The ITK fund has been a large focus for 2013 and 2014 should be the year we start to see this work coming into place. While many Trusts have been working towards digitising their documents, many others have already got theirs up to an ITK standard.
As quoted in the EHI blog, Emil Peters, Vice President and General Manager at Cerner said: “2014 will see a growing gulf between trusts with a clear strategy to 2018 and those yet to identify a credible path to paperless”
So as some Trusts are still struggling behind, the NHS Commissioning board highlights that in order to meet the final target, healthcare organisations need to have electronic records in place by April 2014. The advice of the NHS commissioning board is give less attention to improving the digitisation of what is already there, and concentrate on those elements that aren’t digital.
Jeremy Hunt’s plan suggests that patients should be able to access GP held records by 2015 and the NHS commissioning board want to see paper referrals by 2015. These plans point towards the goal that patients should be considered the owner of their care and be a huge consumer of care information.
For more information on how integration can help achieve ‘Paperless NHS’ visit our website.