Birmingham outpatients goes paperless

The ICT director of University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust has told a conference that more than 90% of outpatient consultations are done without paper.

Stephen Chilton, who was speaking at EHI Live 2012, said the trust had created its own clinical portal and had nearly reached a "paperless" working environment.

He said: "In excess of 90% of our outpatient consultations don’t require paper records anymore."

"In some instances when people need to draw a diagram or similar, we actually deploy digital pen technology."

He explained that clinical staff simply had to log in to the portal to access charts or patient records.

Mr Chilton added that the logistics of training 7,000 staff with 40 different specialties had been a challenge.

He said: "We went to each specialty and worked with them to give them the confidence to work with the clinical portal to give them the information they needed to deliver the service they wanted."

"We had those people who were enthusiastic but cautious. They wanted evidence and assurance in that they could get access to things that they needed." 

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