BASINGSTOKE, England, January 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

Fourth pilot demonstrates technical capabilities of interoperability, functionality and scale to deliver enhanced NHS 111 services.

Clinical Solutions is today announcing the successful implementation of the first fully shared and interoperable NHS 111 pilot with NHS North West, following strict readiness testing by the Department of Health.

After Luton, Nottingham and Lincolnshire, the Fylde Coast pilot is the fourth IntefleCS 111 live deployment for Clinical Solutions.

This milestone deployment demonstrates the ambitious interoperability reach of NHS 111 services across multiple NHS 111 service providers, operating different systems including IntefleCS 111.  

Shaun Hopgood, Executive Vice President at Clinical Solutions explains:

"The North West pilot is the first fully interoperable live test of NHS 111 where multiple operators across different geographical locations participate in a single patient encounter. This is achieved through warm transfer of the call and the encounter record to appropriate care providers when needed, removing the inconvenience of  re-triage and with automatic ambulance dispatch when required.

"An interesting feature is the first inclusion of the NHS Repeat Caller service for IntefleCS 111. The operator is notified as to whether the patient has recently had any urgent care encounters, across England. The NHS 111 service providers can now identify instantly the level of risk for repeat callers and deliver them the appropriate level of care."

IntefleCS 111 is used by non-clinical call takers to triage patients with NHS Pathways and is linked to the CMS Directory of Services to direct them to the most appropriate care provider.  IntefleCS 111 is also used for all the nurse validation and health information part of the encounters for the pilot.

Where needed, and based on Clinical Solutions TeleGuide content that has been proven in over 60 million encounters, an advanced nurse triage capability is also available to provide clinical assessment. In addition, for those who need the expertise and advice, a clinician can offer to get them to the best outcome.

With the likely success of the easy to remember "111" number to call, NHS 111 will face a large and potentially rapid volume ramp-up for the national roll out by 2013, as set out by the Department of Health. Proven capacity to meet demand in peak periods  for health scares such as the recent pandemic and regular winter pressures are essential.

Hopgood goes on to say:

"We have prepared IntefleCS 111 to meet demand for the national roll out in 2013. IntefleCS 111 is currently delivered securely through multiple call centres for all four pilots and is ready for scalable operations from regional to national volumes. This was also demonstrated during the recent festive period when the IntefleCS technology and TeleGuide content was used by over 1,250 simultaneous users in the UK for existing National Triage services."

After 18 months of providing foundation functionality and interoperability in NHS 111 live systems, Clinical Solutions continues to work with local and national stakeholders to deliver technology to enhance the patient experience and the economics of NHS 111 service provision.

About Clinical Solutions

Clinical Solutions is a trusted provider of scalable, multi-channel, decision support and expert knowledge solutions, allowing frontline stakeholders to reach out to patients and provide them with a safe but active role in their own care, and a seamless journey through the healthcare system. This means lower costs, lower risks and a higher degree of patient satisfaction.

Clinical Solutions offers a unique combination of capabilities that include all the elements of an integrated solution encompassing clinical content, software applications, hosted N3 data centre, managed IT infrastructure and 24/7 support. Clinical Solutions has offices in UK, USA and Australia. Customers include; NHS Direct in England and Wales; NHS 24 in Scotland; and walk-in centres across England, as well as customers in North America, Brazil, Portugal, Norway, India, Australia, and New Zealand. Its solutions are used to serve over 100 million people across the world. The clinical algorithms and scripts that power the solutions have been proven in over 60 million clinical transactions.

SOURCE Clinical Solutions