Northern Ireland’s Health and Social Care Services (HSC) has invested £9m in a new electronic patient record system with the aim of improving healthcare and the sharing of medical records.
The Digital Identity Service, which is a new suite of technology tools, will be provided by DXC Technology.
David Bryce, Assistant Director of HSC’s Information Technology Systems said: “We currently use the Northern Ireland Electronic Care Record, which gives clinicians access to patient information.
“It relies on patients having their Health and Care Number available to bring together the care record for patients. This new software will enable more accurate matching and sharing of patient records and will build upon the Health and Care Number record already in use.
“All members of a team looking after a patient will have all the most up-to-date information about a patient’s details available quickly and accurately.”
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When patients move between GPs it will remove the need for many paper-based processes which are currently required.
Rowan McGrath, Managing Director of DXC Technology in Ireland added: “DXC is delighted to have been awarded this significant technology modernisation project.
“We look forward to working in partnership with the HSC and applying our innovative Enterprise Technology Stack capabilities to transform how patient data is managed and shared throughout the HSC Community in Northern Ireland.”
The Digital Identity Service (DIS) is the latest step in transforming care for people in Northern Ireland.
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In a statement, HSC said: “The new system will not only help us deliver better care now but also in the future, as we will begin to build up data about our population and how we treat them.
“It will replace two legacy systems and help us correctly identify patients across all Health and Social Care systems. It will consolidate, simplify and improve how patient identity is managed and shared throughout HSCNI services which will underpin the delivery of an Integrated Care Model and the planned changes to the Health and Social Care operating model which are part of the Health and Social Care rebuild programme.
“The main benefit of having a Digital Identity for each patient is to uniquely identify each service user and therefore, improve patient safety by reducing errors that might happen, such as ensuring patients receive the correct medication, vaccinations, and treatment.”
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Source: Written from press release
