Ipswich puts iPads on wards

Clinicians at Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust are using iPads to access patient records at the bedside.

The trust, which uses Kainos’ electronic document management system app, Evolve, has rolled out iPads to 80 clinicians so far.

Neil Turnbull, head of programme delivery at Ipswich, told EHI that the trust planned to roll out a further 40 iPads by the end of the year.

“There are about 80 clinicians using iPads at the moment, but we got plans to roll out 120 by the end of this year. Every couple of days we’re rolling out a few more,” he said, adding that the trust executives and board members also use iPads for meetings.

Clinicians are only given read-only access to the EDM stystem, but Turnbull said that as the roll out continues, this will change.

“At the moment it’s read only. Even with that, I’ve had clinicians say it’s revolutionary. We’re getting a new version of the EDM app before the end of the year,” he said.

“The second version will give them read and write access and they can load up patient records and put in information as well out in the community.”

As well as having access to Kainos, clinicians can also access their trust emails, calendar, pathology results and clinical apps. Turnbull added that if clinicians wanted certain apps on their iPads that did not pose a problem.

“What we say to them is that if it’s free and it’s something they will use, we will load it on for them,” he said.

Ipswich is one of eight trusts committed to taking the Lorenzo electronic patient record system under the government’s deal with CSC.

In February, the trust will become the second to deploy the system under the new agreement, which removed CSC’s rights as exclusive systems provider in the North, Midlands and East of England.

Turnbull said that he hopes it will be possible to eventually get access to Lorenzo on iPads as well.

“Lorenzo isn’t currently available on iPads but we’ve been speaking to CSC about this and waiting for confirmation from them. I believe it will be available in the future,” he said.