Maternity 'go live' first in Whittington's move to a full EPR

Whittington Health has gone live with a new IT system to support the demanding requirements of its busy maternity service, which last year supported almost 4,000 women through childbirth.
Medway Maternity, supplied by System C, a McKesson company, was successfully launched at The Whittington on 7 May. The system will be used by approximately 200 midwives, obstetricians and paediatricians across seven maternity wards at the hospital and 16 community health centres within the boroughs of Islington and Haringey.

Medway Maternity forms the first part of a wider Electronic Patient Record (EPR) roll-out across Whittington Health over the next two years. The EPR will provide integrated access to information for GPs, social services and patients, and is the foundation of the Trust's IT strategy to become one of the first paperless organisations in the NHS.

Jenny Cleary, Head of Midwifery and the lead for Women's and Children's Services at Whittington Health NHS, comments, "The Medway Maternity system will help improve communication with women and all those involved in their care. Clinicians will be able to access information, in real-time, both from within the hospital and out in the community. Community midwives are trialling iPads to help with this new system, which has proved to be very successful. All maternity staff have been trained on the system, and the comments following training have been very positive."

Medway Maternity was chosen for its clinical relevance, and comprehensive functionality, which will help The Whittington achieve the highest level of safety, as assessed by the National Patient Safety Authority. The reputation and expertise of the combined System C and McKesson teams was another winning factor. Medway Maternity will integrate with The Whittington's existing PAS system, McKesson Totalcare, until the go live of Medway PAS later this year.

Ms Cleary explains, "Maternity services require many audits to confirm safe practice and Medway Maternity will help produce the data required for analysis, quickly and efficiently. This will allow us to demonstrate our high standards of care for women and their babies and, where necessary, highlight where improvements can be made to the clinical service."

She continues: "The system can interface to child health, radiology, results reporting and also help to reduce the amount of duplication of effort and the amount of paper used. That time saved can be time spent with the women in our care."

Glenn Winteringham, Director of IT, Whittington Health NHS, concludes, "Electronic patient records is the foundation of our IT strategy to become one of the first paperless Trusts by 2015. The maternity module go-live has been very positive and gives us a lot of confidence for the scheduled go-lives later this year of PAS, ED and a GP Portal, with an integrated community module to go-live in late 2014."

Paul Richards, Managing Director, Health and Social Care, McKesson UK, adds, "The ability to capture and share information across all facets of the care pathway is a fundamental requirement of a sustainable model of integrated care. McKesson is delighted to be working in partnership with Whittington Health to realise their future vision of EPR and become a paperless Trust."