Thousands of women across Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly are benefiting from a safer and improved maternity service following the introduction of new software.
Almost 600 staff at Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust’s hospitals and community maternity services are using the E3 maternity information system from Wellbeing Software.
The implementation is supporting the trust’s aim to be paperless by 2020.
Each year, the trust cares for over 4,000 women and their babies.
And, before E3 was introduced, clinical teams relied on paper records, which women had to bring to each appointment.
If part of the record was forgotten or lost, midwives and doctors had limited clinical information.
Now, the full record, including scan reports, is available in real time, in one place and, most importantly, is up to date and accurate.
We’ve worked closely with the trust to support the implementation of this digital initiative and make E3 really work for their service. I’m delighted that the benefits of our software are already being realised
Angela Whittaker, matron for acute maternity services and project lead, said: “E3 has enabled us to really enhance safety across our services. It has also reduced our reliance on paper documentation.
“The software has helped us to remove at least 20 paper-based forms from our process, replacing them with functions on E3 and we are now able to generate and send referral letters electronically.
“It is saving time and money and it means the referral goes directly to the right clinician, helping us to maintain high levels of patient confidentiality.
“Women now have one record that can be accessed wherever they’re receiving care; whether that’s in our antenatal clinic, maternity day unit, or a service out in the community.”
Trudie Roberts, matron for community maternity services, added: “Community midwives are able to access and update patient records while visiting women in local clinics and in their homes.
“We are looking forward to the Community Offline tool – which will enable access to the patient record when there is no internet connection – as is expected to go live later this year.”
As well as improving care, the system is also helping to improve the quality of data and enable better auditing of the service.
It is saving time and money and it means the referral goes directly to the right clinician, helping us to maintain high levels of patient confidentiality
Future developments will include the ability for women to see and input into their own record, as well as introducing a document management system and integrating E3 with other software systems in the trust.
Wellbeing Software’s account director, Ross Wade, said: “Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust is passionate about improving the maternity care it offers across the region.
“We’ve worked closely with the trust to support the implementation of this digital initiative and make E3 really work for their service. I’m delighted that the benefits of our software are already being realised.”
