D I G I T A L D I A G N O S T I C S
Healthcare in England is experiencing a significant year of digital transformation . Between the merger of NHS Digital , NHS England and Health Education England and the appointment of John Quinn as Chief Intelligence Officer to that new body , there ’ s a concerted effort to streamline and accelerate the technological advancement of UK healthcare .
The government ’ s 2023 mandate to NHS England has promised up to £ 14.1bn investment into health and social care over the next two years , largely delivered through the NHS ’ network of integrated care systems ( ICS ). Its stated goal is : ' supporting health and care systems to ‘ level-up ’ their digital maturity and ensure they have a core level of infrastructure , digitisation and skills by March 2025 .'
Interestingly , that mandate specified improved outpatient care : the technologies that support patients who don ’ t need a bed within a hospital and / or who don ’ t need to stay overnight . It intends to ' focus on increasing outpatient productivity and transforming outpatient pathways ', with a target that 95 % of the patients requiring diagnostic tests be seen within six weeks by March 2025 .
But with so many potential targets for healthcare investment , why is outpatient care such a focus ? And what are the technologies being introduced in 2023 to digitally transform the outpatient experience ?
Out of reach
In the midst of England ' s healthcare digital transformation , outpatient care takes centre stage with the government ' s 2023 mandate . With significant investment and a focus on improving outpatient productivity , the introduction of new technologies aims to address the persistent challenges in accessing patient information and delivering optimal care . We hear from Alex Ryan , Director , EMEA Healthcare Business Development at Hyland , about the integration of content service platforms and the enterprise imaging promises to streamline outpatient processes .
While the layman might assume that patient information is available to every clinician , the inability to access unstructured clinical content and images at the point of care can be a persistent impediment to delivering the best possible outpatient care .
According to research from Frost and Sullivan , more than 75 % of patient information is unstructured and not natively captured by – or stored in – an electronic health record ( EHR ). This makes access inconsistent ; speciality imaging systems , mobile devices and physical storage media can all silo important files or context , for example , with no guarantee that systems can integrate with one another .
This can be further exacerbated by the way in which written documentation and similar content are stored . Paper files , faxed records and clinical
OUT OF YOUR SYSTEM : DIGITALLY TRANSFORMING OUTPATIENT CARE IN 2023
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