New software aims to cut hospital admissions
pharmafile | November 16, 2007 | News story | |
Doctors and clinicians will have access to a free new computer program that can help them reduce the number of NHS patients admitted to hospital.
The new software is an upgrade on its original version, and has been developed at the request of its users across PCTs.
Reducing waiting lists and the number of patients in hospital is crucial to the government's agenda. Emergency admissions took the biggest slice of the NHS budget last year, costing the health service £13.7 billion.
It is also the third biggest area for potential savings, according to the Department of Health, which wants all patient referrals to be dealt with inside 18 weeks by the end 2008.
The new software, called Patients at Risk of Re-hospitalisation (PARR+), is an improved and less cumbersome edition of its forerunner, which was released in 2006.
Thousands of patients are repeatedly admitted to hospitals because of serious long-term conditions, and the tool helps doctors spot these individuals and treat them in primary care where possible.
More than two thirds of PCTs were believed to be using the original tool, and the next instalment promises to be even more proficient.
It can access greater, more accurate, and up to the minute data from accident and emergency, inpatient, outpatient and GP sources, to identify patients likely to become frequent users of hospital services.
The program was developed for the Department of Health by think-tank the King's Fund with its partners Health Dialog UK and New York University, and there are plans to take the project further.
The same partnership is currently working on a 'combined model' that will identify patients likely to be admitted to hospital for a first time, as well as those likely re-visit.
