11th October 2011 – Ascribe, the leading healthcare solution provider, announced today that, together with Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, it was delighted to have been presented E-Health Insider’s award for eHandover in the category of ‘Best use of IT to promote patient safety’.

eHandover, which is built using Microsoft’s SharePoint® technology, was officially launched in the UK at the National Clinical Handover Conference hosted in London on the 30th June 2011. Since that time it has attracted a lot of interest as an effective means to improve patient safety.
EHI Award
EHI Award

The award winning solution addresses the critical process of Clinical handover, which relates to the transfer of patients' care between shifts and specialities, and is based upon effective communication and coordination, important factors in the continuity of quality care. Poor clinical handover can compromise patients' safety and the quality of patient care. Good clinical handover depends on people, process and technology; no matter how excellent the people a poor process and reliance on handwritten and hastily communicated notes is a clinical weakness.

eHandover is a clinician led handover process that is supported by a robust and easy to use software application. The solution:

    Identifies critical patients; handover care packages are documented and actions are recorded with each action clearly allocated to a specific Doctor.

    Manages patient care across the ‘shift gap' e.g. from the Friday day shift to the Sunday evening shift, where traditional manual handovers experience high rates of miscommunication and breakdown.

    Centralises key patient information making it accessible, enabling informed decisions, and care to be planned

Averil Dongworth, CEO for Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust said: "I am delighted that the Trust has won this award. We take the safety of our patients extremely seriously, and the important work that has been done here can now be used to help others in the NHS.”

Dr Aklak Choudhury, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust said: "We are very pleased and excited that the eHandover solution won the patient safety category. Clinical risks associated with patient handover should be at the forefront of everybody’s minds.  The eHandover solution is the first to identify and successfully manage the shift gap issue which results in significant communication failure and patient risk during nights and weekends."

Dr Aklak Choudhury also commented: "In just over a year we have recorded over 20,000 handover logs using eHandover at two acute hospital sites. More than 330 unique doctors have used the system. The high user rates are a testament to eHandover's ease of use. It recognises the daily workflows that junior doctors deal with and provides the user with the functionality to complete their handover tasks safely, efficiently and without duplication. The PMETB 2010 junior doctors' survey for medicine ranked BHRUT highest for handover amongst all Acute Care Trusts in London. We are all very excited about eHandover. It has the potential to standardise handover across hospital trusts in the U.K."

Stephen Critchlow, CEO of Ascribe commented, “We are delighted that E-Health Insider and their panel of judges have awarded so prestigious an award for eHandover to Ascribe and Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust. Ascribe is committed to improving patient safety and delivers integrated solutions and consultancy services to help healthcare organisations to achieve these goals.”