ABSTRACT
People manage many aspects of their lives online through digital devices such as smartphones. However, the ability for people to manage their healthcare digitally has not yet been fully realised. Patient portals are secure online links that offer patients convenient and constant access to their personal health records. Evidence has suggested that patient portals can enhance patients' engagement in their own care and support them to manage any long-term conditions. This article describes the introduction of a patient portal at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The article outlines the process of implementation and discusses the lessons learned, which may be of value to other organisations.
ABSTRACT
People manage many aspects of their lives online through digital devices such as smartphones. However, the ability for people to manage their healthcare digitally has not yet been fully realised. Patient portals are secure online links that offer patients convenient and constant access to their personal health records. Evidence has suggested that patient portals can enhance patients' engagement in their own care and support them to manage any long-term conditions. This article describes the introduction of a patient portal at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. The article outlines the process of implementation and discusses the lessons learned, which may be of value to other organisations.
ABSTRACT
The contribution made by clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) to patient care needs to be understood fully to provide assurance of effective use of resources. However, CNS roles are often poorly understood and not easily articulated. Due to the diversity of these roles, robust reviews of performance and economic benefits can be regarded as time consuming and resource intense, and many organisations enlist external agencies to clarify the contribution to care made by their CNSs. This article gives an overview of a Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust internal review of CNS roles without the support of an external agency. The review provided assurance that this group of nurses is being used effectively and identified opportunities to use the role in different ways to increase effectiveness.
Subject(s)
Efficiency, Organizational , Nursing Staff , Specialties, Nursing , State Medicine/organization & administration , Efficiency , Health Care Rationing , Humans , United KingdomABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: The national Cancer Reform Strategy recommends delivering care closer to home whenever possible. Cancer drug treatment has traditionally been administered to patients in specialist hospital-based facilities. Technological developments mean that nowadays, most treatment can be delivered in the out-patient setting. Increasing demand, care quality improvements and patient choice have stimulated interest in delivering some treatment to patients in the community, however, formal evaluation of delivering cancer treatment in different community settings is lacking. This randomised trial compares delivery of cancer treatment in the hospital with delivery in two different community settings: the patient's home and general practice (GP) surgeries. METHODS/DESIGN: Patients due to receive a minimum 12 week course of standard intravenous cancer treatment at two hospitals in the Anglia Cancer Network are randomised on a 1:1:1 basis to receive treatment in the hospital day unit (control arm), or their own home, or their choice of one of three neighbouring GP surgeries. Overall patient care, treatment prescribing and clinical review is undertaken according to standard local practice. All treatment is dispensed by the local hospital pharmacy and treatment is delivered by the hospital chemotherapy nurses. At four time points during the 12 week study period, information is collected from patients, nursing staff, primary and secondary care teams to address the primary end point, patient-perceived benefits (using the emotional function domain of the EORTC QLQC30 patient questionnaire), as well as secondary end points: patient satisfaction, safety and health economics. DISCUSSION: The Outreach trial is the first randomised controlled trial conducted which compares delivery of out-patient based intravenous cancer treatment in two different community settings with standard hospital based treatment. Results of this study may better inform all key stakeholders regarding potential costs and benefits of transferring clinical services from hospital to the community. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN: ISRCTN66219681.
