Neurological On-call Referral System wins award

Published: 16-Jun-2011


A system that has revolutionised the way neurosurgeons work has scooped a top award. The Neurological On-call Referral System (NORSe), along with the Pharmacy On-call System (POCS), which streamlines the work of pharmacists, was one of the finalists at the recent Wireless Achievement Awards for Innovation in the Public Sector. The solution was the brainchild of Jim Williams, application development manager at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, who attended the awards with Steve Chilton, the trust's director of IT. Produced in conjunction with Webalo, the system works on Blackberry smartphones and enables a more efficient way of liaising between medical teams and improving record quality. Graham Flint, lead consultant for neurosurgery at the trust, said: "The previous system relied on landline phones, which is inefficient. NORSe has greatly accelerated the speed of diagnosis and treatment, which has brought real benefits for the patients. The new system has also reduced costs and provides an important audit trail." Commenting on the POCS solution, Ann Slee, pharmacy director, added: "Using the new system we are able to understand service impact changes and have demonstrated a reduction in the workload and type of calls. Trends have also allowed us to look at how we triage calls more effectively and involve high grade nursing staff to ensure the service is not abused. This is a long way from the previous system, in which paper records were completed and had to be manually collated and reviewed."

You may also like