The deployment of the new PACS and RIS systems at Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust was successfully delivered and implementation has gone well despite having to work to some very demanding timescales. As follows any major system deployment there are a number of issues that we are working hard to resolve. This issues are:
- Images not yet reported (June/July) – some reports, in particular plain film, are experiencing a delay in being reported, due to the volume and the images accessibility during the changeover. A plan has been implemented to clear the back log of reports, with additional reporting in house and increase in work load, to our third party reporting company, Medica.
- Typing backlog (for dictated images & reports) – Unfortunately, we are not currently able to make full use of our voice recognition system; therefore, due to the volume of images being reported to clear the backlog (in house), this has put additional pressure on our Medical Secretaries. Additional hours are being put into typing to ensure reports can be sent timely with the report being dictated.
- Patient waits for appointments – unfortunately, some of our patients, particularly in CT, MRI and US, have experienced a longer than normal wait for the appointment date. We have now resolved the back log and are rapidly booking patients; waiting times will be back to normal by mid-August.
- GPs receiving a high number of results and communications which although are related to the patient, the GP has not been involved in that part of the patients care, hence upon the patient’s report being completed, the protocol in Cerner then reads the ‘direct referral’ status and automatically sends the results to the referring clinician AND GP. This has been escalated to our Cerner Back Office team are working on a resolution for it and we will update on progress as soon as possible.
If you have a report that you urgently require and hasn’t yet been reported, please kindly bleep the X-Ray Coordinator at East Surrey Hospital on bleep 600 and they will immediately arrange for the report to be dictated and typed; we can facilitate an urgent report to be sent electronically or faxed to the practice where possible. The X-Ray Coordinator can be contacted Monday to Friday 08.30 to 17.00. Again, please accept our apologies for any delay caused to you and your patients, but we are working hard to remove any excess waiting times, with additional resource in the department and hope to be in a stronger position within four weeks. Should you wish to speak to someone in regards to this, but not in request of results, please kindly contact: Victoria Bailey, Interim Radiology Business Manager on ext.1602 or Victoria.bailey@sash.nhs.uk; she will be happy to talk through your concerns with you.
