Belfast Trust builds commitment to improve patient outcomes and provide Northern Ireland with the right care at the right time and place

One of the largest integrated health and social care trusts in the United Kingdom, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust has selected UpToDate^®, the clinical decision support (CDS) resource from Wolters Kluwer Health, to help clinical teams enhance patient safety with access to evidence-based clinical knowledge and recommendations. With seven hospitals and multiple other care facilities, Belfast Trust provides integrated health and social care to approximately 350,000 citizens in Belfast as well as most regional specialist services for all Northern Ireland.

“We are pleased to be working with the Belfast Trust on their digital transformation program,” said Christian Cella, Vice President, International Segment for Clinical Effectiveness at Wolters Kluwer Health. “Clinical teams are used to dealing with complex medical conditions daily, often in highly pressurized settings, when it’s critical to have trustworthy information. Embedding UpToDate into the clinical workflow, via the electronic patient record (EPR), allows clinicians to search in patient context via one click, saving time and helping clinicians improve the quality of care. Having access to trustworthy information via UpToDate helps support clinicians to provide the right care, at the right time and in the right place.”

Delivering better care across Northern Ireland

“Deploying UpToDate marks a significant step forward in our ongoing efforts to enhance the quality of care and decision-making across Belfast Health & Social Care Trust,” said Dr. Johnny Cash, CCIO at Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and medical lead on encompass, a program to create a single digital care record for every citizen in Northern Ireland who receives health and social care.

“With the Trust deploying UpToDate in Belfast, our multidisciplinary teams across Northern Ireland have easy access to updated evidence-based information,” Cash added. “Having a clinical decision support tool like UpToDate will help clinicians reduce variability in care, boost efficiency through faster decision-making at the point of care and offer colleagues and students in our institution an additional education and learning tool. Integrating clinical decision support will help our clinical teams deliver safe and effective care while supporting our digital transformation strategy.”

Integrating clinical decision support in the electronic patient record

The trust plans to integrate UpToDate into the clinical workflow via the Epic EPR as it goes live across Northern Ireland. Using UpToDate in the EPR highlights the increasingly important role that CDS tools are playing in the NHS and across Health and Social Care. Integrating UpToDate into the EPR places it at the heart of the clinical workflow, providing fast access to critical information at the point of care.

Clinicians across the Belfast Trust can access UpToDate content related to diagnosis, decision pathways, and patient education at key decision points within the clinical workflow via a single click. Quick access to patient-specific information through the EPR helps save clinicians’ time, enhances the delivery of care, and improves efficiency. With UpToDate’s accreditation by the Federation of the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), clinicians can use UpToDate as part of their personal professional development directly within the clinical workflow.

For more information about Wolters Kluwer, please visit: www.wolterskluwer.com.

About Wolters Kluwer

Wolters Kluwer (EURONEXT: WKL) is a global leader in information, software solutions and services for professionals in healthcare; tax and accounting; financial and corporate compliance; legal and regulatory; corporate performance and ESG. We help our customers make critical decisions every day by providing expert solutions that combine deep domain knowledge with technology and services.

Wolters Kluwer reported 2023 annual revenues of €5.6 billion. The group serves customers in over 180 countries, maintains operations in over 40 countries, and employs approximately 21,400 people worldwide. The company is headquartered in Alphen aan den Rijn, the Netherlands.

For more information, visit www.wolterskluwer.com, follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.

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