Digipen solution for community midwives - Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust

ADOPTION & DIFFUSION

WHAT IS THE ISSUE?

Currently midwives use a mobile telephone and diary and all data is entered retrospectively into the patient administration system by both midwives and administrative staff upon return to the unit. This causes unnecessary duplication of data entry and reduces time to care.

WHAT IS THE INNOVATION?

This scheme involves midwives using a digital pen that allows midwives to collect handwritten information across multiple users, sites and locations. The pen is used in conjunction with a Blackberry which provides secure over the air automation and updating of health records remotely to create contemporaneous notes allowing a ‘one time’ entry of data to the care record. Full data encryption meets information goveranance requirements. This solution offers significant benefits.

WHAT IS THE BENEFIT?

For patients/staff/service

• Releasing midwives time to care.
• Increasing all health carers access to full records, improving customer quality of care, satisfaction and meeting clinical governance requirements.
• Midwives have instant access to clinical data when they are in the community, providing improved care.
• Enabling increased time for input into the public health agenda.
• Improving the integration of care via access to clinical data when visiting health centres, patients home and GP surgeries.

Increased quality and productivity

• Reducing midwifery and admin and clerical staff required, supporting cost improvement plan and enables data capture for HRG4.
• Reduces manual transcription and duplication when updating data.
• Increasing time to care, enables the midwives to support vulnerable groups.
• Reduces unecessary travel in and out of units.
• Ability to mange email, allocate workload and manage time through use of calender.

Spread and sustainability

• Service Level Agreements and performance management set up.
• Solution scaleable to rapidly changing NHS reporting requirements, i.e. HRG4.
• Continued work with technology provider (Paper IQ), SHA and PCT to promote the innovation nationally.
• Publication in clinical e-health and technical journals.
• Other local maternity units keen to implement innovation.
• This solution offers opportunity for spread to other services, eg Emergency department and to other organisaions across NHS South Central.

Projected savings

• 1.5WTE for cost improvement programme at a saving of £53,226.
• Freeing up 1.6 WTE admin and clerical staff for cost improvement plan at a saving of  £29,547.
• Reducing travel costs by £10,000.
• Total Projected Costs savings = £92,773 recurrent per annum.
• Additioanlly 3.31 WTE midwives released to provide additional direct patient care – an opportunity cost of £117,452.