A group of top Dutch health professionals came to look at a Merseyside hospital's innovative IT solutions this week as part of an annual initiative to visit areas of health care excellence in Europe.
The group of 23 experts, drawn from hospitals across the Netherlands, visited Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust to look at its new electronic patient records system in action at the University Hospital site. The EPR system is based on System C's Medway software.
The visitors, all members of the Dutch Association for Medical Records Administration (NVMA), also found out about how the Trust is using Medway's latest Microsoft-based technology, including touch screens and whiteboards, patient kiosks, automated SMS texting, clinical dashboards and advanced clinical systems.
"This was an enjoyable visit to an impressive hospital," said Wybe Dekker, a leading health information manager from NVMA. "The IT systems are clearly welded into the delivery of patient care at every level."
Bob Smith, a medical manager from NVMA, added: "We were told about how staff were using technology to help patients; by reducing the amount of time patients had to spend in hospital and helping to improve the quality of the service they received. Our visit today has definitely given us plenty of useful ideas to take back to Holland and use in our own medical practices."
System C and Aintree earlier this year celebrated their 17th year of partnership. The partnership has delivered many millions of pounds of benefits to Aintree, and the Trust is currently looking to realise a further £5m over the lifetime of the latest upgrade programme.
Dr John Hollingsworth from the Emergency Department at Aintree said: "We always aim to provide the best care we can at Aintree, which includes using the best technology and the most advanced systems to help us deliver quality care. To be recognised in another country for this, and to host a visit of Dutch health care professionals, speaks volumes about the high level of service we are delivering at Aintree."
Mr Priestman, Aintree's director of informatics, added: "We have always been proud of the innovative culture here at Aintree. We are now seeing levels of Information Technology excellence that is world class, and enabling us to treat our patients in a safer and more timely manner."
Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust runs University Hospital Aintree and the Walton Hospital, serving a population of around 330,000 residents in the North Liverpool, South Sefton and Kirkby areas. University Hospital Aintree is a large teaching hospital providing a wide range of acute and non-acute specialties. Walton Hospital provides outpatient and day surgery services.
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About System C Healthcare
System C Healthcare plc (www.systemc.com), specialises in the design and development of clinical patient management and business intelligence software, and provides systems implementation and consulting services to the health and social care sectors.
System C Healthcare is quoted on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market.