Title: Integration projects and HL7 implementation at Wrightington, Wigan
1Integration projects and HL7 implementation
atWrightington, Wigan Leigh NHS Trust
- Philip Firth
- IMT Strategy Implementation ManagerWrightington,
Wigan Leigh NHS Trust - Philip.Firth_at_wwl.nhs.uk
2Introduction
- Background to projects in Wigan Acute
- Look at some of the integration issues that Acute
Hospital NHS Trusts typically need to address - Look at an example project with complex
integration needs Accident Emergency - Look at requirements for linking Acute Hospital
NHS Trust systems to LSP solutions and the Spine
3Existing Systems Integration - Maximizing local
IT investment - Delivering functionality which
meets local requirements - Delivering
functionality which maybe out of scope for NPfIT
4Current integration architecture at WWL
5Acute Systems IntegrationTypical Issues
6Standards - what standards???
- Interface standards/output formats in Wigan
- HL7 v2 (various implementations of)
- EDIFACT
- ASTM
- System specific output eg. Torex PAS openlink
- Acute Trusts need to learn to work with whats
available !!!
7Implementation issues - PAS
- PAS real-time interface
- No guarantee that messages would be delivered in
the right order - Could get an Admission message prior to a Patient
Registration - Had to introduce a 15 minute time delay
- Result bed-status in EPR system slightly out of
sink
8Implementation issues - Pathology
- Handling previous results append or overwrite?
- Microbiology overwrite
- Haematology, Chemistry currently append
- Collection date and time not always supplied
- Reference ranges can change
- Implication for graphing
- Sensitive tests
- What is the best way to deal with HIV, GUM,
pregnancy tests etc?
9Implementation issues - Pathology
- Multiple patient IDs (NHS number, Hospital
number) - Multiple casenote numbers (Trust mergers)
- Need to establish systems for cross referencing
patient IDs - Missing patient ID
- Pathology system sending internal patient ID
- Missing key patient data DOB, Gender
- Unable to guarantee a match need to Dump
message
10Data Quality
- Biggest issue by far is unique person referencing
- Major education / change mgmt task to
- Get patient administration staff to register
patient details accurately and avoid duplicates - Get clinicians to use the Hospital / NHS Number
- Problem especially big in emergency care
- Issue has a huge knock on effect for the
remainder of each episode care
11Example A consultant asked me to investigate
why a particular chemistry result did not appear
in the patients EPR recordIn this instance the
patient ID recorded in the Hospital Number field
turned out to be the patients telephone number
Data Quality
MSH\MLAB20040519113446ORUR01X99156P
2.3 PID1217779PAS773702DEPSURNAMEFO
RENAME19371113M999 ACACIA
AVENUEORRELLWIGANWN9 9XX ZMPG3417810NA
TSSLL ZPVAECASMLABRAEILWAPPINTO
A.Mr.CASMLABRAEILWAPPINTOA.Mr.A
CCCCCH2017780320040519200405191026FITS.U
P OBR120177803CCMLABCC_RUEGKUrea, Elects.
Gluc (urgent)LL20040519FITS.20040519
1026APPINTOA.Mr.CHF20040519
S OBX1STCC_TONASodiumL44I5.RC140mmol/L
135-145NF
Lesson CANNOT use patient ID as the sole
identifier also need to cross reference with
patients DOB, Gender, Surname
12Addressing data quality issues in Casualty
- Solution Integrated emergency floor system
- New emergency floor system is integrated with PAS
to enable staff to retrieve up-to-date patient
demograhics, including NHS Number - New emergency floor Pathology / X-ray requests
automatically include patient ID - improvement
departmental system data quality - New emergency floor system will be able to
automatically register new patients on PAS -
improvement 24 hour bed status
13Integrated emergency system live
Addressing data quality issues in Casualty
14Issues that are not so easy to address
Addressing data quality issues in Casualty
- Real-time data capture
- Not easy when an AE receptionist is face to face
with a patient who is either - Confused
- Uncooperative
- Abusive
- Unconscious
- Addressing these issues is proving to be a much
more challenging task!!!
15Addressing presentation issues using XSL
Stylesheets
- Rapid application development approach
- (1) Present the HL7 results in the EPR test
system environment via a stylesheet, and ask the
domain experts for comments - (2) Amend stylesheet, and repeat (1) until domain
experts are happy to sign off stylesheet design - (3) Implement stylesheet in live EPR system
16Microbiology example - Legacy Pathology System
view
Sensitivities in a fairly non user-friendly
cross tabulation format
17HL7v2 messages A Culture and Sensitivity result
is reported using multiple OBX segments. A
single organism result comprises an Organism OBX
segment with subID N followed by an Organism
Growth OBX segment with subID N followed by zero,
one or more Organism Sensitivity OBX segments
also with a subID value of N.
