A collaboration between clinic-management specialists Savience Limited and healthcare IT solution firm HSL Telehealth has created a new secure virtual clinic service.

By integrating the virtual clinic module from Savience’s Clarity system with HSL’s shared conferencing and collaboration network, the service allows clinicians to organise a remote outpatient’s consultation by clicking on a screen icon.

All clinicians need is a webcam, while patients can access the sessions via a smartphone, tablet, laptop or PC. 

Clarity’s database is updated in real-time by a patient administration system (PAS) and contains full details of all patient appointments for the current day and for the future.  Icons appear on clinicians’ screens, which show what form the appointment will take whether face-to-face, by phone, or by video. 

Patients are notified by SMS or e-mail alerts and then the clinician, by clicking on the video icon, starts the clinic.

Calls to patients are generated by software in HSL’s network, which offers a complete, secure communications platform for the health establishments, providing virtual meeting rooms, gateway services, and web applications.

WHY IT MATTERS

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an unprecedented demand for telehealth and remote solutions to avoid risk of infection. 

By using standard technology and integrating with existing hospital’s PAS and EPR systems, Savience and HSL intend their service to easily integrate with the existing healthcare workflow. 

THE LARGER CONTEXT

The COVID-19 crisis has seen the launch and expansion of a variety of virtual services. Digital dictation, speech recognition and transcription for healthcare specialist T-Pro recently launched eClinic Manager, a platform that enables patient appointments to be carried out virtually and securely via smartphones, tablets and desktop computers.

Meanwhile, hospitals have been exploring digital triage options. The UK’s Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS trust, has installed Cinapsis, a digital triage platform, which allows GPs to ‘beam in’ consultants via an app, maintaining specialist support while reducing the need for hospital visits.

ON THE RECORD

Sam McMaster, director of telehealth at HSL, said: “No other service offers this level of integration. As a result, it will increase capacity in the NHS without placing extra stress on its resources. Costs are reduced and clinicians’ time better utilised while outpatients avoid the need to travel.”

Roger Everitt, CEO of Savience, said: “This innovation from two progressive NHS-focused companies with many years’ experience and knowledge working with the NHS brings together two disparate parts of Health ICT to deliver a solution that supports the NHS in meeting the continuing demands of COVID-19. Just as important it will work for other clinical disciplines post the crisis, removing the risks of expedient, non-integrated, external services from companies driven by profit rather than the benefit to the NHS.”