
We are thrilled to announce that Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust is now connected to the Health Information Exchange (HIE). This means that HIE users across the region will be able to access a range of mental health data to support patient care. Their staff are also now able to access information on the HIE.
The reports from the trust are created “on request” and include historical data for service users. The information is collated into a single report called “Mental Health Report” and can be found in the “Community and Mental Health” widget of the HIE.
The report includes:
Gill Sanderson, Head of Informatics – Customer Operations at Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust said: “We are pleased to be able to provide access to the Health Information Exchange to our clinicians working across the trust. We have relied on being able to access GP records for the last few years through the Great North Care Record. Now that our frontline staff can access not only GP data but also from community services and Newcastle Hospitals means we can provide even safer care.”
Professor Joe McDonald, Consultant Psychiatrist and Chief Clinical Information Officer at Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust said: “I have been passionate about being able to access care records throughout my 30-year medical career, and so often frustrated by how hard it can be to share information. Being able to share data electronically from our mental health trust, and for my colleagues to access patient data from other providers is a complete game changer.”
A selected number of users in Newcastle City Council are able to access a view of the HIE using the web browser based viewer.
Steve Foreman, Informatics Manager at the Council said: “Whilst it is early days and for limited purposes, it feels like a really significant step which we will hopefully be able to build on and quickly become an essential part of practice.”
North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust are in the final stages of testing and assuring and will be ready to go-live soon. They will be sharing crew reports onto the HIE.
Check the HIE web page for the latest estimated go-live times for the remaining connections. You can also see what data each organisation is sharing in the data matrix.