Sheffield NHS Trust picks HP to build patient portal

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has picked HP to give it a "complete picture" of every single patient.

Hewlett-Packard is the primary contractor to help the trust's five hospitals get a single, integrated view of all the information on any one patient.

Healthcare tech firm Orion Health will partner with Imprivata's single sign-on solution to provide the hospitals with a portal to access health records remotely.

HP will then help make those health records as complete as possible by compiling disparate pieces of information about the patient's medical history.

"We need to have a complete picture of each patient when we are providing their care," said David Throssell, medical director at the trust.

"This new portal will act as an umbrella across a number of our current computer systems, meaning hospital and community health staff will only have to log in once to view the different patient information systems, on one screen. It will enable a single, clinical view of every patient."

This single view will let healthcare workers access key patient details wherever they are, and Dr Throssell believes it will lead to more joined-up working between care workers.

"Many of our staff work outside the hospital in the community or in patients' homes and so having the right information available is also key," he added. "The clinical portal will enable this to happen and it will mean staff do not have to keep asking patients the same questions."

The information accessible via the portal will include drug treatments, diagnosis results and other important details relevant to patients' care.

But the portal will also let the hospitals involved share information with other NHS bodies with the technology, opening up opportunities to get expert advice, for instance.

Dr Throssell added: "When a patient is admitted to another NHS organisation or when they are visited by their GP, we will soon be able to share vital information with their healthcare provider. This can only be a good thing for our patients."

The hospitals set to benefit from the deal the value of which remains undisclosed are Northern General Hospital, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Charles Clifford Dental Hospital, Weston Park Cancer Hospital and Jessop Wing Maternity Hospital.

Anjanish Shekhar, account executive at HP, said: "Integrating information around the patient journey and improving clinical productivity is key to improving patient care and reducing risks.

"[HP] can help integrate primary, acute and social care by enabling clinicians to access context-sensitive views of patient information from multiple systems, no matter where they are."

The news comes after the NHS argued there is a moral case for data collection at an event earlier this week.

NHS England patient information director Tim Kelsey claimed more insight derived from care.data would plug "dangerous gaps" in the NHS's knowledge.

"The NHS is not capable currently of telling you how many patients are treated for chemotherapy, for example. And certainly not capable of telling you that if they are treated, [then] what is their outcome," he said.