Kingston NHS Moves Towards Integrated EPR

Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust recently selected a new image management solution partner for better sharing of patient information and radiology images.

The organisation is using content management provider SynApps Solutions’ Vendor Neutral Archive (VNA) for easier and more efficient sharing both within the Trust and with other London Hospitals.

Kingston hopes that adopting this solution will secure transparent and safe access to images and patient information throughout a patient care pathway.

In the ten-year contract, SynApps is delivering a VNA Clinical Content Store and Enterprise Content Management (ECM) platform to the Trust.

The VNA is an emerging standards-based way of extending Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) services to make sharing medical data including patient records available across various service providers, from the NHS to beyond.

It incorporates cross-document sharing capability, allowing the Trust to create electronic patient records (EPRs) hat can be readily accessed by doctors.

A driving factor behind the PACS system is the fact that most patients undergo radiology examinations as part of routine diagnosis and treatment processes for their illness or injury.

For this reason, it is essential that management and communication of the resulting images is fast and efficient.

“We feel we are making real a long-term vision of VNA and electronic data and content management all living in one unified repository with the SynApps solution,” claimed Kingston’s deputy director of information management and technology Norman Harling.

Healthcare In The Digital Age

24N decided to catch up Harling to learn more about the Kingston Trust’s works with SynApps Solutions and how it is helping the Trust move into a digital, paperless era.

Harling explained to us that although the Trust had been running an EPR project for some time, the associated contracts were coming to an end and it was time to investigate the possibility of a more powerful solution.

The vision is a “master patient record” which will allow clinicians to access all patient data from digital imaging and communications from various departments to general medical information.

Harling estimates that around 70 to 80% of the Trust’s communications with GPs are already electronic and wants to the majority of documents electronically in future.

Kingston NHS Trust supports around 350,000 people. The hospital has around 520 beds and directly employs around 2750 staff with a further 300 employed by contractors.

As well as Kingston Hospital, the organisation is responsible for a number of outpatient clinics in the community.

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