Electronic Patient Records (EPR): Technical Development Support

A market-leading electronic patient records (EPR) company lacked visibility of how it’s software product was providing value to NHS Trust clients, specifically, it’s clinical coding  functionality. Key processes within the software require structured or codified data to function effectively. This impacts on how activity is coded, the resulting HRG and, therefore, how much the Trust is reimbursed for care delivered.

Thanks to Monmouth’s experience of designing and understanding coding systems, the team carried out a review of how the software’s technical capabilities and processes could be enhanced, with recommendations of how these could be incorporated into functional development, third party tooling and additional support to clients.

What we did

Monmouth carried out a technical review of the core system and third party clinical coding functionality. We also undertook an in-situ assessment of the software at four NHS Trust sites. This included parallel coding of clinical activity to identify any system configuration issues, review the completeness and specificity of the captured information and identify what financial impact that might have. The results were challenging with Monmouth finding 53% of episodes being coded differently as a result of system configuration factors.

Platform for consistency

Monmouth provided the EPR provider with a set of c.30 detailed recommendations, mapped against Trusts’ key data capture processes.

The work provided the EPR provider with a clear and practical programme of recommendations to ensure clinical coding accuracy and product enhancement. The support helped the EPR provider improve how its system captures clinical documentation, driving clinical coding accuracy, data quality and confidence in achieving full income recovery for its NHS Trust clients.