Echo tech project is at the heart of improvement
In a multi-team project involving cardiology, digital transformation and improvement practice teams in our Trust, the busy cardiology department in the first-floor main outpatient department at Hillingdon Hospital in Pield Heath Road is now using Change Healthcare echocardiography reporting software.
The move comes after the Trust joined forces with Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.
Vernon Mazo, chief cardiac physiologist at Hillingdon (pictured), enthusiastically explains the improvement. Out have gone Word documents laboriously completed and heart scan images saved to CD, and in has come a real-time web-based system available to everyone in the department.
“It’s a big help to us and has made composing our reports much easier,” said Vernon.
“Before, information was gathered manually, and human error could cause delays. The new system is safer because before there was the risk of typos and other errors as we entered the data, and this could slow things down because people would query the information and it then had to be checked and rectified.
“Now the measurements and images are imported automatically to a template and go straight on to the system.
“Everything is visible now to everyone in the department at all times and in real time.”
Vernon’s day mainly consists of using an ultrasound device – similar to a pregnancy scan – to create images of a patient’s heart. He scans as many as 12 patients per day, and other colleagues each scan similar numbers, so there is a constant throughput of patients and hundreds of records per week are created.
The old system of Word document and CD was cumbersome and inflexible. For example, if a patient needed to go for onward treatment, a new scan would be required at that location. Now data and images can be shared easily online.
Dr Savvas Hadjiphilippou, a consultant cardiologist at Hillingdon, who leads the team, said the Change Healthcare software lives up to its name as a game changer, and he paid tribute to everyone who brought the project to fruition.
“We first started working on the new echo software business case even before I joined the Trust, in February 2022 to be exact,” he said.
“Exactly two years since that first meeting, I am proud that we have been able to successfully go live and scan our first patients.
“Not only that, through our cross-site echocardiography partnership with Imperial we have also integrated with partners across north-west London and are able to provide our patients with a level of care that we were not able to previously, all whilst raising the standard of echocardiography at Hillingdon and empowering our team of physiologists to develop and grow.”
Dr Hadjiphilippou thanked all at our Trust who had a hand in the improvement.
“It has transformed the way we deliver care in the department, made for a smoother patient journey and greater integration with our partners across north-west London.”
Then addressing colleagues directly, he said: “Through this journey you have all proven just how remarkable the NHS can be and how much can be achieved with teamwork, goodwill and commitment.
“I cannot thank you all enough.”