Web Remote Consultations has enabled the relevant clinicians within the federation to access patient records to deliver accurate and personalised care – whether the patient is registered to that specific practice or not – and the ability to write back into the patient record.
One of the massive benefits for us is that we’re writing consultations straight into the actual patient record. Then they can do everything else - they can look at all the patient history – so when they’re doing the consultation, they have everything to hand to do it in real-time with that patient."
Enabling EPS
One of the most pressing requests from the clinical team was the ability to use the Electronic Prescription Service (EPS) across their locality. With support from Transformation Specialist, Michael Kidd, from our Group Training team, EPS was quickly enabled and the team were up and running. When the pandemic hit healthcare teams across the UK, this functionality helped make it easier for the practices to maintain social distancing and keep people safe.
“Using EPS was great through COVID, because patients could use their nominated choice and we didn’t have to bring them in to the surgery – it was just fantastic" commented Jo.
Supporting best practice
Jo and the team have had such success with their set up, that she’s had other practices reaching out to share best practice. Working with a practice in Hemel Hempstead , Jo was able to share her Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that she’d created for her clinicians, and they took this and easily trained their own teams in the same way. “They’re flying with it now”, Jo commented.
Last thoughts
Would I recommend EMIS [now Optum] to a PCN – yes absolutely! It works really well for us and clinically supports continued patient care for things like extended access and hot clinics. Most importantly, it gives a seamless approach for our patients, so we can provide a high standard of care for our community."