SystmOne supports 18 week wait
One of the targets faced by NHS professionals is the delivery of an 18 week patient pathway from GP referral to the start of treatment by the end of 2008.
With the involvement of a group of NHS information professionals, TPP has developed SystmOne to enable users to record, monitor and report on referral waiting times in line with the 18 week wait guidelines. This functionality has now been released to support all services as they develop their working processes to deliver the 18 week wait.
In October, TPP held a workshop in Leeds attended by a panel of 10 guests from as far afield as County Durham, Cambridge and Norfolk, as well as representatives from CSC. The workshop included a demonstration of the basic SystmOne 18 week wait functionality followed by a Question and Answer session with the developers responsible.
Michael France, one of TPP's Clinical System Analysts organised the event. He says, "The aim of the workshop was to get as much input from our guests as possible before the functionality was released to SystmOne users. The workshop was very useful for us. In fact, most of the subsequent development came directly from the feedback from the panel either at the workshop or in contact we've had with them since."
Clive Johnson, Senior Information Analyst at The Health Informatics Service, Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust, attended the workshop. "I look after SystmOne reporting for Wakefield District PCT," says Clive, "and I needed to know how the 18 week wait functionality would work so that we can meet the statutory requirements.
Clive continues, "We saw the demonstration of what TPP had developed so far and gave our opinions. Our thoughts were taken on board and some ideas were implemented in the very next software release. We then experimented with the functionality that had been released and looked at ways of improving it. We again gave TPP our feedback and suggestions, most of which we have now been told will be incorporated in a future release."
SystmOne is constantly changing in line with suggestions we receive through helpdesks and SystmOne Chatrooms. For TPP, user involvement in development is key. Clive agrees, "Getting users and PCT staff involved in the development of SystmOne is definitely the way forward. If TPP can interact with us, we can help TPP and they can help us, it's a two way thing."
The SystmOne 18 week wait functionality is simple to use - a new wait can be created either with or without a Referral-In, and a Unique ID is automatically generated. Users can keep track of a patient's waits either through the patient record, adding suspensions and completion dates, or on a special reporting screen where they can see all patients who have waits with a specified number of days remaining, or that were completed between specific dates. They can also run an extract of all 18 week waits in a six-month period.
Clive welcomes the new functionality: "The 18 week wait facility improves reporting, allowing services to monitor treatment times from referral to treatment and to meet mandatory reporting. Previously, there was no way of doing this easily, and so this will improve this area of reporting. With the other planned developments that draw on our suggestions, it'll be even easier."
For more information about 18 Week Wait, please go to www.18weeks.nhs.uk
