Digital record system continues to 'reshape' how health and social care is delivered in the Southern Trust
The roll-out of Northern Ireland’s digital health and social care record system, encompass, over the past year has encouraged people within the Lisburn area to play a more active role in managing their own care, the Southern Trust has said.
Friday, May 8 marked one year since the Southern Trust went live with the new system, a major milestone in the organisation’s journey of digital transformation.
The date also commemorated a landmark moment for health and social care across Northern Ireland. The completion of the encompass roll-out across all five health and social care trusts, creating a single integrated digital care record system for the region and fundamentally transforming how patient information is recorded, accessed and shared.
Throughout the past year, encompass continues to be embedded across Southern Trust services.
A key feature of the system, the My Care portal, has given people greater visibility of their appointments, communications and parts of their health record. By placing information directly into their own hands, patients and service users are encouraged to play a more active role in managing their own care.
For staff, encompass has significantly improved how information is shared and used. Real-time access to accurate patient and service user data supports better communication between multidisciplinary teams, enhances care co-ordination, reduces duplication, and enables faster, more informed clinical decision-making.
The transition from multiple legacy systems and paper-based processes to a single digital record also releases more time to focus on care.
---
Read more:
---
Other benefits include prescribing on encompass, saving time, improving accuracy and alerting patients to when medications are ready; the ability for support staff to see bed availability to provide a smoother patient flow throughout the hospital; and managing capacity and attendances within day care services.
Interim Programme Director of encompass for the Southern Trust, Siobhan Hanna, said: "One year on, encompass is really helping to reshape how health and social care is delivered in the Southern Trust – creating a more connected, efficient, and patient-centred system as part of everyday care.
"Our Trust Vision and Strategy recognises the importance of broadening the use of digital technology to improve patient care.
"We remain committed to continually maximising the benefits of encompass and using digital innovation to further enhance services and improve the experience of care for the population that we serve.”