Fife spearheads single patient record approach

The new integrated approach will ensure that patient records such as contact details, clinical notes and historical data are available across the whole health board rather than duplicated and stored at multiple locations. This will improve efficiency of the clinical services provided by NHS Fife and enable secure remote access to patient records by district or community nurses beyond the traditional walls of healthcare institutions. Siemens Medical Solutions is overseeing the patient record roll-out.

Dr Stella Clark, medical director for Primary Care and Executive Lead for eHealth at NHS Fife commented: “We operate as a single joined up health board so it makes sense that patient records are linked together across the whole organisation, regardless of location. Before, we would have to audit patients moving from the acute sector into rehabilitation or long-term care via disparate systems and paper trails. Now, we will have a single point of reference which will make tracking patient care a much simpler process.”