Australia’s eHealth NSW announced
that Sutherland Hospital is the latest to welcome its Electronic Record for
Intensive Care (eRIC), giving clinicians better access to valuable information
on patients being treated in its Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
This means that South Eastern Sydney LHD now joins Mid North
Coast and Northern NSW LHDs in having introduced eRIC across all of its ICUs.
Replacing paper forms, eRIC is an electronic Clinical
Information System that integrates ICU patient data to improve patient safety
and provide better clinical decision-making.
With eRIC, ICU clinicians have full visibility of the
patient data electronically, which is stored in one location.
The patient data also
automatically populates, providing easy access to a multitude of information
including pathology and imaging, as well as policies and patient assessment
charts.
Dr Grant Eruini-Bennett, ICU Director at Sutherland
Hospital, said eRIC is providing more time for clinicians to care for a
patient.
“Less time will be spent recording, allowing clinicians to
spend more time on direct patient care by the bedside,” Dr Eruini-Bennett said.
eRIC also provides improved access to patient medical record
including past admissions. Through the electronic access of this information,
it allows for better data collection and benchmarking.
Phil Marshall, eRIC Clinical Change Manager at Sutherland
Hospital, welcomed the increased safety and efficiencies eRIC has delivered.
“With eRIC, we are able to access patient information from
anywhere in the unit and medical officers have better access to prescribing
information, rather than needing to locate the one paper National Inpatient
Medical Chart (NIMC),” said Mr Marshall.
eRIC is now live in 169 ICU beds throughout 9 hospitals
across NSW, 7 of which transitioned from paper-based charting to electronic,
including Sutherland in South Eastern Sydney LHD.
The next go-live of eRIC will take place at John Hunter
Hospital and Wollongong Hospital in mid-June.
A further 8 go-lives are scheduled throughout
2018 and ongoing deployment discussions continue with other LHDs for potential
go-lives in the latter part of the year.