CREATING BETTER REFERRALS SINCE 2008

“Having access to PRISM has streamlined my referrals in the 2 week wait pathway. I know I’m sending the patient to the right service with the right information. As we put more resources onto PRISM, I am confident that this will make the life of the busy GP easier, and patient care will benefit as a result. The patient will be seen in the right clinic by the right clinician first time and everyone  will benefit.” Dr Tony Bentley

“The facility to be able to find a wide range of resources and guidelines, all located within one single IT system which can be accessed immediately is long overdue- and most welcome!” Dr Tom Rowley

What is PRISM and what does it do?

PRISM “Pathway and Referral Implementation SysteM”, works alongside Clinical Systems, (SystmOne and EMIS web). It has a range of features designed to benefit the GP and other clinicians, providers and most importantly the patient through the referral journey:

Referral pathways created through PRISM ensure effective, consistent referral letters for the referrer and provider. Pathways include helpful prompts and response driven questions specifically tailored to the provider’s requirements. Complementing resources for both GP and patients that are held in one convenient location ensuring that the most up-to-date information is to hand for reference and printing when required.

Additional features include:

• Pathways can incorporate scoring tools to support referral decision
• Referral letters extract patient demographics and clinical details from the patient record
• Referral letters are saved back to the Electronic Patient Record (EPR) for future reference and audit purposes

What are the benefits of PRISM?

– PRISM provides a consistent approach to referral letter creation process that delivers providers a standardised high quality referral letter

– Allows practice staff access to referral related resources in one location

– Ensures all required clinical tests and relevant patient responses are taken prior to referral

– Greatly reduced chance of provider “bounceback” of referral letters, meaning that referrals are processed without the need to contact busy practices for additional information

– PRISM provides a wide range of referral resources that are fully searchable

– No patient information is stored outside of your EPR so there are no additional governance considerations

– Document management within PRISM gives you peace of mind that you are using the most up-to-date pathways and resources

PRISM PORTAL: Providing safe transit for your referrals

Following work with local Sustainability and Transformational Plans (STPs), community based services and mental health services the PRISM team has developed PRISM Portal to allow safe and auditable transportation of referral letters from the referrer to on-going provider, where systems such as e-RS are not in place.

The Portal gives both the referral sender and receiver peace of mind in the delivery and progress of the referral whilst providing an audit trail of the entire journey of that referral.

This is a great example of how the PRISM team work. Working closely with clinicians, so when there is a developement need, they are right there ready to work to improve the system or introduce a new piece of functionality, evolving the product as the health economy requires.

“Ultimately what is wanted is that patients feel they are well informed, valued and have received the right care in the right place by the right health care professional the first time.” Helen Mather

Newsflash!

PRISM has been identified as an innovative solution by East Midlands Academic Health Science Network – Transforming Long Term Conditions for

• Falls prevention and self-management
• Tele-monitoring and condition management
• GP support, education and referrals

Click HERE for details.

Growing a product into a service offering

In order to speed up the number of referrals/ core pathways into PRISM, the service recognised that support and facilitation of clinician pathways sign off would be beneficial.

Therefore in 2015, LHIS established a PRISM Service, providing clinicians with the support, infrastructure and governance for clinical sign off of every pathway going into PRISM.

The PRISM team have a wealth of experience across Primary and Secondary Care, our team contains a wealth of experience backed up with ITIL, change management and PRINCE 2 methodology.

The PRISM team continue to evolve the PRISM product, providing support, testing and training services to our GPs, administration staff and consultants.

Rosey Spence – Team Administration Manager
2 Week Wait Administration Team – Leicester General Hospital UHL: on what PRISM referrals means to her team.

The 2ww administration team are based on The Leicester General Hospital site. The six strong team are responsible for processing over 600 Cancer referrals every week.

The number of PRISM referrals received by the 2ww team are growing every day but the team still receive a significant amount of non-PRISM referrals that creates additional workload, and quite often the need to chase GP practices for additional information.

Having our cancer two week wait referral forms on PRISM has a number of benefits. Rather than receiving different versions of forms that may be years out of date, we can ensure that the most up to date NICE compliant version is available to all referring Practices.

We anticipate that PRISM will help to reduce the number of referrals returned to GPs and reduce avoidable delays in two week wait patients being seen with the required information being available at point of referral. In November 2015, UHL rolled out CT colonogram test for appropriate lower gastrointestinal two week wait referrals. The PRISM form aligns with our straight-to-test pathways and thereby allows us to rapidly and effectively book the patient’s first test or appointment.

Digital Marketplace

LHIS are a Government Framework provider, which allows a procurement route negating the need for formal tender. Find all of our IT products and services on the Digital Marketplace Framework, we are Supplier 93307.