An introduction to England’s Integrated Care Records Service
The Integrated Care Records Service is the most complex of the four
new national systems to be introduced by the one-year-old National
Programme for NHS IT. We asked Richard Granger, Director General
for NHS IT, for an overview of its functions and delivery.
keywords: national programme
for nhs it, nhs ict infrastructure improvement, electronic booking,
electronic transfer of prescriptions, integrated care records service,
systems design.
abstract
As the NHS approaches its 60th anniversary in 2008, the most radical
transformation since its creation is under way. To support this
programme of reform, England’s National Programme for IT (NPfIT) will
roll out, from now until 2010, a visionary, patient-centred integrated
care records service. One of its principal objectives is to improve the
quality and convenience of care — by ensuring that those who give and
receive care have the right information at the right time.
The National Programme focuses on four key developments: an
underpinning IT infrastructure; the electronic booking of referral
appointments; electronic transfer of prescriptions; and an electronic
integrated care-records service including a nationally accessible
core-data repository. The development of the Integrated Care Records
Service aims to bring together all areas of healthcare with the sharing
of information and automated recording of data, to make healthcare a
co-ordinated experience for patients and care professionals alike.
B J Healthcare Comput Info Manage 2003; 20(10): 22–4. |
