Two hospital trusts in North East England have set up a joint community diagnostic centre supported by an integration of their respective digital systems.
Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust and Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have opened the Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC) at the MetroCentre in Gateshead, working with health technology specialist Answer Digital.
They have developed a solution that connects their radiology information systems, picture archiving and communication systems and electronic patient records to provide real time visibility and coordination of diagnostic resources.
Answer Digital provided a patient matching component to synchronise the patient data. It said this will provide patients with quick access to care and reduce the risk of misidentification.
A manual review process has been introduced for partial matches, and a Patient Demographic Service look-up integrated to further validate NHS numbers.
Admin time saver
The company said this will all provide bidirectional data flows between the trusts and better coordination of the diagnostic services. Also, it is anticipated to provide a reduction of 25-40% in administrative tasks, giving staff more time to focus on more critical duties.
David Thompson, head of digital solutions at Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We knew that we needed to bring the two trusts together to deliver an effective CDC.
“By combining – and effectively democratising – the diagnostic capacity of both organisations, more patients will be able to be seen more quickly, speeding up the diagnosis of conditions like cancer, COPD and heart disease, as well as enabling monitoring and observations throughout treatment.”
