It may not yet mark the writing on the hospital wall for doctors’ hand-written patient handover notes but doctors at Hutt Valley District Health Board are piloting an original digital system.
IT staff at the DHB developed the eHandover ‘Doctor to Doctor’ module based in Concerto, a widely-used software system used by medical staff, making it the first of its type in the country.
A range of general medicine doctors working in the medical wards, who typically care for about 65 per cent of hospital patients, began trialling the electronic system to record and share patient notes among doctors,over weekends in April.
The Hutt Valley DHB team behind the Doctor to Doctor eHandover pilot at Hutt Hospital. Fromleft, 3DHB ICT service delivery coordinator Diane Bull, senior registrar Dr Maria Gibbons, physician Dr JaneMcKee, 3DHB senior business analyst Jenny Brodie, clinical head of department general medicine Dr TomThomson, improvement advisor Vivian Martin, 3DHB ICT analyst programmer Tai Yu Lin, and HVDHB chiefmedical officer Sisira Jayathissa.
Hutt Valley DHB chief medical officer Sisira Jayathissa said a group of clinicians had worked with the DHB’s IT team to develop the tool, which was more visible and less prone to variability than the traditional handwritten patient handover system.
“Effective handover is an important part of patient safety.
“The tool enables effective and safe handovers, but is not a replacement for good handover processes and practices.”
While nurses and other staff at various DHBs also shared information using digital platforms, such as Excel spreadsheets, this was the first in the country to be based in the Concerto clinical portal.
Along with keeping handwritten notes as a precaution during the pilot, the doctors also had safeguards in the system itself such as having to acknowledge previous handover notes before new ones could be logged.
A test screenshot of the Concerto software featuring the Doctor to Doctor eHandover patient notes module
Hutt Valley DHB improvement advisor Vivian Martin described the Doctor to Doctor module as a big step forward.
Paper-based records might not always be available at each point of care, and information was not always complete or could only be accessed by one clinician at a time.
“They needed one place to look at quickly and see how they could add value to continue that transfer of patient care or find a task, such as the need to review blood results or involve the radiology department.”
What started as an ad-hoc Excel spreadsheet where doctors shared information was turned into “a concise and robust way to capture all that information”.
“Let’s say a patient deteriorates quickly.“
At that point, a nurse or doctor is relying on the on-call consultant. They would have to call them and explain the scenario.
“But right now, through the new system, they can access it all through Concerto by just clicking on the handover field.
“It’s a one-stop shop for quick and safe handover of patient care.”
