Hannah Lewthwaite – Speech & Language Therapist
Hannah started using CHIE approximately 7 years ago after being introduced to the system by a colleague. On average, and depending on which patients she is seeing, she uses the system every other day.
“I work with children who have complex needs. As part of my job I need to monitor their chest health and liaise with the wider team supporting the child. Having access to CHIE allows me to look at some reports that are not available on other systems. For example, I can read radiologists’ reports, check to see if the child has had any chest x-rays carried out and view any medications that the child has been prescribed.”
Why is this important?
“CHIE access allows me to have more accurate information about when the child was in hospital or prescribed any antibiotics from the hospital.
Does the ability to do the above save you time?
“Being able to see this information in CHIE saves me time and saves the parent time. With the information being available on CHIE, the parent does not have to recall when and which medications the child has had at different points in their treatment journey. If CHIE wasn’t available, I would have to make more phone calls and e mails to gain additional information for triage, as well as rely on the parent’s recall of information, and asking parents to repeat information.”
What benefits does CHIE bring to your clinical practice?
“I triage referrals and sometimes these referrals contain very limited information. Historically this meant that we had to contact the parent or referrer to obtain further information to help us prioritise the patient correctly (high/medium/low). Now, however, the first thing I do is check our Trust EPR (SystmOne) and then CHIE. Using the CHIE record alongside the SystmOne record not only helps me work out how the patient should be prioritised, but it can save me from making a phone call to the parent, saving everyone time and speeding up the whole process.
What would you say to anyone who hasn’t started using CHIE?
“Give it a go! Have a look at system to see what relevant information you can find. CHIE holds a great list of clinic letters and other correspondence that we sometimes do not otherwise see. CHIE can give us a much clearer and comprehensive set of information which can help inform our decision making”.