Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust has taken a significant step towards a more digital future by rolling out electronic test ordering using Clinisys ICE.
The trust deployed the order communications system to around 2,000 clinical users across all of its wards, the maternity and paediatrics units, the emergency and same day emergency care departments, and outpatients in June.
Previously, clinicians placed orders for imaging and pathology investigations on the trust’s 25-year-old patient administration system or on paper. The move to ICE means they can use a modern, intuitive system designed to make the process faster and safer.
The implementation also paves the foundations for further IT developments. The trust is looking to procure a new electronic patient record, while its laboratories will deploy the Clinisys WinPath laboratory information management system next year.
Once the new LIMS is in place, clinicians will also be able to receive test results electronically through ICE, improving turnaround times and making more information available to clinicians for diagnosis and treatment.
Guy Sisson, a Consultant Gastroenterologist and the Trust’s Chief Clinical Information Officer, and the Senior Responsible Officer for the project said: "This has been a long-running project that has really picked up speed over the past year.
"Once we decided on a big-bang go-live, our project team, our IT team, Clinisys, and our PAS supplier all worked together to make it work. It was almost like a hackathon, with everybody in a room making it happen.
"Since then, the feedback has been how intuitive the system is. It has been received very, very well. And it supports the next steps on our digital journey: turning off paper, implementing a new LIMS, introducing digital results reporting and, eventually, deploying a new EPR."
The implementation of Clinisys ICE at Dartford and Gravesham is also part of a wider series of pathology IT developments in the Kent and Medway Pathology Network.
This is a partnership of seven laboratories across three pathology services at four NHS trusts: Dartford and Gravesham, Medway, Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells, and East Kent Hospitals University.
The network wants to create a single pathology platform, by implementing Clinisys WinPath at all seven laboratories, and making ICE available to all the hospital clinicians and GP surgeries that order tests from them.
The extension of ICE to GPs is already well underway. In a separate project, GPs moved from paper to digital ordering for radiology tests conducted at Dartford and Gravesham in February.
A second tranche of practices started using ICE to order radiology tests from East Kent Hospitals University in June. The next step will be for these practices to start using ICE for pathology testing.
GPs across the rest of the network will move to ICE as their local laboratories go-live with their new LIMS. Mo Khan, Programme Director-Digital, at Dartford and Gravesham, said that having GPs, hospital clinicians, and laboratories on the same IT platform will deliver significant benefits.
"We will have access to the results of tests ordered by GPs, and they will have access to the results of tests ordered in hospital," he said. "That should mean fewer repeat tests will be needed, and clinicians will have more information on which to make decisions about their patients."
He added: "It has taken time to get to this point, and the project has experienced a lot of challenges. But everybody involved, including the suppliers, have worked together really well, and delivered the project to a high standard, as expected by our staff, with minimal post-implementation issues."
Clinisys has put substantial resources into developing ICE in recent years. The system has a new user interface, which Dartford and Gravesham is using, and has been built out to support information sharing across sites, networks and regions.
Louise Dewing, Programme Manager at Clinisys said: "The roll-out of Clinisys ICE at Dartford and Gravesham shows just how important pathology is to modern healthcare and how modern pathology systems can act as the foundation for further digital developments.
"This implementation took place in a complex environment, but we were delighted to see it through to a successful go-live, and even more delighted to see how it has been received. We now look forward to supporting the roll-out of Clinisys WinPath and further ICE projects across the network."
About Clinisys
Clinisys is a global provider of intelligent diagnostic informatics solutions and expertise designed to redefine the modern laboratory, across healthcare, life sciences, and public health. Millions of diagnostic results and data insights are generated every day using Clinisys’ platform and cloud-based solutions in over 4,000 laboratories across 39 countries. Headquartered in Woking, England and Tucson, Arizona, Clinisys’ mission is to enhance the effectiveness of diagnostic workflows in any laboratory or testing environment and keep citizens and communities healthier and safer.