Fife set on streamlining surveillance

This will create the opportunity to track patients as they are transferred between wards as well as after discharge in the community. ICNet interfacing will mean automatic alerts are flagged up as soon as specific ‘alert organisms’ (and viruses) such as MRSA, GRE, C.Diff, ESBL are detected in the hospital. The new interface will also create scope for community nurses in the Fife region to receive alerts on their PDAs and send information on infected patients back to ICNet.

Aconnection to Fife’s Oasis Patient Administration Systems will warn users on screen, through email or text messaging, of highrisk ‘alert patient’ re-admissions into specific wards and hospitals, whilst also maintaining a real time log of patient locations.

ICNet, a software solution for tracking patients with Healthcare Acquired Infections, was designed using Oasis clinical tools sets, a generic system supplied by Capula Healthcare under the Siemens Medical Managed Service contract with the Trust and uses open technologies such as Java and XML. The system incorporates all information previously recorded by hand and allows the recording of greater detail, with additional referral details being added. For ease of use, it also includes 42 key questions and provides common preset answers.

The Oasis PAS interface allows ICNet to receive updates as an infected patient changes location within the Trust’s hospitals and also will allow ICNet to receive an alert as soon as any known carrier of infection is admitted to hospital so that they are not placed in a bed close to other patients.