East Kent Hospitals goes live with maternity personal health record

East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust has become one of the first trusts to go live with Wellbeing Software’s Personal Health Record (PHR) for maternity.

The PHR platform, which is a customisable module within Wellbeing’s maternity information system (MIS) Euroking, gives women free electronic access to their maternity records throughout their pregnancy.

Through the portal, women are able to interact with their electronic records and even add their own information around clinical, family and maternity history as well as preferences about their birth plan.

Crystal McLeod, improvement and transformation manager and programme manager for maternity transformation at East Kent said: “The Euroking software means we can record women’s risk and other details of their care quickly and easily, and they can instantly access it whenever they need it.

“It is helping to improve care because we no longer have to rely on paper versions of a patient’s notes, and it means mums to be can feel more in control of their pregnancy and birth plan.

“Women can feel confident that, if there is an emergency or complication, their medical team will be able to see up-to-date information on their notes and will be able to guide families to make the best decisions for their babies.”

The trust is hoping that the software will enhance and support ongoing conversations women will have with their midwife and the wider maternity care team.

The ability to view their information online replaces the paper records that they would typically have carried with them on their maternity care journey, supporting the trust’s “paper light” vision.

Chris Yeowart, director at Wellbeing Software added: “For the first time we’re delivering a solution that is geared around the needs of the patient, rather than the clinician.

“It was important for us that the initial pilot site at East Kent had a fully immersive experience with PHR, and they’re already providing valuable insight into product development to inform updates in the future.”

It is not just maternity software which is being introduced at East Kent. In February 2019, the trust replaced pagers with System C’s CareFlow Connect app.

This gave clinicians access to real-time information and receive alerts to their mobile devices about their patients.