06 January 2010
First Practice in Warrington 'Just Love' SystmOne
Westbrook Medical Centre went live on SystmOne on 11th September 2009, the first practice in Warrington PCT, and the second in the North West SHA, to do so.
The team of six GPs, two practice nurses, nurse practitioner, triage nurse, practice manager, office manager, and 11 administrative staff cares for 10,500 patients.
We spoke to practice manager Valerie Hankinson a month after the Go Live to find out how the staff are getting on with SystmOne.
Russel Martin (CSCA Project Manager), Val Hankinson (Practice Manager), Tulika Sugandha (Project Manager, NHS Warrington).
The practice previously used EMIS LV but needed to move to a centrally hosted system under the National Programme for IT. After looking at several different systems, the practice decided that SystmOne was the system they all preferred.
"A GP and I went along to a demo and liked it so we arranged a demo for the rest of the GPs at our practice," says Valerie. "At the demo we had at the practice, all the GPs were impressed by the system and became quite positive about the previously unwelcome impending change. One GP thought the ability to add medical drawings to records was a brilliant function."
The practice were supported through the data migration by both TPP and CSC. "The migration was fine; CSC were really helpful throughout and TPP were great, providing support whenever we needed it. The Go Live day was fine but because we were the first practice in the area to migrate to SystmOne it was a new experience for everyone.were a few issues with Smart cards that we hadn't foreseen but our PCT RA Manager was on hand to sort the problems out. We were told to ring TPP if we had any problems, but I don't think we have."
Practice staff from Westbrook, with Russel Martin (CSCA Project Manager) and Tulika Sugandha (Project Manager, NHS Warrington) centre, and Rhiannon Brook (CSC Primary Care Engagement Lead) right.
One of the ways in which practice staff prepared for the change to SystmOne was to use the 'Dummy' system alongside their legacy system, as Valerie explains: "Staff practised on the dummy system; we set up dummy surgeries and practised booking people in to them and so on. It gave staff the opportunity to get used to the system, to find their way around. It really helped and meant that staff weren't so frightened on Go Live day."
Since the Go Live, learning has continued with staff constantly finding new things in the system that help them with their day-to-day work. "Each day we're finding new functions on SystmOne and are really excited about it. In particular, myself, the admin staff and the office manager just love it!" says Valerie.
Valerie has found the F1 Online Help to be a useful learning tool. She explains: "The F1 Help is really good; we've found loads of helpful information in it. And the great thing about it is that when you're looking for a particular thing, you come across other topics that you can then look at on SystmOne and learn about."
A month down the line, staff are becoming familiar with the system and starting to see the benefits of it over their legacy system. "There's so much more you can do in SystmOne," says Valerie. "And it's easier to use. We find using the mouse and clicking on icons much more intuitive than having to remember keyboard shortcuts."
Valerie continues, "SystmOne is saving us both time and paper. For example, when dealing with visits previously, we would have to organise the visit, book it on the GP's surgery, write it down in our visits book, fill out a form, then go into the clinical system and print out the patient information that the clinician needs to take on the visit. With SystmOne, it's much, much simpler. We go to the Visits screen and click 'Print'. That gives us a list of patients, what their problem is, and a summary of their record to take on the visit. All in one click. That saves us a lot of time."
Practice staff also find the appointments screens easier to use, as Valerie explains: "The SystmOne set up enables us to view as many or as fewthe surgeries as we wish at the same time. For example, you can view all the clinicians' surgeries on a particular day, week or month or you can view just one or a selection of surgeries for a particular day, week or month."
Despite being the only GP practice in Warrington currently live on SystmOne, staff and patients are already benefiting from record sharing, as the local hospice, St Rocco's, uses SystmOne. Valerie comments on the first time they experienced the benefit of a shared record: "A couple of days after going live one of our patients died.This patient had previously been an in-patient at the hospice. When we recorded the death on SystmOne the hospice received a notification informing them.thought this was really good, so much so they gave us a ring to tell us.Also, previously we would have had to fax through letters and information they needed, now there is no need to do that and the GPs can see instantly what has happened to the patient whilst they have been in the hospice. This example of record sharing shows how beneficial it is for both patients and clinicians, and it seems so easy in SystmOne."
Looking to the future, the practice is keen to use more functionality from SystmOne. "We like the idea of using text messages, and online appointment booking and prescription requesting. We have been scanning hospital letters on for a few years but we can now scan them on the day we receive them and send them to the relevant clinician to view them through SystmOne. We also want to use SystmOne as a communication tool. At the moment we have a paper messages book that we use if someone needs to get a message to a GP. But we rely on them looking at the book. If we were to use SystmOne Notifications/Tasks, we could eliminate that."
