9 Summary of actions and outcomes
The various main actions contained in this strategy are summarised below under three headings, showing in addition what can be expected to be achieved. References are made to relevant sections within the document.
Exploit and improve what exists
What | By when |
SCI Gateway and SCI Store will be further consolidated and standardised, with priority being support for the 18 week waiting times programme. (Section 6.1) | Targets and programme of work agreed by September 2008. |
Definition and delivery of a Child Health Summary will provide the focus for improved integration of nationally-held child health information. (Section 6.2) | Specification and proving work completed by end 2008 and roll-out thereafter. |
Mental health: short term focus on eHealth support for the Mental Health Benchmarking Programme and Integrated Care Pathways. In the longer term it is expected that the Patient Management System (see below) will provide upgraded facilities to further support mental health services. (Section 6.2) | Short term targets and programme of work agreed by September 2008. |
Emergency Care Summary service will be enhanced through additional items of patient information and a wider user base. (Section 6.3) | Subject to stakeholder and business case acceptance, progressively introduced over 2008 - 2011. |
Programme to deliver eHealth support to community health and social care focused on NMAHPs. (Section 6.2) | Progressive improvement targets agreed with each NHS Board, through to 2011. |
For telehealth and telecare, priorities will be to support home based care support for managing long term conditions, delivery of care in remote and rural settings and improved ways of addressing unscheduled care. (Section 6.3) | Throughout period of the Strategy. |
Continue to develop and deploy 'change and benefits' methods to help ensure that the potential of our new and existing systems is fully reached. (Section 8) | Throughout the period of the Strategy. |
Significant procurements or developmentsAction | By when |
Led by NHS National Services Scotland, the technology which delivers the national CHI index for patient identification will be modernised and the service improved. (Section 6.2) | Complete by end 2009. |
Led by a consortium of NHS Boards, national procurement of a suite of products known as Patient Management System. (Section 6.3) | Contract in place spring 2009, roll-out thereafter, live in three NHS Boards by 2011. |
Led by NHS Tayside, national procurement of products and services for user identity management and Single Sign-on - the Clinical Portal. (Section 6.3) | Contract in place spring 2009, roll-out thereafter, live in three NHS Boards by 2011. |
Plan a managed transition from GPASS based on choice resulting from a national procurement. See also community NMAHP action below. (Section 6.3) | Contract in place summer 2009, roll-out thereafter with a date to be agreed for migration of last GPASS practice. |
Complete the business case and take decisions around the proposed national HR system. (Section 6.3) | By September 2008. |
Further planningWhat | By when |
Safeguarding information confidentiality: an upgraded information assurance policy and implementation plan developed. (Section 5) | Complete by spring 2009, implementation thereafter. |
Assuring eHealth patient safety: agree action plan for mechanisms. (Section 3) | End 2008 |
eHealth in support of Long Term Conditions: action plan developed which will include 'patient eHealth'. (Section 6.3) | Complete by end 2008, implementation thereafter. |
General: strategies and associated plans developed for IT applications, technical architecture and finance of eHealth. (Section 9) | Complete by end 2008. |
Support for delivering the strategyWhat | By when |
Establish eHealth support for improvement collaboratives in each NHS Board, including common support team. Priority focus on support for 18 week waits. (Section 8) | By end 2008. |
Develop a strategy for improving the professional skills of our eHealth staff. (Section 8) | By end 2008. |
Develop an eHealth financial strategy in collaboration with NHS Boards. (Section 10) | |
Note that the programmes and projects included above do not represent all eHealth initiatives currently underway - there are many others such as the PACS national roll-out. The focus here is on the new and extended work. Nevertheless the number of current national and local projects is considerable and they need to be co-ordinated as part of the overall eHealth programme to ensure they fit with the strategic direction, effective management of inter-dependencies, and delivery of anticipated benefits to support Better Health Better Care as discussed in the previous section.
We will agree with NHS Boards an applications ( IT systems) strategy reflecting the above programmes and projects, but recognising local past investment to support the aims of eHealth. This will set out how we aim to progressively increase standardisation to improve information sharing and reduce costs. It will also describe how flexibility and choice of systems will operate: which systems are national and mandatory for instance.
In addition a technical strategy will be developed to underpin the applications strategy. The principles which will underpin the strategy will be:
- support incremental improvements in availability of clinical and non-clinical information and functions
- ensure confidentiality and integrity of information
- improve how systems interoperate so as to safely present integrated patient and health information
- support improvements in data quality and usability
- offer best value
- be receptive to evolving clinical and business requirements
- support variations and innovation in local clinical and business priorities
- support incremental steps towards minimum levels of standardisation