Dr Aklak Choudhury presented the latest achievements of the Trust using Ascribe eHandover at Microsoft Sharepoint global Conference in Las Vegas

3rd December 2012 - The Ascribe eHandover solution was recently presented at the global Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2012, by Dr Aklak Choudhury, Clinical Lead for Ambulatory Care at Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHR), who developed the solution in partnership with Ascribe.

The Annual Conference took place in Nevada, Las Vegas where over 10,000 people attended. The presentation, led by Dr Choudhury, was well attended by close to 1,000 people, to share the real-life healthcare example of the importance of having integrated business-critical solutions.

Ascribe eHandover is a SharePoint based solution which improves business-critical processes and provides a list of patients and their applicable locations (wards, beds and specialties) within the hospital. From these patient lists, clinicians are able to create handover records at any point during their shift. A handover list is therefore effectively built for each shift.

Dr Choudhury cited in his presentation, that in the first 14 months of its operation, 21,500 handover records were logged and actioned in the system by 332 separate clinicians. Handover meeting times decreased from 45 minutes down to 20 minutes, improving productivity among teams within the hospital. These results are a remarkable testament to the success of the solution which was adopted organically.

Since the Ascribe eHandover solution won the 2011 EHI Award for "Best use of IT to promote patient safety" and the Microsoft Partner of the Year for Health Award, the solution has gone from strength to strength and has a better reputation both internally and externally. First, falling patient mortality has led to increased patient safety and therefore higher patient satisfaction. Second, based on an eHandover implementation survey, the doctors showed greater than 35% point rises in satisfaction for production of handover lists, identification of sick patients in the hospital, and clarity of handover task status. In fact, the doctors selected BHR as #1 out of 34 hospital trusts in London, vs. the year before when BHR ranked in the lowest third. Finally, BHR has gained reputation in the industry as a beacon site for medical handover and is now working with Medical Education England to potentially set the processes as a "standard" for all health organisations in the UK.

Dr Choudhury commented: "The Ascribe eHandover solution is the first to identify and successfully manage the shift gap issue which results in significant communication failure and patient risk during nights and weekends. It provides the user with the functionality to complete their handover tasks safely, efficiently and without duplication."

Gabor Fari, Director of Life Sciences Solutions at Microsoft, attended the presentation and commented: "This is an amazing testimony of how eHandover on SharePoint has the potential to save hundreds of patient lives in the UK."

ENDS

Notes to Editors

For further information, please contact:
Claire Shuttleworth, Marketing Coordinator Ascribe Ltd, claire.shuttleworth@ascribe.com
Tel: +44 (0) 870 053 4545

About Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust operates across two main sites at Queen's and King George hospitals serving a population of around 700,000 from a wide range of social and ethnic groups, making it one of the largest acute hospital trusts in England.

The Trust is committed to working closely with its partners in the community to place patients' needs at the centre of its services. A lot of work has been done in association with local authorities, PCTs and other local care organisations in both meeting current demand and in planning for the future.

The Trust's primary aim is to provide the right care, in the right place and at the right time to the highest standards.
http://www.bhrhospitals.nhs.uk/

About Ascribe eHandover
Ascribe's Award Winning eHandover solution is designed by NHS staff and Ascribe specialists, ensuring streamlined processes to minimise risk and optimise clinician face-time with patients.

Working in partnership with Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT), Ascribe and the Trust recognised that a practical solution must be based upon a systematic and structured handover process, supported by easy to use technology. Addressing a single factor, such as staff training or technical solutions does not provide a complete solution or deliver patient-centred benefits.

Ascribe eHandover is based on standard Microsoft® tools that are readily available in most Trusts, as well as already being familiar to clinicians - it is no exaggeration to say that a Doctor can learn to use this solution in minutes.

Ascribe eHandover is a practical and working solution that has been used to handle over 70,000 handovers for patients at BHRUT to date. The solution won an EHI Award for 'Best use of IT to promote Patient Safety' in 2011.

About Ascribe
Over 75% of NHS Acute Trusts use Ascribe systems and our commitment to improving healthcare IT has made us a strategic partner for a growing number of Trusts.

Ascribe's clinical systems are robust and scalable, from departmental systems through to strategic enterprise-scale solutions. The company is a Microsoft Gold Partner. In addition developing its own solutions, Ascribe provides professional consultancy personnel for Ascribe, Microsoft and other healthcare IT systems. From Electronic Prescribing through to Paperless Clinical Management and even Pharmacy robotic interfaces, Ascribe's breadth of integrated systems has been proven to help Trusts improve their efficiency and cut costs.

"The system paid for itself in two months", Senior NHS Clinical Manager.

Ascribe employs 300 personnel through its operating companies in the UK, Kenya, Australia and New Zealand. For more information, please visit http://www.ascribe.com/

© Ascribe 2012. Ascribe is a registered trademark. All other brands and product names and trademarks are the registered property of their respective companies.