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 Delivering on the patient safety agenda
The implementation of the national programme faces many hurdles as the world’s largest civilian IT project but offers an unprecedented opportunity to improve patient care and safety. In this feature, First DataBank Europe (FDBE) takes the opportunity to examine the key elements of their involvement with NHS Connecting for Health (NHS CfH) – enabling safer prescribing and dispensing through the provision of drug related clinical decision support.
Given the sheer volume of drug information and the multitude of functions in clinical systems which are necessary to support healthcare professionals in improving patient care, this is a massively complex task. The contextualisation of information, enabling the clinician to receive alerts relevant to the medication being prescribed, and as far as possible the patient being treated, is key to patient care and safety.
It is a simple message that FDBE wants to convey – improve patient safety through effective clinical decision support – but it is one that will impact on the health of every individual. The articles within this feature aim to explore some of the factors behind this and how electronic systems are central to the delivery of a 21st century health service.
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Toolkits - programming made easy
Understandably, the integration of drug data and clinical decision support functionality into healthcare systems is a complex task for system suppliers. Chris Gray, FDBE’s implementation services director, explains how FDBE can ease the development process through the provision of software toolkits.
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Clinical decision support in secondary care
FDBE’s sales and marketing director, Keith Kirtland, examines the role of clinical decision support in secondary care and discusses why it has not been adopted to nearly the same extent as it has in primary care. The article outlines some of the challenges faced in an acute hospital setting, provides examples of hospitals where FDBE has already successfully employed clinical decision support and demonstrates how FDBE is helping its customers meet NHS CfH requirements.
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Expanding into the wider healthcare community
Healthcare professionals, in all environments, are put under immense constraints in terms of time and resources, with staff constantly under pressure to work more effectively. In the wider healthcare community these challenges also exist but in a different context. Currently, paramedics on the road or care workers for the elderly do not have the same level of support from IT systems that would be found in a primary care or hospital setting. The difference that clinical decision support could make to their working lives, and to those of their patients, is of major significance. We take a look at its potential in these new markets. |
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 E-Health
Insider is published by E-Health Media Ltd
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