Hospitals trust upgrades network
North England hospitals re-vamp communications to improve patient care
County Durham Hospitals NHS Trust is installing a new communications network to give doctors and nurses better access to patient records and data.
Based on a virtual private network, the system will include a wireless network to allow devices to be carried to a patient’s bedside, and also let the trust’s radiologists view X-rays from home.
Steven Dodd, Durham’s associate director of IT, says the need to have patient information as close as possible to the bedside is core to the trust’s IT strategy.
‘To be able to do things such as X-rays at the bedside and share information with patients has been an aim for some time,’ he said. ‘We also want to be able to organise tests, and viewing of results online is a key priority.’
The system is already live on one floor in the trust’s university hospital and will go live everywhere by the end of the year.
Frost & Sullivan analyst Shomik Banerjee says that while the kind of system Durham is planning can be beneficial in lowering cost and improving productivity, there can be problems.
‘The technology today is not robust; will you always be able to access information when it is critically needed?’ he said.
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