18Microbiology The final stylesheet design was
deemed an improvement to the legacy system text
based screen More user-friendly cross tab for
Organism vs Sensitivities
19Critical issue - TIME
- Building interfaces is not a 5 minute job
- Tasks TIME
- Find funding to initiate project ?
(show-stopper?) - Design interface, agree end-to-end
requirements 1-3 months ? - Supplier set-up / configure interface 1-3
months ? - NHS Trust set-up / configure interface 1-3
months ? - End-to-end testing 1-3 months ?
- On-going Stylesheet development ?
- In summary, even a bog-standard unidirectional
HL7 interface could take anything from 3 to 15
months, from start to finish
20Key benefit of basing your integration
architecture around XMLEXCHANGE OF BOTH DATA
AND PRESENTATION
21Data and Presentation
- Web technology is enabling the Trust to benefit
from both - Data exchange development of interfaces which
move XML patient data between an EPR (an XML
clinical repository) and other departmental
systems - Presentation development and sharing of
stylesheets which present a common view of
departmental system data across multiple
applications
22ExampleBi-directional transfer of data and
presentation between EPR and AE
Data and Presentation
Discharge Letters, Emergency Care summary
EPRElectronic Patient Records
Emergency FloorElectronic Patient Records
JOIN
Shared XML data and stylesheets
Pathology results, Patient demographics
23Haematology result in the EPR system
24Haematology result in the AE system
25Addressing data quality and change issues
Planning ahead for NPfIT / LSP integration
26The clinician's perspective on electronic health
records and how they can affect patient care.
BMJ 20043281184-1187 (15 May)
- Many attempts to get clinicians to use electronic
health records have failed, often because of
difficulties with data entry. - Kay and Purves maintain that narratives are at
the heart of clinical decision making and refers
to this concept as "narrative reasoning - Van Ginneken states that many computerised
medical record systems are rejected by clinicians
because they are not based on a story metaphor - Challenge How to get clinicians to enter coded
information into a computer when they would
prefer to hand write on paper or type essays into
a free text box?
27Emergency Floor system design
- Change management issues
- AE clinicians had never previously entered
clinical data into a computer all notes were
recorded on a paper cascard - Solution had to be QUICK and USER-FRIENDLY !!!
- Single screen to record all discharge information
- Order comms all requests for investigations
recorded - Treatment given point and click
- Drugs administered point and click
- Diagnosis point and click
- Clinician notes free text
28Emergency Care System
Emergency Floor system design
Simple / Quick point and click data capture
29- Emergency floor system
- Discharge screen auto generates an XML discharge
summary message - Stylesheets to produce 2 documents on discharge
- (a) Patient letter
- (b) GP letter
30Emergency floor discharge summaries
- Discharge summaries are currently stored in XML
format and presented on screen using an XSL
stylesheet (AE and EPR systems) - Diagnosis values are coded ICD10, but can easily
be coded in SNOMEDCT as well - XML data could be transformed into valid HL7v3
Provision of care messages using XSLT prior to
routing to the Spine
31NPfIT Integration Challenges
32Scope - NPfIT clinical messaging
- The scope of Phase 1 clinical messaging is very
big and complex - It is HL7 version 3 which is new to the majority
of people in health informatics
33Phase 1 Clinical Messaging Flow Summary
NOTE Flows marked with are also sent to PSIS
but not shown on this diagram for ease of reading
34Existing Systems Integration
- Replacement of NHS IT systems will not happen
overnight in Acute Hospital Trusts - Key department systems may not be replaced before
2010 - Existing systems integration is therefore a key
issue for Acute Hospital Trusts
35Existing specialist or departmental systems will
interface to the LSP core solution NOT directly
to the Spine
Spine compliance
LSP compliance
36LSP Existing Systems Integration
- Single logical link between LSP data centre and
the Authority Service Recipient via N3 - Messages HL7 V2.4 and encrypted
- Integration engine required (Seebeyond license is
free for CSC TIE use only) - Inbound messages must be agreed with
NPfIT(conforming to the rules referenced in
CRS Interactions with Existing System
(NPFIT-FNT-TO-TAR-0004) and Principles for CRS
Clinical Data Access by Local NHS Systems
(NPFIT-FNT-TO-TAR-0006.01))
37WWL / CSC NPfIT integration approach