VALIDATION STANDARDS
3. Validate the validators. Do your colleagues working on validation have the necessary skills and experience to undertake the work? Are they a risk to meeting compliance and do they need more support to fulfil the duty properly? Talk to your teams to understand what resources are needed. If it becomes clear they are not sure what is required, seek further support from specialists. To be clear, to conduct testing sufficiently, your team will need system knowledge, awareness of local processes and be subject matter experts within their discipline. A highly developed, well documented validated service will support staff, enabling them to match user requirements to functional design and system configuration following local operating practices and meeting user needs, ensuring patient safety is considered throughout.
4. Champion clinical IT system validation. The CSV process is as much about people as it as about the technology. It serves to protect people’s lives and livelihoods. We need to raise the standards and change the culture around validation. When shiny gadgets and emerging technology become the primary focus of IT, finance and operational executives, we need a clinical voice to ensure patient safety is paramount in all system validation. This approach aligns with the NHS Interim People Plan which supports an ambition to build “a leadership culture that empowers everyone working in and for the NHS to work collaboratively to generate proposals for continuous improvements in ways of working.”5
5. Learn from other NHS providers. Within the NHS there are some fine examples of good practice and innovative solutions aimed at delivering better patient outcomes, improving service efficiency and ensuring greater quality in services and higher standards of clinical safety and patient safeguarding. My colleagues and I at Transforming Healthcare Consultancy have been fortunate to work with and support many of the leading clinical innovators, both within the UK and overseas.
The pathology IT and service improvements at Guys’ St Thomas’ NHS FT and Kings College Hospital NHS FT that have streamlined the service provision for four million patients within South-East London is one shining example. While Severn Pathology in Bristol and the South-West is pioneering in combining pathology services across three Trusts to save as much as £3.6 million in running costs. Recently we have been involved in the commissioning of a wide-spread deployment of a modern secure clinical messaging app, replacing the use of pagers and other restrictive communication methods. In a single trust deployment across 3400 clinical
URS prove that an IT system software is able to provide the necessary functionality to meet the clinical need and to be fit-for-purpose.
and support users, it is saving an estimated 30 minutes per clinical shift, potentially releasing 100,000 hours of patient focused clinical time each year.
Final thought
Digital transformation is fundamental for the future of the NHS and I am very much an advocate. When successful, digital-enabled change can give precious time back to clinicians, offer upskilling opportunities, and provide confidence and drive into their working day.
But all this can be undone by shortcutting validation processes. With so much new software and apps available, we need to stay grounded and ensure patient safety and clinical usability is front of mind throughout project implementations and beyond. At the end of the day, it’s up to all of us to raise the standards of clinical safety within digital health.
References
1 Speech: I believe in the power of technology to make lives better. Secretary of State Matt Hancock. 18 March 2019. Online:
https://www.gov.uk/ government/speeches/i-believe-in-the-power-of- technology-to-make-lives-better
2 Quarter Of NHS Acute Trusts’ Laboratory Information Systems ‘Not Fit For Purpose’. Clinical Services Journal. 21 June 2019. Online:
https://www.clinicalservicesjournal.com/story/3047 6/a-quarter-of-nhs-acute-trusts-laboratory- information-systems-not-fit-for-purpos
3 Policy paper: The future of healthcare: our vision for digital, data and technology in health and care. Department of Health and Social Care. 17 October 2019. Online:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the- future-of-healthcare-our-vision-for-digital-data- and-technology-in-health-and-care/the-future-of- healthcare-our-vision-for-digital-data-and- technology-in-health-and-care
4 Making IT Work: Harnessing the Power of Health Information Technology to Improve Care in England. Report of the National Advisory Group on Health Information Technology in England. 2016. Online:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government
56 I
WWW.CLINICALSERVICESJOURNAL.COM About the author
Stephen Seagreen-Bell is an experienced finance and business improvement specialist after clocking up over 30 years’ experience working in or with NHS Trusts to deliver clinical transformation, improvement and business change. He has specialised in pathology LIMS and service transformation and has helped to implement a range of technologies in busy healthcare environments, including OCS, PACS/RIS, EPR, PAS.
Having previously held roles such as finance director, CIO, programme manager; clinical engagement lead, within the NHS, Stephen now advises several NHS Trusts and commissioners on IM&T best practice and service tender evaluations, as well as working with NHS pathology providers to design and deliver network solutions and service transformation.
AUGUST 2019
/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/550 866/Wachter_Review_Accessible.pdf
5 Interim NHS People Plan. NHS. 3 June 2019. Online:
https://www.longtermplan.nhs.uk/wp- content/uploads/2019/05/Interim-NHS-People- Plan_June2019.pdf
CSJ
Image courtesy of
Freepik.com
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