Last month, we introduced Connected Care; a way of making patient GP and hospital records more easily accessible to staff. Using our existing patient records system, Connected Care reduces the time it takes for clinicians to get hold of files and records. This results in a better experience for our patients.

And the system had an instant impact when a patient with a complicated background was admitted to King George Hospital on Thursday 1 April, just before the start of the Easter bank holiday weekend.

Dr Fahad Farooqi, cardiology consultant and our clinical lead for cardiology, was on the bank holiday ward round on Good Friday when he encountered the patient.

“He was a vulnerable adult who had difficulty reading and did not know what medication he was on and what tests he’d already had,” said Fahad. “The patient had been seen at other hospitals across east London in recent months and had also missed appointments due to being made homeless and not receiving letters.

“We needed to find out what tests had already been done on his heart at another hospital and read clinic correspondence so he could get the right urgent care. Because it was the start of a long bank holiday, no ward clerks or secretaries were available to retrieve results for at least another four days. Even on a normal working day this information might have taken hours to collate from three different hospitals in east London.”

Waiting for the necessary information the other side of the bank holiday could have extended the patient’s length of stay by at least four more days, left him on less effective drugs, and he would have been booked for an unnecessary invasive diagnostic investigation.

Thanks to Connected Care, Fahad was able to access all the clinical information he needed remotely on one screen with a few clicks. It only took moments to view the digital documents on his GP records. This proved invaluable in ensuring the patient not only had the right tests carried out but also the correct treatment.

Fahad said: “We had originally planned for him to have an angiogram, an invasive test which involves the insertion of a catheter into heart arteries. It uses a dye with special X-ray to look at the heart circulation. We then discovered that he’d already had that test done at another hospital a few months earlier, so this information saved him from undergoing an unnecessary invasive procedure that didn’t need to be carried out again.

“The patient knew he was allergic to some drugs but couldn’t recall the names. The wrong drugs could have caused serious harm but we were able to find out what he was allergic to and put this information onto the drug chart and get him the correct medication.

“He did need to stay in hospital on this occasion, but Connected Care meant he was swiftly directed to the right course of treatment and the length of his stay was reduced. He was discharged on the correct medication and we were able to restore his original follow up care with his usual cardiologist at the hospital. All of this was achieved without disturbing other on call staff on the bank holiday.

 “This shows the tremendous value of using Connected Care, and it has been particularly helpful out of hours and on bank holidays.”