Online clinical incident reporting cuts admin

A primary care trust has deployed a web-based reporting tool to log clinical incidents in real time.

Last month 64% of incidents were logged online and the trust says deployment of the system is already significantly reducing the administrative and managerial burden of reporting clinical incidents and has led to closer working between the clinical governance team and specialist staff.

Ealing PCT, west London, has worked with Vantage Technologies, a specialist software company providing solutions to improve working practices, to develop its Sentinel risk management and incident reporting system for use in the PCT.

Sentinel allows staff within the organisation and externally to log in and report incidents remotely via NHSnet. The system automatically triggers an alert to relevant managers so that issues can be dealt with promptly and also helps staff to identify trends and patterns across the seven local neighbourhoods in the PCT.

Sentinel replaces a paper-based solution used in the trust which meant reports had to be manually written and sent to a central location for processing before the relevant clinician or manager was alerted to the issue.

The trust says adoption of the web-based solution is a part of its strategy of adopting a paperless approach to management and allows it to provide more effective risk management with early warning mechanisms. It will also enable the trust to meet the mandatory reporting requirements of the National Patient Safety Agency.

Milan Tailor, cinical governance facilitator and risk manager at Ealing PCT said, “A key benefit of the Sentinel solution has been the ability to report incidents in real-time – helping us to take a more proactive approach to managing risk and ensuring patient and staff safety.”