Somerset Integrated Digital e-Record being used 13,000 times a month

A digital shared care record that aims to give healthcare professionals across Somerset a complete overview of a patient’s medical record is being accessed around 13,000 times a month following its launch.

The Somerset Integrated Digital e-Record (SIDeR) first went live with the Electronic Palliative and Care Coordination System (EPaCCS) in April 2019 with the aim of making the right information available to the right professionals at the right time.

This was followed by the SIDeR Shared Care Record (SSCR) which went live in November 2020 and now has approximately 13,000 uses per month.

Black Pear is the current technology partner for the SIDeR programme and is the first service to use HL7 FHIR, Cloud Computing and Amazon Web Services.

The record includes information such as medication (one-off prescriptions and repeats), allergies, problems (conditions), key alerts, contacts and encounters (including procedures).

This is all available in one place from a range of organisations across the region; Somerset NHS Foundation Trust (acute, community and mental health), Yeovil District Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, around 60 GP practices, St Margaret’s Hospice and Somerset County Council.

Further data such as observations and test results are also available from the GP Record.

Dr Justin Harrington, CCIO, associate clinical director, clinical lead for the SIDeR programme and GP, said: “SIDeR has been designed to pass the 3am test: a patient contacts the OOH GP service or appears in A&E and clinicians know nothing about them.

“SIDeR should provide information that helps to provide the right clinical care, first time. People should not have to keep repeating their medical information to health and care services.”

Using national funding, Somerset County Council is currently working with Black Pear to include children’s social care and education data and this should go live in summer 2022.

Somerset NHS Foundation Trust is also working with Black Pear to use QuickFHIR to create bidirectional information flow to and from SIDeR into its EPMA for medicines reconciliation.

Other upcoming projects also include the possibility of linking the SSCR with the National Record Locator Service (NRLS) as well as offering access to out-of-area providers who care for Somerset patients.