Onboarding new services
As part of this project, we are supporting 28 new services as they transition onto the platform. The portal is very flexible, and referral forms can be tailored to the needs of any service. During this year we have had had a huge push to onboard new services, which will result in significant time saved handling referrals manually.
Integration with the Rio Clinical System
This will allow all referrals entered through the Referral Portal will automatically transfer directly into Rio. We expect this will save huge amounts of time across the many services using the portal, as referrals won’t need to be entered manually by clinicians and admin staff. As part of the onboarding process, we will work with new services to understand how we map referral data for their service into existing Rio processes. Data will then be automatically transferred into Rio behind the scenes when a referral is made.
Self-Referrals
We’re building a whole new application as part of the MPFT Referral Portal to allow service users to refer to our services themselves. The Self-Referral Portal will initially launch for the Musculoskeletal (MSK) team but will be open for all services that can cater for self-referrals.
These updates are in the final stages of development and will launch in early 2025.
Protecting Our Young People with Over 53,000 Vaccinations
This year see’s the continued use of our JabIT application that supports in the vaccination of young people throughout Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent. With winter pressures ever increasing along with the demand on our staff it’s important that the School Aged Immunisation Team is at its most efficient. JabIT has always aimed to do this through the digitisation paper operations, allowing nurses to view sessions and lists on a tablet remotely in schools, enabling them to see who needs vaccinating, who has already been vaccination and whether there are any allergies or concerns.
This year has seen a focus on stability and small quality of life changes to the application this years operations have been even smoother, so far this year we have provided the flu vaccination to over 53,000 young people, this is a notable increase of last years figure of 40,000 for the same time period.
Digital Capability Framework
The Health & Social Care Systems (H&SCS) team are also fundamental in delivery of our current Digital Capability Framework (DCF) programme of work, this programme aims to improve the digital maturity of our primary EPR, Rio.
The team supports the Trust in achieving this by defining what the problem or ask is, what the possible solutions are and how we should move forward. We achieve this with our Business Architects (BA). We then either need to build, integrate or configure systems to achieve what has been set out, we achieve this with our integration, bespoke development and systems configuration teams.
None of the below is possible without then supporting the users in accessing and using these new innovations, we achieve this through our Clinical Systems Support Team (CSST).
Below are some examples of the work we have undertaken or are currently working on:
- RiO Flow: A bed management tool to highlight bed occupancy and capacity wastages, providing a digital whiteboard for real-time patient flow tracking. Piloted on Chebsey, Bromley, and Pine wards.
- RiO ICE Click Through: Provides access to UHNM’s ICE system from within RiO for ordering and viewing tests. Live testing has commenced.
- Safeguard Click Through: Went live on August 14, 2024, allowing staff to log incidents from within RiO.
- Hybrid Mail: Phased deployment of a mail solution to reduce postage costs and move towards a paperless system.
- RiO Video Consultations: Replaces OneConsultation with Teams for video consultations, integrated directly into Rio.
- RiO Covergence: Migrating users to RiO, starting with the MSK team. Process mapping and form creation are underway.
- Patients Know Best (PKB) Phase 2: Integrates patient data into a secure Personal Health Record within the NHS App.
- Censeo Psyomics Phase 2: A digital mental health assessment platform. Integration development and hazard workshops are ongoing.
- Virtual Assistant Phase 2: Expands existing functionalities like appointment information across more RiO services.
- Role Based Access Control (B-Codes): Streamlines roles and permissions within RiO.
- Referral Portal Phase 2: Adds functionalities like automated referral uploads and self-referral forms.
Pathway Builds & Redesigns
In addition to the DCF work, the H&SCS team plays a pivotal role in maximising efficiency and productivity in the way our clinicians operate, namely through digitising operations to digital systems, for example moving paper-based operations into a digital format via our core EPR, Rio.
Below are some of the initiatives we have undertaken or currently in the process of delivering:
Integrated Care Co-ordination (ICC)
The ICC team historically have been paper based, with referral documents being completed and passed between appropriate team members within a physical space in order to progress an action. Our BA’s undertook a site visit to understand and observe the operations and then devised a way of digitising this and moving the team into a digital world via Rio.
The build was then completed, and the team is now fully digital and operational with positive comments about how easy the solution is to use and how the team are working much more efficiently. All of this ensures we can deliver quick responses and get service users triaged to the right place to get the best care.
Intensive Assertive Outreach (IAO): In line with guidance from NHSE we are delivering assertive outreach to mental health service users that meet eligibility criteria. Understanding who meets the criteria and who is in most need of this support, can often take lots of time, pulling lots of information together across many areas and many services users.
To assist in this, we have developed a dashboard and algorithm to find the service users that meet the criteria based on the data we already have, present them on the dashboard and then flag whether they meet the criteria for extra support or not. Based on meeting the criteria and been flagged as such on Rio this then shows these service users on a further dashboard for caseload management, highlighting areas of concerns with RAG rating, drawing attention to issues that need addressing, such as appointments attended or planned upcoming appointments.
Children’s Audiology
Considering national issues, and in turn guidance around improvement needed in paediatric audiology, Digital and the CYP care group collaborated to improve our offering as a Trust. The Business Architect worked with the care group to map out the processes, identified gaps, and proposed improvements within Rio. Through the analysis performed we identified improvements to categorisation, wait list configuration and visibility of data to drive activities, such as follow up.
After successful testing and sign-off, the new pathway went live and received excellent feedback. As a result of more visible data and dashboards within Rio, the clinician is better informed, more productive, and in turn, delivering better care for service users. We were also in a better position to report nationally because of data capture improvements.
Pathway Optimisations - Children's Autism, Paediatric Dietetics, Community Paediatrics
These services got in touch as they acknowledged that there were potential risks or inefficiencies in the current way they operate.
Through our engagements we have identified improvements to assessment forms, waiting lists, reporting panels, inclusion of hybrid mail, consolidation of specialities where appropriate for more efficient working. We are in the process of implementing these changes which will see improvements in the way clinicians operate which in turn will help to deliver better care.
Outcomes Star
The Health & Justice team has implemented the Outcomes Star tool, shifting from paper-based to online tracking. The tool measures change and supports person-centered conversations, enhancing outcomes-focused support planning. We have specifically implemented the Justice Star and Youth Star, benefiting services by demonstrating impact and improving keywork. Positive feedback has been received from existing users and the supplier has said that we have the best integration they have seen and would like to use MPFT/H&J’s setup in a Case Study.
The Outcomes Star tool is fully integrated with Rio, enabling a seamless transition between systems while also synchronising data back to the clinical record.