North Bristol one of the first to go live with eRehabilitation prescriptions

A Bristol trust is one of the first to go live with digital eRehabilitation prescriptions.

From 1 April, NHS England has said all major trauma centres must provide patients a copy of their rehabilitation prescription following serious injury as part of new national guidelines.

North Bristol NHS Trust is the first to deliver a digital copy of a patient’s rehabilitation prescription at its major trauma unit in Southmead Hospital, by using a system from Patients Know Best (PKB).

The eRehabilitation Prescription is part of a 3-step discharge process, helping trauma patients leaving Southmead Hospital to better manage their aftercare. It includes:

1. eRehabilitation Prescription – a tailored care plan informing patients about what has happened to them and signposting support services to give advice about commonly confronted problems.
2. Discharge consultation – a detailed consultation conducted in collaboration with patients and their specialist healthcare professional (i.e. trauma practitioner and pharmacist) before leaving hospital.
3. Two-week follow-up phone call/ongoing access and online consultation via Patients Know Best – to reinforce the contents of the eRehabilitation Prescription and move forward using online consultations and remote monitoring.

Charlie Howard, major trauma practitioner, said: “If you have a patient that comes in with a head injury and they have short-term memory loss, they can’t always retain the information they’re being told.

“By using Patients Know Best, it means that when going home or to a local hospital, the information is there and can be reiterated and utilised when needed.”

The eRehabilitation Prescription from PKB can be updated, shared digitally or even printed by healthcare teams, including the patient’s own local GP.

Aside from supplying North Bristol with the with digital eRehabilitation prescriptions, PKB also has its portal which gives patients to instant access to their medical records.

It also gives them the ability to choose with whom they want to share their medical information, and to create a digital care plan.

In August 2018, Digital Health News reported how Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University Health Board was the first board in Wales to offer access to the Patients Know Best (PKB) portal.