THE CHALLENGE
University College London Hospital (UCLH), while implementing an electronic patient record (EPR) system, realized the need to integrate an imaging content management platform with the EPR. UCLH identified three broad categories of information not readily managed by the EPR: Legacy unstructured data, pre-hospital information (such as referral letters and notes from other providers collated before the patient’s admission to UCLH) and various document types and images generated in the hospital (such as 12-lead ECGs, consent forms, property forms, drawings and photographs — both professional medical photography and photos taken by the patient).
THE SOLUTION
UCLH decided to bring together the electronic data management system (EDMS) that was already in use by various departments and the PACS system to create an enterprise-wide solution and a complete source of patient information within the EPR. They found that OnBase provided the necessary functionality along with proven integration with Epic EPR that was necessary for the project to succeed.
The joint implementation of the EDMS and EPR provided the perfect opportunity to change and optimize workflows based on the origin of the data
“However, no matter how hard you try, you will never think of everything before go-live," said Dr. Stephen Cone, chief clinical information officer and consultant anaesthetist at UCLH. “In addition to the other benefits that OnBase brings, it also allows us to quickly add document-based workflows to the system as they arise.”
THE DIFFERENCE
- Improves data management: Documents managed within OnBase can be accessed and viewed, in the context of the patient record, from within this core clinical system.
- Seamless and simple user experience:The vast majority of the staff did not realize they were using OnBase and believed that scanned images of documents were part of the EPR.
- Enhances patient care: The system ensures that doctors have all important patient information at the ready, including clinic letters and medical images, so they can make critical patient decisions.
- Proven back-up systems: OnBase’s role in business continuity planning ensures backup paper-based systems are in place in the event of an EPR system failure making recovery from such events faster.
Customer info
CUSTOMER
University College London Hospital
INDUSTRY
Healthcare
SIZE
13 hospitals
LOCATION
University College Hospital, University College Hospital at Westmoreland Street, the UCH Macmillan Cancer Centre, the Royal National ENT and Eastman Dental Hospitals, the Hospital for Tropical Diseases, the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, the Royal London Hospital for Integrated Medicine and the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital, London UK
ONBASE INTEGRATIONS
Epic
Quotes
“We have always relied on good clinic letters in outpatient departments to communicate back to the primary care doctors and to facilitate communication among doctors in the clinic.” said Dr. Cone. “We brought most of the letters over into the new system, so we did not need to back-scan paper records. The clinic letters contain what we need, and we have now ceased to pull paper records for clinics. As a result, we clinicians no longer have to wait for information, or to make decisions without the benefit of the full clinical history.”
“Gastroenterology loves the integrated EPR. So does dermatology,” said Dr. Cone. “We use images as a key part of our wound management service, and OnBase allows us to quickly capture these images and make them accessible to clinicians via the EPR. Patients are also able to submit, using their phone camera at home, images of the state of a wound so we can monitor progress and healing without the patient needing to travel to the hospital.”
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