C&I to discontinue the use of EMIS | News

We have made the difficult decision to discontinue the use of EMIS, used by C&I clinicians. We recognise the value that EMIS has brought to integrated working with Primary Care, however by October 2024 we need to move to a single Electronic Patient Record System (RIO) for the Partnership.

Between May – October 2024 C&I clinicians will have read-only access to GP records via EMIS WEB. In October read-only access will stop and C&I clinicians will no longer be able access EMIS WEB.  

We understand this is unsettling and causes concern and questions from Primary Care partners. To help explain why this decision has been made, we have provided some further information below:

Why are we doing it?

EMIS has been used in C&I community services since 2016 but in a review carried out in 2021, staff told us that they needed to manually enter data into different systems, resulting in duplication of effort which is time-consuming and inefficient. It has also resulted in fragmented records with incomplete data.

As we strengthen our Partnership working, we need integrated and collaborative systems across North Central London, and with our community partners. The move to a single electronic patient records system will help to achieve that.

What will this mean for the Camden and Islington workforce?
Currently there are approximately 64 GP practices that have a data sharing agreement with C&I. Moving forward there will be three systems available to enable access to a patient’s clinical data and consultation records:

1. There will be a comprehensive data migration of clinical data and consultation records from EMIS onto RIO before we switch to the Read Only version of EMIS in May 2024. Forms and search fields are already available in RIO to retrieve patient data and consultation records. Consultation records will be stored as progress notes in RIO.
2. The Health and Social Care Network (HSCN) the spine for emergency and next of kin data. We can also synchronise locally acquired data if not provided by the GP.
3. London Care Record (LCR). GPs can upload patient data and records to the LCR database. A link to the LCR is available on RIO. GPs will also be able to view the following patient data and records updated by our workforce in RIO via the LCR system:

• Demographics
• Alerts
• Allergies
• Referrals
• Appointments (future and past)
• Admission History
• Mental Health Section History
• Latest Confirmed Diagnosis
• CPA History
• Cluster History
• Recent Progress Notes (the last 15 progress notes for the last 90 days only, this is also excludes progress notes listed as not to be shared on LCR)

 

Please note that records shared by other NHS organisations including acute are also available to view on LCR.

We do appreciate that changes of this nature may be unsettling, but our EMIS Decommissioning Project team will be working very closely with key representatives internally and externally to ensure that clinical processing needs are met and that transition to our new ways of working is a smooth one.

If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact: eprchangeandchampionsgroup@candi.nhs.uk