EMIS LV approved for SCR roll out

Tags: CfH EMIS GP PCTs SCR South

27 Jul 2009

NHS Connecting for Health has announced that EMIS’s LV system has achieved full roll out approval for the Summary Care Record, which the agency has described as major breakthrough for the programme.

It said EMIS LV is used by about 45% of GP practices in England and the SCR implementation team would now begin working with those primary care trusts using the system.

James Hawkins, SCR programme director, said: “This milestone provides a catalyst for a significant shift in place and momentum in the rollout of SCR nationally for those NHS trusts implementing SCRs through EMIS LV.

"The news is also good for patients. It has been a long time coming but we can get on with the job of rolling out.”

The programme has been frustrated by the time taken by EMIS to become compliant with the SCR.

Healthcare IT system supplier Synergy system was the first GP system to achieve approval for national roll-out, followed by TPP’s SystmOne earlier this year. CfH said INPS’s Vision system has achieved limited roll-out approval so far.

Lea Taylor, the SCR EMIS Release Manager, said approval for EMIS LV followed the first successful uploading of SCRs at an EMIS practice earlier this summer. This happened at West Heath Surgery in South Birmingham.

He added: “We've been monitoring our first of type sites and everyone is now fully satisfied we can move on and fully link into the roll out of SCRs across England.”

The first three PCTs that will go live with EMIS LV will be South Birmingham, Dorset and Somerset.

SCR Clinical Director Gillian Braunold said: "I am delighted that EMIS LV is now available to be implemented nationally. This will enable proper planning for SCR roll out as we now are technically able to create an SCR for the majority of the population."

CfH said 360,000 SCRs had so far been created by systems from iSoft, TPP, INPS as well as EMIS.

Fiona Barr

EMIS loads first SCRs (09 Jun 2009)

Reader's Comments

Do patients check their own SCR information?

27 Jul 09 12:07

Are individual patients asked to check their own summary information before it is uploaded to the spine? If not, who is responsible for making sure it is accurate and up to date?

What if the adverse reaction / allergy information is incorrect?

What if the list of "active" medical problems is incorrect?

What if the list of "active" medications is incorrect?

Who is responsible for auditing the information?

Patients can access and check their SCR

27 Jul 09 17:07

Patients with internet access can check their personal health SCR online by using Healthspace - www.healthspace.nhs.uk - I'm not sure about those without internet access.

If any of their SCR details are wrong I suppose they can contact their GP to have their SCR amended.

What sort of LV has been approved?

28 Jul 09 22:07

Apart from medication, allergies and alerts, which are all that are going to go on the spine to start with, any diagnoses must be agreed with the patient before upload. Whilst hopefully helping data quality, it does mean that the summary care record may well be incomplete, and should not be relied upon for making clinical decisions without reference to the patient.

The question I would like answered is - EMIS were always saying that any further NPfIT functionality would be delivered through LV Web and PCS Web. Is this the text based LV system alone that has been approved, or LV with the web streaming included?

EMIS LV SCR

angus.goudie@GP-A89021.nhs.uk

29 Jul 09 11:07

It seems to be ordinary LV even without streaming that can send summaries. The PCT would need to get signed up to the process as there is significant local work to be done. I would encourage Web streaming anyway as it does look as if there will be significant benefits in other areas in the next year.