The glue that keeps your hospital together  

PatientSource is a clinician-designed, cloud-based, modular Electronic Medical Record system with inherent flexibility to span the entire spectrum of care. We have clients covering primary, secondary, Mental Health, Sexual Health, private hospitals, Pharma and unique and boutique ultra-specialist clinic applications, all from the same code base!  

What makes us your best choice?

·      Usability: Our solution makes it easy for front line staff to use and minimising data entry duplication.

·      Interoperability: PatientSource can plug in to other systems to help eliminate data silos and give you maximum use of other IT solutions you have already integrated.

·      By making data easy to put in, you can then get high quality data reports out for management 

·      It runs securely in any web browser

·       You don’t need to install any special hardware to get started

·       No need to build a big data centre on-site

Our modules span the full suite of secondary care: PAS, appointment management, bed management, clinical noting, vital signs, ePrescribing, test ordering and results and eReferrals to name just some of our functionality. The nature of our system allows you to cherry-pick the module you need, leading to a dedicated, ring-fenced PatientSource instance running on a suite of cloud virtual hardware, which has your selection of modules switched on.

Why “Big Bang” implementations don’t work:

Big Bang EPR integrations are not realistic in a world where most hospitals have overstretched IT staffs. Often they are alluring because hospital management feel they’re running a big scale project, which is exciting and can be perceived as a massive step forward for the hospital.

However, it’s not realistic for most hospitals because:

  • There is a lack of IT staff capacity: Hospital IT staff are already swamped with maintaining a stack of non-clinical software applications, servers and networks, let alone clinical.

  • Patient pathways often get bent to fit the software rather than the software fitting them.

It also requires non-IT staff to make a lot of big changes all at once:

  • Managers need to change the way they monitor their departments

  • Nurses need to learn a new way to document, chart and handover tasks 

  • Doctors need to learn a new way to document, prescribe, book and review tests, write discharge letters, write clinical correspondence

  • Administrative staff need to learn a new way to manage appointments and ward beds

Doing things differently

 Unlike many vendors, we work with what you’ve got: We try to interoperate with any existing IT that is already in place, rather than clearing the earth and starting again.

  • Phased roll-out: We switch on module by module or hospital department by hospital department, meaning teething issues from department 1 can be found and fixed by the time the next departments are introduced to PatientSource.

  • Our highly trained implementation team identify key modules that fill the gaps in what you’ve already got. 

  • PatientSource breaks open data silos, connecting your hospital and preventing important data from being isolated.

  • When an pre-existing software contract ends, you can then swap in the relevant PatientSource module with very little disruption

  • Implementing PatientSource requires a smaller team on the hospital’s side than a “big bang” solution.

  • We have tried and tested approaches for allowing part of the hospital to run on paper or legacy systems while other parts run on PatientSource modules, increasing adoption rates.

  • Much more feasible and lower risk.

James Paget NHS Foundation Trust

James Paget is an acute NHS Trust with 450 beds, based in Great Yarmouth. As a medium sized Trust, they don’t have the budget for a Big Bang EPR implementation. PatientSource was put into the fledgling Ambulatory Care unit in 2017 with the purpose of plugging into their on-site Patient Master Index, and point of care blood testing machines.

Problem being solved: 

The need to get records for patients at short notice

Ambulatory Care is a bit like day surgery but for medical treatment: A high turnover unit where 60+ patients attend every day for infusions, or a rapid series of diagnostic test, so it is very common to have patients come in for a few hours every day for a few days, or once a week for a few weeks.

Often patients get referred the afternoon before. Paper clinical notes just don’t work for this sort of thing because you have to have the medical records library constantly on hand to run folders to and from the records library at very short notice.

As they are technically admissions, GPs need the day case discharge summaries within 24 hours for every patient attendance. PatientSource allows clinicians to enter notes digitally and fill out forms digitally, with the discharge summaries automatically being sent to GPs.

Need for pictures and drawings

A common caseload is patients with a skin infection called cellulitis, where they come in daily for intravenous antibiotics. Each day a clinician needs to judge if the infection is responding or not to decide whether to continue, and often the patient sees a different clinician each day.

PatientSource allows a clinician to take a photo with a tablet (iPad) and embed it securely into the clinical notes, so the clinician who sees them in a few day’s time can easily see if the antibiotics are working.

After the success within the ambulatory care unit, we then expanded to the Surgical Assessment Day Unit, following our proven phased integration methodology.

The Future of EPR 

 Upcoming developments within PatientSource:

  • AI driven early detection of deteriorating patients before any single vital sign becomes abnormal.

  • Stock management and asset tracking: know where equipment is, use stock up that is going to expire soonest to cut waste.

  • Complete support for Virtual Wards (integration with remote monitoring devices, telemedicine consultations, workload prioritisation).