No more IT blues: South East Coast Ambulance Service revolutionises the way it works
When it was formed from three ambulance trusts with three unreliable IT systems, South East Coast Ambulance Service took the opportunity to create a new network built on Microsoft technologies. The result is more information where and when staff need it. Suzanna Drew-Edwards reports.
Watch the video case study about the trust and its innovative IT
Take three ambulance services and merge them into one huge trust. Combine three old-style IT systems into a single, remotely-accessed network. Then mix well with an ambitious vision for clinical performance and innovation.
This, in short, is what happened when Kent, Surrey and Sussex ambulance services merged in 2006 and became South East Coast Ambulance Service.
Three into one goes well
“The performance gadget that runs constantly on my desktop tells me if we’re meeting our government target of reaching patients within eight minutes. It’s fantastic.”
Covering an area of 3,600 miles spread over three counties, this busy trust and its staff of 3,000 serve a population of 4.5 to 5 million (a figure that peaks over the summer months, as holidaymakers head for the south coast). It typically responds to one 999 call every minute.
“A key element of our day-to-day running has been to integrate all of our information systems and IT networks,” says Amy Day, the trust’s head of communications. “This has really revolutionised the way in which we work.”
The trust opted to use Microsoft Vista and the Microsoft Office 2007 suite, which includes the OneNote note-taking and sharing package, as well as a number of other Microsoft products, such as Office Communications Server 2007 R2.
“Our vision is to match international best practice in terms of outcomes for patients,” says chief executive Paul Sutton. “In order to support that, we need to innovate technologically as well as clinically.”
“This was a perfect opportunity to start over,” adds Ian Arbuthnot, director of IM&T. “Back in the days when we were three older trusts, there were all sorts of systems being used and most were unreliable.
“Some staff weren’t allowed email, while others had multiple logins that were difficult to use. Since we’ve launched the new system, however, the take-up has been immense.
“Because the software is intuitive, our 3,000 users have been able to get to grips with the system. And because it is reliable, since its launch there hasn’t been a second of downtime – and that’s in nearly two years!”
Built around the user
The trust has taken the approach that IT is an enabler and needs to serve the user, rather than the other way around. “We’ve wanted to make sure there’s absolute simplicity in terms of login and use,” says Mr Sutton. “So we had a package that made sense to the user.
“The combination of OneNote and a Tablet PC has meant that meetings can be paperless. I can open up a Word document, annotate it with my handwriting and those notes will be saved to file.”
“There hasn’t been a need to train people in how to use the Communicator software, and on Vista, the information-at-a-glance gadgets can be personalised to each individual’s needs.
“The performance gadget that runs constantly on my desktop, for example, tells me if we’re meeting our government target of reaching patients within eight minutes. In terms of being informed, it’s fantastic.”
Spanning the distance
“The difference the new system has made to our working lives has been enormous,” says Ms Day. “We’re all dispersed over a very large geographical area, so working on a series of three different networks was difficult and time-consuming.
“On the old system, if I was working in Surrey, I could only access and save files to the Surrey network. And if I then had to go to Kent the following day, I’d only be able to access my previous day’s work if I’d emailed the files to myself. Working like this was the norm.”
Ms Day has eight people in her team, many of whom are based on different sites. Thanks to a new wireless network and the Microsoft technology, she says: “Now we can all open up our laptops at any of the trust sites, and the information’s all there – just as if we were at our desks.”
Working in real time
For an emergency service, having access to real-time clinical information is critical for meeting performance targets. But it is also vital for making proper, evidence-based clinical decisions.
“All trust staff can make informed decisions and improve the service they offer,” says Ms Day. “For example, our stroke care lead can look specifically at the details of all the stroke-related 999 calls we respond to and what happened to the patients.
“And retrospectively, we can use the system to drill down on individual jobs and see, for example, why we didn’t get to a patient as quickly as we would have liked. That’s a massive progression from where we’ve been historically.”
Staff can look at the trust’s online information portal - Info.SECAmb – which details patient information and jobs responded to. “It’s revolutionised the way we work,” says Ms Day, “and made us much more productive, because the information is there in front of us.”
Going green
The integrated system has significantly cut down on the traveling time of trust staff. Where a member of staff might have spent two and a half hours travelling in order to attend a meeting, video-conferencing has now come into play.
“I can touch a button, see everyone who’s logged in through the email system, and have a voice-video conference with them wirelessly over the internet,” says Mr Sutton. “In addition, the combination of OneNote and a Tablet PC has meant that meetings can be paperless. I can open up a Word document, annotate it with my handwriting and those notes will be saved to file.”
Future developments
South East Coast Ambulance Service has changed hugely over the past two and a half years – so what’s next on the IT front?
“We’ve got our infrastructure and our software up and running and we don’t want to drop behind,” says Mr Arbuthnot. “Microsoft will be keeping us informed on the development side, and we’re keen to test new products. That way we’ll ensure we’re always on the cutting edge.”
The trust also has plans to ‘virtualise’ the control room. “Operationally, we need the ability to respond to any incident, no matter how big,” says Mr Arbuthnot. “Our network, systems and software have been designed with the aim of ‘virtualising’ the entire operation.
“This might mean that, in practice, we could, at a moment’s notice, bring in controllers or call-takers from any location, giving them the same access to systems and services as the staff who operate from the physical control room. We want to be in a position that IT is never a hurdle to innovation, but a supporting platform.”