Eastbourne and Hastings hospitals are ditching paper to go fully digital

Emergency departments at Eastbourne DGH and Conquest Hospital have welcomed the Nervecentre system which stores information about patients electronically.

Staff can submit the information through specially provided mobile phones and tablets, East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust says.

The trust says this means a patient’s notes will always be available and time won’t be wasted looking for physical notes.

According to the trust, the system also gives an overview of all activity within the department and will automatically alert to any patient whose condition is deteriorating.

In conjunction with other parts of the Nervecentre system already in use on the hospitals’ wards, a patient’s notes will remain digital and move with them through different hospital departments.

Eventually all other aspects of patient care, including investigations and prescribing, will be moved over to the system so all information is managed digitally.

Doctor Shaymau Habeeb, chief of emergency medicine at the trust, said, “In the short time since we introduced Nervecentre to our emergency departments, we’ve already seen many benefits.

“The system is easy to use and gives us clear and accurate real-time information about our patients.

“Having all the clinical information we need easily to hand saves time so we have more time to spend with patients, which ultimately means we can provide a better overall experience for them.”

Debbie Guy, director of operations at Nervecentre, said, “The implementation of our emergency department software solution in the two emergency departments at East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust was a great success and was only made possible through the hard work and dedication of the teams at both the trust and Nervecentre.

“It’s great to see the software working so well and seeing how quickly and easily the staff took to it.

“I’m looking forward to seeing all the efficiency and patient safety benefits that come from their new ED system.”