Leicestershire County and Rutland Community Health Service Go Live With a New Electronic Operating Room Information System

Leicestershire County and Rutland Community Health Service have launched ORMIS (Operating Room Information System) to manage all day-case operations at; Loughborough, Melton, Rutland, and Hinckley district hospitals and the endoscopy unit at Market Harborough.

The ORMIS system is designed to smooth patients’ journeys from waiting list to recovery. Not only providing simple tracking the system allows users to manage appointments, theatre schedules, patient records, care planning and performance reports. It is believed the system will prove extremely beneficial leading to fewer appointment cancellations, greater efficiency planning and enhanced patient safety.

When the Community Health Service approached Devlin Medical seeking a mobile computing solution it was made clear that two very different solutions were needed. Mobile computing carts were to be used in the operating rooms themselves and also in general ward areas.

The solution chosen for use in operating theatres was the Devlin Medical D-Cart, designed specifically for operating theatre and I.C.U environments. The D-Cart features the IPIX all-in-one sealed medical grade PC & Monitor. The unit is entirely washable making it the ideal product for environments requiring stringent infection control compliance. The IPIX is also designed to ideally meet the demands of mobile applications thanks to very low power consumption, increasing the runtime and minimise the disruption of recharging. Another specific requirement of the Community Health Service was touch-screen technology to make the system as user friendly and efficient as possible.

For the more general ward areas the Community Health Service had already specified a wireless laptop based solution which can be cleaned when required. The decision to use laptop computers meant the trust were able to specify the Devlin W-Cart which is a mobile height adjustable laptop cart featuring a Kensington lock for security.

The new system is expected to be worked hard, with more than 6,250 day case operations undertaken across the five sites since the April of this year. ORMIS Business Change Lead Maggie Roberts explains “We’re introducing mobile ORMIS into our day case service to further improve the safety, effectiveness and efficiency of patient care. It will replace a host of paper systems previously used to document each patients journey and care.”

“Patients can be assured of even greater safety and security, since there is far less risk of paperwork errors. Operating lists can be monitored and managed far more efficiently – so there is far less chance of an operation being cancelled through lack of equipment of staff availability.”

“We want every patient going through day surgery to have smooth and problem free experience. The introduction of the mobile ORMIS means we are better equipped than ever to provide excellent patient care.”

Devlin Medical Managing Director, Martin Baker, commented “We are very proud of the part we’ve played in the project at Leicestershire and Rutland Community Health Services. We’ve worked very closely with people in the Health Service there to ensure we provide a solution that is delivering benefits to both clinicians and patients, almost from the first moment it was installed. We believe projects like this stand out as a beacon for the undeniable improvements mobile IT offers clinicians and patients.