News
Odyssey supports improvements in prison healthcare services
23 July 2009
Plain Healthcare has announced that its Odyssey software is being
used within prisons to improve healthcare, supporting high levels of
achievement against prison health quality indicators and offering
clinical decision support.
The Department of Health announced in June that TPP's SystmOne Prison
had been selected as the first national clinical IT system for prisons.
Odyssey is approved and suitable for embedding within SystmOne, ensuring
connectivity.
Recently installed in HMP Hindley Young Offenders Institute, Odyssey
Reception is used for a quick triage of offenders to identify any
potentially serious conditions and FaceToFace is used for a fuller
clinical assessment as required.
NHS Connecting for Health was commissioned to deliver the system and
procured via the local service provider contract with Computer Science
Corporation Alliance. Rollout started in June in prisons across London
and the South. It has already been deployed under independent
procurement by local PCTs in 57 prisons in the North, Midlands and East.
The system should be deployed in all prisons by December 2010.
In response to Lord Darzi’s NHS Next Stage Review: High Quality
Care for All (June 2008) Offender Health, the body overseeing
prison healthcare services, issued a set of Prison Health Performance
Indicators (PHPIs) to guide strategic health authorities (SHAs), primary
care trusts (PCTs) and prisons in judging their own performance. These
were refined in 2009 and are now known as Prison Health Performance and
Quality Indicators (PHPQIs).
HM Inspectorate of Prisons reported that: “The majority of prisons
claimed to undertake nurse triage but none had any formal protocols or
algorithms in place. There was a general lack of primary mental health
provision in many and most were not beginning to meet issues of
significant physical, emotional or sexual abuse and the relationship to
subsequent offending behaviour.”
The leading state prison when reviewed against these PHPQIs was
Hindley Young Offenders Institute, which achieved a maximum score and
have recognised the added value and benefits of Odyssey. They are now
looking to lead the way and encourage other prisons to use the same
hugely beneficial system.
George Dodds, Healthcare Operational Manager, HMYOI Hindley said,
“Using Odyssey system gives our nurses a clinical decision making tool
for assessing our young people's conditions, as well as allowing us to
monitor and report on the conditions and any emerging needs of the
population.
"Assessing this complex group of young people conditions can be a
challenging task within a secure environment. Since using Odyssey we as
a management team, are confident all the right questions are being asked
by nurses and are recorded with accuracy and this gives good evidence of
clinical decision making within the electronic patient record (EPR).”
To enhance service delivery to this sector, Plain Healthcare has
announced the introduction of Odyssey FirstAssess, offering enhanced
functionality designed for use exclusively in the HMP environment.
Plain Healthcare has been appointed to a number of Framework
Contracts as a small and medium enterprise (SME) by NHS Connecting for
Health on behalf of the wider NHS. The four-year Additional Supply
Capability and Capacity (ASCC) Framework Contracts are aimed at
providing NHS organisations and other NHS-funded establishments with a
streamlined route to procure IT systems and services from suppliers who
have demonstrated experience in the health sector.
Plain Healthcare has been appointed as suppliers to four service
categories including Prison Health, which is supporting the delivery of
existing clinical IT systems and/or providing new clinical IT systems.
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