Ooh Matron - Now Hospital SharePoint

Many NHS (National Health Service for the readers outside of England) and Private Hospitals in the UK are now starting to see the benefits of SharePoint. This week I have been working as an Officetalk Consultant on a SharePoint implementation at a leading Private Health Group. The kind whose premises are in grand old houses (the type where Dr. Nookie opened his private clinic in ‘Carry on again Doctor’). Unfortunately I didn’t bump into a young Barbara Windsor lookalike. Also this week I had to visit my local NHS City hospital for some tests. I must admit I was quite impressed with the improvements made to the NHS hospital which now even has a Greggs Bakery just outside the ‘Heart & Lungs’ Centre. Just what I needed on the way to my cholesterol level checked. SharePoint seems ideal for hospitals with the increasing number of forms they have to circulate, records they have to keep and guidelines they have to try and keep up with. Whether they need a record of the how many times partially-sighted Joan has fallen out of bed or to keep track of changes to the latest NICE Guidelines on ‘Induction of Labour’ SharePoint fits the bill. At my hospital appointment I found the address on my file was where I used to live five years ago even though my appointment was sent to my current home. It seems my records are stored in so many different places even different departments in the same hospital. X-rays of my broken wrist when I was twelve after saving one of my brother’s penalties are probably still stored somewhere in the hospital and somewhere else there is probably an ECG or two of mine. It appears to be an information overload and crying out for a SharePoint solution. With the addition of a few simple workflows SharePoint could have electronic forms rapidly being sent around the hospital. Incident reports could be responded to in days not months and be fully audited. As I sat waiting in the NHS Waiting Room I considered how many uses SharePoint could have in this hospital alone. It could book appointments, record/circulate results, monitor bed occupancy (restricting each bed to just one patient), record staff rotas, update patient details, keep track of ward cleaning, be used to order hospital meals, book Operating Theatres, monitor drug lists and so much more. Perhaps I am thinking too much about SharePoint these days I even thought about how it could be used when watching Holby City the other night. When the nice surgeon who used to be Nigel in ‘East Enders’ was waiting to receive some important results of a scan for one of his patients. SharePoint could have sent an alert to his pager as soon as the results were available then he could have just logged on at his nearest PC to have seen the results instantly. Instead the nasty female doctor intercepted the results. SharePoint would have been so much more secure. SharePoint Workflow can have many hospital uses and one possible use I noted, as an old man at the Reception Desk was chasing up his hospital transport, could be to include a ‘Transport Required’ section on the electronic booking system. So in the current financial climate can hospitals, either private or NHS, afford SharePoint? Firstly, do they need full MOSS as many already run Windows Server 2003 so WSS is just a free download from Microsoft? Probably MOSS is the way forward for Health organisations with the enhanced Search capabilities and improved reporting my blog post,‘Suits You Sir’compares the features of MOSS and WSS. Microsoft though are so desperate to get SharePoint into all hospitals that they are offering some great deals to the NHS under their NHS Licensing prices. So SharePoint is now an affordable option for many hospitals. If you are interested in introducing SharePoint into any type of Health Organisation, or already have SharePoint but feel it needs major surgery, then give one of our resident SharePoint doctors a call at Officetalk on 01386 833 535 or visit our website http://www.office-talk.com. Ok we are not really called ‘SharePoint doctors’ but we are SharePoint specialists and we can provide your SharePoint with a health check. So put SharePoint at the ‘heart’ of your Information Management. Now, I haven’t mentioned the Villa much lately so I must end by congratulating the players on another good win last night in the UEFA Cup against Slavia Prague.