St Helens and Knowsley trust goes live with maternity solution
Medway Maternity System records the complete maternal and newborn electronic patient record
St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has gone live with the Medway Maternity System.
Delivered by System C, a McKesson company, the trust deployed the second, and main, phase of its implementation programme in February.
The trust provides maternity services from Whiston Hospital and several community locations. Opened in March 2010, the new hospital’s maternity unit has seen an increase in births of almost 20%, with more than 3,600 babies delivered during 2011/12.
Neil Darvill, director of informatics at the trust, said: “We had not previously had a specialist, clinical maternity system in place, but we knew the benefits available from using such a solution could be significant.
“We had already achieved a great deal, such as CNST Level 2 standards, but wanted to build on this success and do more, for example achieve CNST Level 3 compliance, manage the new PbR pathways effectively, and have access to more comprehensive reporting capabilities. We chose Medway Maternity as an easy to use and comprehensive, clinical maternity system.”
The first phase of the implementation, which focused on antenatal care, successfully went ‘live’ in December 2012. This allowed users to record all referrals, booking and antenatal assessments, and for midwives and other clinicians to start capturing clinical information, both in the hospital and out in the community.
Three months later, in February this year, the trust was ready to ‘go-live’ with Medway Maternity’s delivery and postnatal functionality, meaning it is now able to exploit the system’s full potential to record the complete maternal and newborn electronic patient record.
The deployment has resulted in patient information now being centrally located, improving communication for pregnant women and post birth care between the acute tTrust and community care providers, thereby facilitating better clinical decision making.
Jen Chean and Lisa Roberts, both midwives, shared the role of project manager for the implementation. Chean said: “In the first 24 hours after our second phase go-live, nine deliveries were recorded, including full details of the three caesareans carried out, and 21 postnatal assessments were completed using the system.”
Roberts added: “Changing to a new system and adapting to this is always a challenge, especially in a busy clinical environment where our primary focus is providing the very best midwifery care, but our staff have really risen to this challenge. The fact that the system is also easy to use and follows our ways of working has also been a huge advantage in helping people get on board.”
- Companies:
- McKesson Information Solutions
- System C
- Whiston Hospital
- St Helens and Knowlsey Hospitals NHS Trust
